Canadians bakin' with Hip new hit single 'Poets'
                  by Brett Milano

                  Saturday, December 5, 1998

                  It's not every band that moves from playing Bill's Bar to headlining the
                  Orpheum in a mere five months. But Canadian rockers The Tragically
                  Hip are no bunch of upstarts.

                  With 14 years of roadwork to its credit, The Tragically Hip packed
                  Bill's last August during a three-night residency and tonight the group
                  makes its first local appearance as theater headliners (sharing a bill
                  with fellow cult heroes, Cracker). Does this mean The Tragically Hip is
                  getting its long-awaited United States breakthrough? Naah.

                  "It probably doesn't mean a lot," said guitarist/singer Paul Langlois
                  during a tour break. "It's been pretty consistent for us; we get more
                  popular with every record. But as far as the big breakthrough goes,
                  that's something we dismissed a long time ago. We never felt like the
                  kind of band that could have a hit song; that just seems a touch
                  outside our reach, and we've never known exactly what it takes.
                  We're quite happy to play live shows, make videos and let things build
                  up slowly, because that's all we know how to do. We just want to
                  have a long career and have it be a full experience for everybody, so
                  we base our decisions on the long term."

                  The Hip, as the band's known to fans, is the model of a hardworking,
                  middlebrow band. They may never equal the creative peaks of the
                  two bands they most resemble, Midnight Oil and R.E.M. But they
                  seldom fail to work up a good sweat onstage, and singer Gordon
                  Downie's intense howl keeps them from sounding too conventional.

                  "There's a lot of people who hear our name and don't attach much to
                  it. They either think we're too straight-ahead; or they think 'There's
                  something weird about them but I can't figure what it is,' " Langlois
                  said. "One thing that appeals to our fans is that we've been together
                  a long time, that we've shared so much musically and
                  experience-wise. Believe me, that requires work."

                  Until recently, the Hip's studio albums have stayed faithful to a
                  guitar-driven live sound. But the group took a step forward on the
                  current "Phantom Power," with Los Lobos saxman Steve Berlin as
                  producer. Berlin brings in some of the sonic exotica of recent Lobos
                  albums, and the leadoff track "Poets" -- which combines a Stones-like
                  guitar lick with a typically enigmatic Downie lyric -- is becoming the
                  hit single that the band never expected to have.

                  "The Los Lobos influence probably comes more from within the band
                  than from Steve," Langlois said. "We're all big fans, and we got to
                  know the band when they toured with us in Canada. Steve certainly
                  had a lot to say on this album, but the sound is something that's
                  been building up for awhile."

                  As for the meaning of the current single, "To me it's a song about
                  frustration; being bombarded with too much information about people
                  -- 'Don't tell me what the poets are doing.' "

                  Peppering his conversation with regional-sounding "y'knows," Langlois
                  figures that Canadian rock is no longer a novelty. "Canadian music
                  covers a lot of territory, it's as tough to nail down -- to me, Neil
                  Young is still a Canadian rocker. There's certainly a difference
                  between our culture and America, but we're fed similar information
                  from similar pools."

                  True, but few American bands would drop hockey references like in
                  the Hip's "Fireworks," whose praise of Bobby Orr has won them some
                  local fans. "Well, sure. I'd expect that from any good Bruins town."

MUSIC REVIEW
Hipsters find their hockey-loving Canadians showing heart, style
By Paul Robicheau, Globe Correspondent, 12/07/98

Cracker's David Lowery was on the right path. ''I would have gotten abigger round of applause if I had said `born in Canada,''' the singer of the usually popular band cracked after introducing Boston-born guitar partner Johnny Hickman at the Orpheum Saturday.

But the response was still minimal: Half the fans of Ontario-based headliner the Tragically Hip weren't in their seats yet. Perhaps they were bolstering the extra-heavy beer line in the lobby, or catching at least part of the Bruins-Penguins face-off over at the FleetCenter - along with Hip singer Gordon Downie.

When the Hip took the stage though, a boisterous crowd of about 2,000 made their presence known with a roar loud enough to fill the FleetCenter-size rinks the Hip frequents on its home turf. In turn, in opener ''Fireworks,'' Downie sang of a girl who doesn't care for hockey, noting ''I never saw someone say that before.''

Such is the parochial appeal of the Hip. Saturday's assembly didn't only sing along to semi-anthemic songs like ''Ahead by a Century,'' for which one fan in a Maple Leafs jersey pushed up the aisle with his flash camera. There were diehards like the guy from Buffalo behind me, seeing his 34th show in eight years, waving his fist and bellowing lyrics even to subdued or obscure tunes like the country-tinged new ''Bobcaygeon'' (its reference to Toronto eliciting an extra cheer) and ''Nautical Disaster.''

The funny thing is that the Tragically Hip isn't a sugar-pop cheerleading crew like countrymen the Barenaked Ladies. The 12-year-old band prefers elliptical drama more suggestive of R.E.M. (Downie evokes Michael Stipe at times with his vocal timbre and offbeat hand gestures), with a bit more Rolling Stones/Midnight Oil-like backbone in the guitars of Paul Langlois and Rob Baker. But that didn't stop some fans from pogoing to ''Gift Shop'' or singing about ''devotion to the egg'' in ''Emperor Penguin.''

The band also spiced its 95-minute set with more oldies than at one of its four warmup shows at Bill's Bar in August, peaking with the ebb-and-flow stretching of ''100th Meridien'' (which enveloped some rapping by Downie and even a touch of space jamming) and ''New Orleans Is Sinking,'' one of several songs in which the singer angularly strummed an acoustic guitar.

The downside to the Hip over an entire concert is a shortage of melody and even texture - especially for a twin-guitar group. Baker lent spare, ringing leads to ''Gift Shop,'' while Langlois iced ''100th Meridien'' with harmonics, but more often the pair played interlocked rhythm parts, leaving bassist Gord Sinclair to provide helpful melody at times with high-probing riffs.

Still, there was extra gas in the Hip's tank for the final punch of ''700 Ft. Ceiling'' (dedicated to Bruins player Joe Thornton) and ''Little Bones,'' driven by Johnny Fay's hearty, heartland-style drumming. For Bostonians, the Hip remains an acquired taste, but a growing one, with heart and substance.

Cracker played its own typically solid, straightforward 55-minute set, leaning on past material such as Status Quo cover ''Pictures of Matchstick Men'' (with Hickman moving from its high-lick signature to Neil Young-ish drone) and a welcome changeup of melancholy reminiscence ''Big Dipper'' and piano-laced stomp ''Mr. Wrong'' before crowd-pleaser ''Low.''