Dutch Hipfan “Laxe” has translated the article I posted into a more coherent version:

Sure, I think I can do better than babelfish…..

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In the street, near the entrance of Tivoli, groups of people hang around. Many Canadians with the flag of their country around the shoulders. Compatriots of the rockband Tragically hip who travel around the world to see their heroes at work in small European venues, instead of the enormous halls they fill at home. It promises a lot for what is about to come.

‘Taxi to the ocean’ open the show, just like a day before at the Paradiso, also sold out. They start strong and continue to rock hard in the twenty minutes playing time they have. The group of Canadians at the front rows didn’t escape their attention. Singer Just Posthumus: “This one’s for you mounties!” The songs and the musicians are solid and it shows that ‘Taxi to the ocean’, who will release a new cd soon, have grown since half a year before when they played at the 3VOOR12/Utrecht jubilee party in ‘de Helling’. On the stage of a sold out Tivoli the band fit in well. Posthumus: “We simply pretend you all came for us.”

The “mounties” shout with joy when their own heroes climb the stage. Although singer Gordon Downie already has sweat pouring down his body in streams halfway through the first song, the first two songs fall slightly flat. But when he straps on his own acoustic guitar, the band really picks up the pace. At the rear of the podium drummer Johnny Fay lets loose completely, at the side of front man Downie bass player Gord Sinclair jumps up and down with his bass guitar and on both ends of the stage the guitarists Robby Baker and Paul Langlois play their parts nearly motionlessly.

So the songs may not always be very special and frequently spun out a little too long, nobody in Tivoli cares. Seeing this band live is undergoing a special experience and the audience, in their thirties or forties, from all parts of the country, do that willingly. The audience clearly shows that the band has been around for some time; they have been working for some twenty years already and were at Pinkpop in 1994. From a band that imitated ‘Golden Earring’ repertoire, this group developed into genuine stadium act. That shows in the way Downie plays the audience: he focuses mainly on the people a few rows from the stage and hardly on the fans on the first rows.

Stage natural Downie attracts the attention not only with his hypnotising voice, which is reminiscent of REM’s Michael Stipe, but also with his facial expressions and moves. Dancing that often looks a bit clumsy, but then again seems to fit the music in a certain way, being (tragically) hip. The two guitarists may stand playing nearly motionlessly for an hour and a half, but in the same hour and a half they don’t miss a beat, whether playing hip pop songs, long solos in the style of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, or harder rock with a more electronic sound. That shows a lot of class.

A quartet of roadies is also busy during the concert. Packs of of strings are used up (especially Downie breaks a lot of them during playing), and also the microphone of the singer has to be replaced by a dry one from time to time (when he bends forward three streams of sweat pour from under his cap). After an hour and a half the band disappear behind the stage, leaving the now jumping crowd chanting Hip! Hip! Hip!, rightly wanting an encore. Downie takes the microphone: ‘Thank you for calling us back. We appreciate it.’ and ‘The Hip’ play another two songs. Then it’s really over. The Canadian film crew of the fanclub is satisfied, Dutch fans go home and the tour caravan can move on.