[DVD] That Night in Toronto – The Tragically Hip (2005)

Collaboration post! Sarca from Caught Me Gaming and Kevin from Buried On Mars take on The Tragically Hip, Canada’s National band! Each week, we will travel through the history of releases by The Tragically Hip, going through EVERYTHING they’ve ever released in audio and video form – studio album, live show, video releases. So don’t forget to check out Kevin’s blog too!

Need to catch up? Previously:

• The Tragically Hip – My “Un-plucked” History
• Review: The Tragically Hip EP (1987)
• Review: Up to Here (1989)
• Review: Road Apples (1991)
• Review: Fully Completely (1992)
• Review: Day For Night (1994)
• Review:Trouble At the Henhouse (1996)
• Review: Live Between Us (1997)
• Review: Phantom Power (1998)
• Review: Music @ Work (2000)
• Review: In Violet Light (2002)
• Review: In Between Evolution (2004)

That Night in Toronto is a live concert DVD of the Tragically Hip’s performance during their In Between Evolution tour, November 2004 at the Air Canada Centre, in Toronto, Ontario. Directed by brothers Francois and Pierre Lamoureux this two-hour long concert is complete without edits; the spaces in time between songs and encores were kept as they happened that night. I watched this for the first time last night. As far as Hip concert DVDs go, this one was pretty good. At 5.1 Surround, this was a decent sounding concert. I could hope for a li’l Blu-Ray clean-up, but really the print wasn’t bad either.

The Hip performed 24 of their hits to a packed house that evening (18,000 people!). The band was tight and in their prime. Gord Downie was oh-so sweaty; par for the course. They had three encores, and some surprises in the set-list. Kevin and I had some fun trying to guess what songs they’d perform next. I said, “I’d like to hear Three Pistols, but I doubt I’ll hear it…” only to prove me wrong by performing it. It was special to me to see these guys in concert at that point in time (2004). I couldn’t help but think how many hits they had under their belt, and there were more to come.

The set-list itself features a range of songs spanning all their releases from Up to Here to In Between Evolution:

1. “Vaccination Scar”
2. “Fully Completely”
3. “Grace, Too”
4. “Summer’s Killing Us”
5. “Ahead by a Century”
6. “Silver Jet”
7. “As Makeshift as We Are”
8. “Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)”
9. “Bobcaygeon”
10. “Nautical Disaster”
11. “Gus: The Polar Bear from Central Park”
12. “Poets”
13. “At the Hundredth Meridian”
14. “It Can’t Be Nashville Every Night”
15. “My Music at Work”
16. “New Orleans is Sinking”
17. “Heaven is a Better Place Today”
18. “It’s A Good Life If You Don’t Weaken”
19. “Little Bones”
20. “Gift Shop”
21. “Springtime in Vienna”
22. “Three Pistols”
23. “Boots or Hearts”
24. “Blow at High Dough“

I suppose if I were to critique anything… there were no extras on the DVD – just credits, a setlist, and an easter egg that led to three Hip concert posters. No interviews, no backstage action of the band, nothing. The liner booklet does include a partial contact sheet of teeny black and White candids of the band, but mostly backstage hallways and columns. What a missed opportunity.

Overall though, That Night in Toronto is pretty darn good. I’ll give it a 4/5. An enjoyable watch.

That Night in Toronto (DVD)
The Tragically Hip
2005

Thanks for reading! Now check out Kevin’s take!