Canada's Tragically Hip Balance Music and Hockey

Posted on May 12th 2009 12:00PM by Benjy Eisen
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As of now, the Boston Bruins are still in the NHL playoffs. So if you happen to to see the Tragically Hip on their current tour, forgive frontman Gordon Downie if he seems a bit depressed if the hockey team get eliminated this round by the Carolina Hurricanes.

"I don't know how to express it to you," Downie tells Spinner. "I'm as into hockey as a man can be and still be considered a man and not a boy." Downie and his band are from Kingston, Ontario, so hockey fandom is all but a given, but his favorite team isn't Canadian but from Boston, where the Hip played over the weekend.

"I was a goalie growing up," says Downie. "And for a goalie, hockey is an entirely different game, one played in front of him. Having said that, when I'm onstage do I feel like a goalie, as a frontman? Is the goalie more like a drummer? I don't know. Do I feel more like a drummer onstage, hence a goalie? Maybe."

The Tragically Hip are currently shooting and scoring on a trek across the U.S. in support of their 12th studio release, 'We Are the Same,' but don't expect Downie to be thinking about the game during the gigs. "It's probably easier to play hockey and think of music than to play music and think of hockey," he admits. "Just because there's so much else to think about in terms of the pantheon of musical heroes and inspiration that visit you onstage in a heartbeat, in the flash of a moment."

The Bruins, down three games to two, could use a few inspired moments like, say, a slapshot from Number 28, Mark Recchi, to keep them alive. Game Six is set for tonight in Carolina.

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