Tragically Hip Return With More `Uncommonly Good' Rock

Concert preview

The Tragically Hip with A Change of Heart, Moore Theatre, 8 p.m., Thursday; $17.50; 628-0888. -------------------------------------------------------------------

It was only a few months ago that The Tragically Hip packed Under the Rail, turning that big black box into a steam room full of crazed North Americans. The Hip, originally from Kingston, Ontario, had drawn a large contingency of fans from Vancouver, B.C., but as raucous as they were - and they were raucous - they couldn't overpower the locals for noise and response.

Fans in the United States have only recently become aware of what their Canadian counterparts have known for years: that The Tragically Hip is an uncommonly good rock-'n'-roll band. The musicianship is first-rate as is the writing, but what ices the Canadian cake is lead singer Gordon Downie. Intense, dramatic, sincere, compelling and exciting, Downie says his inspiration was the bands that could "smoke live, bands that could create a tension or mood. When you're in a small town growing up and you've got friends as well as people who hate you coming out to see you in bars, you've got to be good! It's bred in the bone in our case. We enjoy playing on stage a lot. We tend not to worry about the rigors of the road."

Apparently not. This return to Seattle is part of the third leg of a tour that began in April and will run at least until next month. But that seems to be business as usual for the Hip.

They began as a cover band in 1984. Playing covers was the only way you could get any work around Kingston. The clubs would put a "no original material" clause in the contracts. The Hip got around it by playing obscure blues songs and early British rock. Not originals, but still more personal.

Eventually, their own material began finding its way into the list. "Once you've written a song and slip it in a set next to a couple of songs you adore," says Downie, "it's pretty addictive."

The band released a self-named EP in 1987 that was picked up by a major distributor, which enabled them to start touring coast to coast. In 1989 they recorded "Up To Here" in Memphis, Tenn. The album contained the Top 20 single "New Orleans is Sinking." A year later they recorded "Road Apples" and last year they released "Fully Completely," which included the driven and sadly beautiful "Courage." All three releases have gone triple platinum in Canada alone.

But a large part of the band's curiosity remains with things south of their homeland.

"America is something that's been ever-present since you were born," says Downie, "and while trying to forge your own identity and your own identity within a country, it's what you're up against. If Americans are aggressive, we're passive. The fascination is with that other side of our character."

The fascination quickly comes out in songs like "New Orleans is Sinking," "At the Hundredth Meridian" (it's about Dodge City), and "Locked in the Trunk of my Car."

"(The record) establishes a mood and a landscape with characters and sticks with it. It's almost like a dream. I think our live show can be like that," Downie says.

After The Tragically Hip's last appearance here, the unanimous consensus was that it was better than that.