I bought my first Tragically Hip album at a Sam The Record Man store in Quebec City when I was on a school trip in grade 8. I still have that Road Apples cassette in a shoe box here in my office (along with the first Blue Rodeo tape I ever bought). I didn’t even have my Walkman with me to listen to the tapes, and I still remember listening to Road Apples was the first thing I did when I got home. I’ve been hooked on The Hip ever since and throughout the years various other Hip albums have earned a special spot in my playlist, perhaps none other more than Fully Completely.

Fully Completely was a huge part of the soundtrack of my years in high school, and one or two tunes from the album were always on the set list in various bands that I played in. Of course looking back on all of this now and realizing how long ago that really was, makes me feel a little old, but nostalgic at the same time. Ah yes, those were the days.

So here we are, over 20 years since the release of Fully Completely, and The Hip are on tour revisiting that album and playing the entire thing live. I have to admit, at first my reaction was “really? where’s the new material?”. But then it dawned on me how awesome it would be to see that album performed live. I did see them on their originally tour for Fully Completely, but of course have never seen every song played in the same show (or different ones for that matter).

Over the years I’ve seen many Tragically Hip concerts, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen their stage show quite this elaborate. There were projections screens, lights, curtains and live video streaming from various stationary and mobile cameras on the stage (Which was great given that after shooting from the pit, I watched the rest of the show from the back of the room). Gord still has that epic stage presence that he is so well known for, and they had the a full house on their feet the whole night.

To end off the night, they played a couple of tunes from Road Apples, which just added the cherry on top for me. Although I must admit, I bailed halfway through the last song so I could avoid traffic :-).

One of my favourite bands playing one of my favourite albums in their home town, and I got to photograph it. It doesn’t get much better than that.