The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream: Looking For A Place To Happen

A Halifax 2015 live cut, a 40-person Off Ramp show in 1991, and a panel that pulls the deep American Hipstory out of "Fully Completely."

Episode Overview

This week on The Tragically Hip On Shuffle, host jD spins 'Looking For A Place To Happen' - track two from the 1992 Chris Tsangarides-produced "Fully Completely." It is the sequencer's burden to live between 'Courage' and 'At The Hundredth Meridian,' and the panel is here to figure out what it's hauling.

The roundtable is a North American one this time. Dave from Montreal joins jD alongside two lifelong friends and bandmates, Greg from Tacoma and Chris from Seattle, who have been playing music together since 1981 and watching The Tragically Hip every chance they got. Greg's first Hip show was a 40-person night at The Off Ramp in 1991, opening for The Sundays, where Gord opened 'Looking For A Place To Happen' with a frogman-for-the-cops story instead of a killer-whale-tank one. Chris saw The Hip up close at the Under The Rail and watched Gord catch a flying beer mid-line without missing a beat.

The conversation runs deep. The panel reads the song as a great Canadian travelogue working on multiple levels at once - the Jacques Cartier exterior, the interior landscape of a songwriter and a touring band looking for places to happen, and the foreshadowing of what would later become Gord's most public work around indigenous rights. There is talk of bootleg pre-shows, the legendary monologues that never made the record, the 'plaintive plaintive whale' outro that lives only in old recordings, and the beautiful curse of being the eleventh-best song on a record this good.

The opener question this week was favourite last song on a Hip album. Dave goes with 'Emperor Penguin' from "Phantom Power" - heard on Saint Laurent at midnight after grabbing a tape from Sam The Record Man, and only ever heard live once, in Quebec City on the We Are The Same tour. Chris picks 'The Wherewithal' from "Live Between Us," recorded at Cobo Arena in Detroit, where he could throw a rock and hit Windsor as a kid. Greg represents the Northwest with 'Goodnight Josephine' from "In Between Evolution," recorded in his rainy hometown.

Songs come up for a reason.

Quick Facts: Looking For A Place To Happen

• Album: "Fully Completely" (1992)
• Track: 2 of 12
• Producer: Chris Tsangarides
• First live performance: February 4, 1991
• Last live performance: October 15, 2015
• TTHTop40 Countdown ranking: #35 (of 169 tracks)
• Live version featured on the stream: Halifax, 2015 (Fully And Completely tour)

Panelists

Dave from Montreal A Tragically Hip fan since the band came calling on much music. Quebec City regular, lifelong Stones fan, and the writer of a viral 2016 National Post piece on The Hip's final tour. Find him on Instagram and Bluesky as dave.kaufman (spelled like Andy), and read his work at therover.ca, including a feature on Buffalo's Strictly Hip and Quebec City's francophone tribute band, Gracefully Hip.

Greg from Tacoma Lifelong Pacific Northwest musician and one half of Hades Market alongside his wife Liz. The band is named after his grandparents' grocery store in Mud Bay, Olympia. Find Hades Market on all the streaming services.

Chris from Seattle Singer, songwriter, and guitarist with Seattle band Loud Flowers, who released two new EPs in April plus a 2024 full-length. Previously fronted Shadow Band The Civilians, which featured Steve Nieve from Elvis Costello's band. Visit loudflowers.band.

Resources & References

• Hipbase: hipb