Yer Hipstories: Reflections From The Final Tour - Ottawa - The Tragically Hip Podcast Series | Lyssna här

August 18, 2016. Ottawa, the second last night, and two fans who were in that building take jD back inside - ten years to the day.

Thursday, August 18, 2016. The Canadian Tire Centre, out past the ring of car dealerships in the west end, and The Tragically Hip had two nights left. Kingston was already a pipe dream by then. For most of the country, Ottawa was the last chance.

Ten years to the day, jD sits down with two fans who were in that room. Shawn from Ottawa, who has been in this community since he was sixteen. And Justin from Bridport, who you know from Discovering Downie, and who only got to Ottawa because a stranger with long hair heard "Yer Favourites" playing over the PA at a dirt track in Vermont.

Two ticket stories, and neither one lands where you would guess. Shawn's shows up in his inbox, out of a presale nobody has ever really talked about in public, and there is something waiting in the will call envelope that nobody warned him about. Justin's shows up from a man whose name he did not have yet. He said yes first and introduced himself second.

The songs: Justin starts to say 'Grace, Too', catches himself, and lands somewhere else. Shawn takes a deep cut off "In Between Evolution", the first record that ever got its hooks into him. They both land on 'Summer's Killing Us', and Ottawa turned out to be the last place The Tragically Hip ever played it.

Then they walk the set list, and it is not the greatest hits argument you would expect. 'Opiated' out of nowhere. Four from "In Between Evolution" and four from "Day for Night", and the moment mid-set when Shawn worked out that none of those songs were going to make it to Kingston. Justin honoured Gord's wishes and kept the phone in his pocket, right up until he didn't.

There is the morning of the announcement, too. Justin spent it alone in a car in Vermont, listening to a DJ who could not finish a sentence, with nobody to call. Shawn spent it in a country where everybody already knew before he was properly awake. Ten years later, hearing each other's version, that gap is the thing that gets them both.

And then there is what happened after the lights came up, which involves two flights of stairs, a room that was not supposed to be a party, and a conversation outside it with somebody's grandfather. That one belongs to Shawn.

Two nights later, one of them was inside the K-Rock Centre, still convinced right up to the turnstile that his ticket could not possibly be real. The other was at a racetrack, deliberately not watching.

THE PANEL

• Shawn from Ottawa - on Hipbase since he was sixteen and the resident kid brother of that community. In the family section on the night. In Kingston two nights later on a ticket a stranger handed him for nothing.

• Justin from Bridport - Discovering Downie panelist, and the PR guy, announcer, lawnmower, and toilet cleaner at a Vermont dirt track. The American in the upper bowl who felt Canadian for exactly one night.

SOURCES

Set list for August 18, 2016 at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, and the July 22, 2016 Victoria set list - source: setlist.fm. Thanks to Darren at The Tragically Hip Archive, and to the tapers, for the recordings Shawn listened back to before this one.

THE GATHERING IN KINGSTON

August 20 to 23, 2026, alongside Forever Hip - a mixer at the Merchant Pub, Choir! Choir! Choir! in Springer Market Square, a listening party for "The Tragically Hip Live, July 22 - August 20, 2016", a Long Time Running screening, and a farewell brunch at Morrison's. The CBC broadcast re-airs on the 22nd. Email jd@tthpods.com to get on the list. And if you spot a purple shirt or a purple lanyard in Kingston that weekend, that's a safe person to talk to.

GEDFEST TORONTO

Saturday, October 17, 2026 at the Horseshoe Tavern, with Grace, 2. Raising money for Campfire Circle and the Murphy Family Fund in Precision Medicine in Pancreatic Cancer. Tickets: facebook.com/GEDfestYYZ

Thanks to Shawn and Justin, because without them, there's not a show. Next stop: Kingston, and the end of the line.