‘The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal’: An intimate look at Canada’s band

Global News sat down with the remaining members of The Tragically Hip to talk about the docuseries, Canadian rock and life after Gord Downie's death.

It’s been almost exactly seven years since Canadians lost The Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, and more than eight years since the band played their last-ever show in Kingston, Ont.

Time, elongated and obfuscated by the pandemic, seems cruel. Has it really been that long since we lost one of our country’s most charismatic, beloved musicians? And has it really been almost a decade since the group of guys fondly referred to as “Canada’s Band” ceased to play?

The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal, a four-part docuseries streaming on Prime Video starting Sept. 20, provides an incredibly intimate look at the band, from its humble beginnings in small-town Ontario to its glory days onstage.

Directed by Gord’s brother Mike Downie, all four hour-long segments of the docuseries are unapologetically raw, with vignettes from Gord himself and each of the band members as the plucky bunch of boys grow from teenagers dreaming of becoming rock stars into, well, rock stars in their own right.

Jaw-dropping concert footage is featured throughout — even die-hard Hip fans will see things they’ve never seen before (no spoilers here!) — and there are interviews with family, friends and others who knew them during the journey. Canadian celebrities and fans, including Dan Aykroyd, Jay Baruchel and Bruce McCulloch, among many others, express their love and incredulousness about the band, cementing what any fan already knows: The Tragically Hip were something special, and a certain kind of musical magic Canadians may never see again.

Global News sat down with Mike Downie and the remaining members of the band — Paul Langlois, Rob Baker, Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay — to talk about what the docuseries means to them, what it was like accelerating to national fame at the height of Canadian rock, and life after Gord’s death.

Gord Sinclair: It’s like the drone shot in a lot of ways. We always kept a fairly narrow horizon throughout our careers, getting to the next gig and then the next opportunity to make a record, next opportunity to take some time off, writing and stuff. When you step back and look at it, to me, it’s a feeling of gratitude for the opportunity that we had…. We were never sure whether we were going to be able to make another record after the previous one.

Gratitude to the fans that came along and the guys I played music with. Rewatching it made me really appreciate what Mike went through. Mike moved with Gord from Amherstville when we were only 13, and he’s coming at it not only as a friend, but honouring his family and honouring the group. I think he did a wonderful job. Again, it’s a nice look back, for sure.