Months ago I got a note from my oldest brother Joel. He had noticed that the Tragically Hip were going to play an outdoor concert in Calgary in September and he wanted to come up. We got tickets and he made plans to drive up from Utah and pick up my other older brother Cam in Montana on the way. A lot of the details changed in the week leading up to the actual trip. For a while my dad planned to come but then he was back out again. In the end, Joel dropped by Pocatello and he jumped in my mom's convertible to drive to Montana to pick up Cam. Apparently, he was pretty cramped sitting in the backseat of that car -- and they didn't even consider lowering the roof, since it POURED rain the duration of the trip.
We parked near Dave's house and walked through SAIT to get to the CTrain. It was a bit surreal for Joel & Cam to be walking the halls of the same complex where we had all had basketball camp every summer for years. It's not the kind of place that would show up on your bucket-list for a Calgary trip, but it was still pretty cool to see the place.
The concert itself was awesome. The rain slowed to a drizzle and we had a great view of the stage. There was something great about being together with the boys, singing along to the songs of our youth. Joel saw the Hip at the Silver Dollar Action Center (a glorified bowling alley) in 1989 for their first Calgary gig before anyone knew much about them. In the years that followed we just about wore out that first Hip tape from playing it in the car. It's funny, Dad got so sick of it that he officially prohibited the Hip in the car, so Cam used the edge of a coin to scrape all the words off the side of the cassette so that only we knew what was playing as we rolled along in our brown Aerostar minivan... the same van we took off a jump one Saturday night after going to Peter's Drive-In.
It seeemed only fitting that we should make a post-concert run to Peter's. Peter's is one of those fixtures that never seems to change. It's comforting to know you can always come to this spot and get a burger and your favourite milkshake.
Cam went back to his foul ways, ordering a lime & butterscotch shake potent enough to use as a paint-stripper. Nasty stuff.
I had a great time. Scott and Katie were a bit sad that nobody brought any kids, but we told them that sometimes adults get playdates too.
4 comments:
Epically awesome!!!
SO happy you guys got to do this! So fun!!
Me debunk an american myth?
And take my life in my hands?
Where the great plains begin
...at Deker Man's!
Awesome trip, awesome concert. Sweet weather for flippie floppies to be sure. Thanks for hosting. Fishing boat friends for life
It was truly great to be out with the Wride Brothers along with Mr. Downie and his handkerchief. The dance moves were memorable, ...but then again so was your's and Joel's natural reaction to butterscotch-lime.
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