After ten years since its final performance, The Tragically Hip is gearing up to allow Canadians to relive the 2016 broadcast of their last Man Machine Poem concert with a special airing on CBC this summer. Fans can tune in to The Tragically Hip: A National Celebration concert on August 22 at 7 p.m. local time on CBC TV, CBC Gem, CBC Radio, and CBC Music’s YouTube channel. The original concert occurred in The Hip’s hometown of Kingston, Ontario, on August 20, 2016, and was broadcast on CBC, attracting 11.7 million viewers. This concert marked the band’s final tour before the passing of lead singer Gord Downie, who succumbed to brain cancer on October 17, 2017.
In honor of the event, the band will also launch a new live album on August 21, a day before the broadcast. Titled The Tragically Hip: Live July 22 – August 20, 2016, the album was mixed and mastered by the band’s longtime audio engineer, Mark Vreeken. It will feature live renditions of songs like Ahead By a Century, New Orleans is Sinking, and more from the final cross-country tour. The live versions of Fifty-Mission Cap from Edmonton and Locked In The Trunk Of A Car from the last Kingston show are already available.
Looking ahead, the band is scheduled for induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in September at Toronto’s Massey Hall.