From canoe.ca

Air Canada Centre, Toronto – February 8, 2007
By SHERRI WOOD – Sun Media

TORONTO – Last night on SUN TV’s Canoe Live I said I was surprised Torontonians are still into The Tragically Hip.

After last night’s Hip show at the Air Canada Centre, I’m decidedly eating my words.

Seems the good ol’ Canadian boys are still solid live performers after 20 years of bandhood — even indoors at the cavernous ACC in the middle of February.

There was never any doubt Gord Downie et al could impress at any outdoor, grassy-knoll, Canada Day affair. But it was questionable whether their brand of patriotic, homegrown beer rock could translate well in an urban arena.

Yet, they pulled it off.

The Kingston-born quintet (fronted by Downie and rounded out by guitarists Paul Langlois and Rob Baker, bassist Gord Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay) gave the approximately 20,000 loyal fans a heady mix of old favourites and newbie material from their latest effort, World Container (which was produced by Canadian rock vet Bob Rock, and for which they received four Juno nominations this week).

Highlights included Bobcaygeon (which Downie dedicated to “the lovers” in the crowd), In View (the new album’s lead single), the ever-cheeky Poets, Courage, World Container and a long, jammy version of At The Hundredth Meridian, which included a brief jaunt into The Police’s Walking On The Moon.

A performance artist in his own right, it was Downie, mostly, who kept the machine afloat.

He said very little, but dressed all in black, the 43-year-old herked and jerked and writhed and wiggled around the stage with a mic stand in one hand and a white handkerchief in the other.

His enthusiasm was always met with matching enthusiasm from the crowd, who sang along faithfully to familiar material, even when Downie strayed from familiar lyrical rhythms (most noticeably during Ahead By A Century).

Ballads, including Long Time Running and Fiddler’s Green, got a classic lighters-in-the-air tribute — a welcome reprieve from the waving sea of dull, blue-glowing cellphones that usually takes over at concerts these days.

The Tragically Hip prove time and time again that they can please a crowd — especially a Canadian crowd.

Really, they’re the comfort food of rock, firmly rooted in our national identity, and it’s hard not to get into their bluesy brand of mashed potatoes.

Watch for their performance at this year’s Juno Awards, taking place in Saskatoon on April 1.

TorontoSun.com – Music – It’s three for five

It’s three for five
Nelly Furtado, K-OS and Billy Talent top the nominee list for the Juno Awards

By JANE STEVENSON, SUN MEDIA

It’s a busy time for Nelly Furtado. The Victoria, B.C., native received five Juno nominations. (AP FILE PHOTO)
Nelly Furtado has been invited back to the Juno ball.

The Victoria, B.C. songbird, whose last big Juno haul was in 2001 when she won four trophies, picked up a leading five 2007 Juno nominations yesterday, tying with Toronto’s pop-punk act Billy Talent and hip-hop innovator K-OS.

Furtado will vie for album and pop album of the year for her third disc, Loose, single of the year for Promiscuous, artist of the year and the Juno Fan Choice Award.

It caps what already has been a big year for Furtado: she’ll also host the 2007 Junos on April 1 in Saskatoon, will vie for a single Grammy on Sunday in L.A. where she is also a presenter, will make her acting debut on a CSI: New York episode tonight and launches a major concert tour in March.

Otherwise, Billy Talent, who just played their first sold-out show at the Air Canada Centre last Friday, and K-OS have kept their recent Juno momentum going.

Both were big winners at the 2005 Junos with K-OS a triple winner including single of the year, and Billy Talent was a double winner including album of the year.

Yesterday, Billy Talent’s sophomore album, Billy Talent II got the nod for album and rock album of the year, their song, Devil In A Midnight Mass, was nominated for single and video of the year, and they’ll compete for the group-of-the-year honours.

K-OS’ disc, Atlantis: Hymns for Disco, was left out of the 2007 best album race but will compete for pop album, while his song, Sunday Morning is up for single of the year. He also has been nominated for songwriter and producer of the year and best video for Electrik Heat: The Seekwill.

Legendary rock producer Bob Rock (Metallica, Motley Crue, Bryan Adams, Metallica, The Tragically Hip) was announced yesterday as this year’s inductee into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Rock is also a nominee for producer of the year for his work on The Hip’s latest disc, World Container.

Overall, it was a slightly improved nomination list over last year’s which was criticized for favouring the mainstream over indie acts and the presence of two Canadian Idol participants in the best album category.

Still, some Idol alumni made their way into the 2007 Juno race, most prominently faux-pop-punk act Hedley — lead by 2004 Idol loser Jacob Hoggard — who came away with three nods including alb um of the year for Hedley, group of the year and music DVD of the year for Try This At Home.

The remainder of the album of year nominees aren’t much better — classically trained Montreal singer Gregory Charles’ I Think Of You (Charles is another triple nominee) — and mainstream rockers Three Days Grace’ ONE-X.

Thankfully, other triple Juno 2007 nominees such as Dallas Green (both of City And Colour and Alexisonfire) angel-voiced singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer and respected Quebecois act Malajube, go some way towards giving a more accurate picture of Canada’s music talent.

Still, Green was robbed in the single of the year race for the exclusion of his City And Colour song, Save Your Scissors, when tunes such as Chantal Kreviazuk’s All I Can Do, and Jim Cuddy’s Pull Me Through inexplicably made the cut.

It was also announced yesterday that double nominees The Tragically Hip will perform during the Juno ceremony.

Here’s the “Most Nominated at the 2007 Junos” list:
With 5: Nelly Furtado, Billy Talent, K-OS

With 3: Dallas Green, Sarah Harmer, Hedley, Gregory Charles, Malajube