The last Tragically Hip concert

If you are Canadian, there is something like a one in three chance that on the evening of August 20, 2016 you were sitting in front of a computer, TV, or some sort of device. You were watching the final show in the Tragically Hip's last tour at K-Rock Centre in the band's hometown in Kingston. It was streamed live.

It was the last tour as Gordon Downie had been diagnosed with glioblastoma and died two months later.

It wasn't a secret that this final show was going to be streamed online by CBC and to their credit, CBC did what they needed to do to keep the stream going for all twelve million of us who were watching it.

Hillary and I knew it was happening. We weren't massive Hip fans, but we absolutely appreciated and enjoyed their music. We talked a bit about how we were going to watch the concert. The discussion wasn't long. We had two options, downstairs on the TV or on a computer in the living room.

As it was a bright, hot summer day, the right choice was clearly for an 'outdoor' concert in our living room.

We put out the IKEA green padded mats to sit on. The computer was on the coffee table. I BBQed burgers for dinner. We had watermelon (with feta cheese for Hillary and I) as a side dish. Paige sat in her plastic toddler chair thing. Isaac danced.

I have a couple of pictures, but since it was close to 30C that day, Isaac ran around in his underwear and I'm not going to post those.

Since it was hot and it was going to be a special evening, I bought Corona, always a favourite beer of Hillary's and she had one. It's likely that was her first beer in a couple of years by that point.

The concert was moving. Both Hillary and I cried at times. We tried to explain to the kids that we were crying because the singer was going to die soon.

Regardless, it was a great experience.