Tragically Hip releases stand-alone live album from Hollywood’s Roxy Theatre
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/05/2022 (1609 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
TORONTO – When the red recording light flashed on at Hollywood’s storied Roxy Theatre, the pressure was on the Tragically Hip to put on a good show, guitarist Paul Langlois recalls.
It wasn’t long before those nerves receded into the background, said Langlois, as frontman Gord Downie punctuated the rollicking set list with ad libbed musings.
The May 3, 1991 live performance will be released as a stand-alone album on digital streaming platforms, vinyl and CD on June 24, after being remastered for the Hip’s 30th anniversary “Road Apples” box set last year.
The concert has earned coveted status among Hip collectors over the decades, both because of its storied Sunset Strip venue and Downie’s off-the-cuff charisma, said Langlois.
“As soon as we started, you kind of forget about the recording,” Langlois said by phone ahead of Thursday’s announcement.
“It was worry-free and intense and fun.”
The show, which was originally recorded for a radio broadcast, consists solely of the Hip’s early “rockers,” said Langlois, including “Little Bones,” “Long Time Running” and “Cordelia.”
The album also features the fabled nine-minute rendition of “New Orleans Is Sinking” known to fans as the “killer whale tank” version, a reference to Downie’s mid-song — possibly apocryphal — anecdote about a job cleaning an aquarium.
The rest of the band riffed behind Downie’s improvisational interjections, and when necessary, steered him back to the song, said Langlois.
“He’s running across the water and we’re trying to keep him afloat underneath,” he said.
“We were all in it together, so we could sense when to put the pedal down.”
“Live at the Roxy” is available for pre-order. One of the tracks, “She Didn’t Know,” was released for purchase or streaming Thursday.
Langlois said he expects listeners will “feel like you were there” as they rock along with the recording.
“It’s very much us, I think, at one of our primes.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2022.
