Tragically Hip fans belt out band’s classics en masse as TIFF gets underway

By David Friend, The Canadian Press on September 5, 2024.

Rob Baker, (left to right) Gord Sinclair, Paul Langlois, and Johnny Fay are photographed on the red carpet for the film "The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal" during the Toronto International Film Festival, in Toronto, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paige Taylor White

Hundreds of moviegoers and Tragically Hip fans gathered to sing their hearts out on the streets of Toronto as Canada’s beloved rockers marked the premiere of a new career-spanning docuseries.

“The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal” helped kick off this year’s edition of the Toronto International Film Festival with a high note on Thursday.

After the four-hour documentary finished screening, the TIFF audience was invited to exit the Royal Alexandra Theatre and parade down King Street West to join pop collective Choir! Choir! Choir! for a massive sing-along a block away.

The group’s founders Nobu Adilman and Daveed Goldman stood atop a colourful bus to lead the audience through a three-track songbook of Hip favourites, “Grace, Too,” “Ahead By a Century” and “Bobcaygeon.”

Hip bandmates Rob Baker, Johnny Fay, Paul Langlois and Gord Sinclair stood in the crowd with their families and occasionally joined the singing.

The street party unfolded exactly 35 years after the Tragically Hip released their first full-length studio album “Up to Here.”

“The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal” makes an encore screening at TIFF on Friday before it debuts Sept. 20 on Prime Video.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2024.