“The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal” explores the band’s journey of brotherhood and loss in a powerful four-part documentary.
The Tragically Hip’s music has woven itself into the fabric of Canadian history, thanks to their poetic lyrics and haunting melodies. With a legacy that has left an indelible imprint on many, the band’s journey from start to finish is beautifully chronicled in the new documentary The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal. This four-part docuseries, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), is now available to stream on Prime Video.
SWAGGER sat down with the remaining members of The Tragically Hip and director Mike Downie at TIFF, who were visibly moved as they revisited their story.
“It’s a lot for us to take in. But we’re very happy about it. It’s nice to have it sealed that this is who we were,” guitarist Paul Langlois said to SWAGGER. In the documentary, Langlois and his bandmates are viscerally immortalized with never-before-seen footage and interviews ranging from the very start to the very end of their journey as a band. For bassist Gord Sinclair, watching their career unfold at the TIFF premiere brought profound gratitude. “It was like watching a drone shot over everything we’ve done. I can’t help but feel immense gratitude for the opportunity,” he explained.
But with gratitude comes an undeniable shadow that looms over the film—Gord Downie, the irreplaceable voice of The Hip, is no longer here to witness this retelling. His brother, Mike Downie, who took on the delicate task of directing The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal, reflected on the weight of that loss. “The years after Gord passed, we were a little bit lost,” he confesses. But the return to their high school in 2021 to film the documentary, just four years after Gord’s death, provided a space where the past felt suddenly alive again. “It was a bit like Gord was back,” Downie shares, his voice heavy with emotion. “I remember feeling the lump in my throat when we started talking about the band and old stories during filming the interviews. Gord’s not with us anymore, but he’s alive in those memories and in this documentary.”
For Rob Baker, the band’s lead guitarist, grief feels like a wound. “It’s like something that pierces your skin and leaves scars. You have to reform the way you move through life to accommodate that, and time is really the best way to deal with it,” he explains. But even in that piercing loss, there’s something sacred. The band, who once weathered every storm together, suddenly found themselves alone, trying to make sense of life without Gord. And yet, in typical Tragically Hip fashion, they kept moving forward, one foot in front of the other—just as they had always done.
This theme of forward motion runs like a current throughout the film. Even in their earliest days, before the fame, The Tragically Hip was a band in constant pursuit—not of success but of meaning. Drummer Johnny Fay reflects on the heydays of the 1990s, when rock music ruled and the Canadian scene was electric with possibility. “It was so massive,” Fay recalls. “People were actually present. It was a pretty golden age of people going and listening to music,” he says about the magic of those 1990s live shows, where nothing stood between the music and the audience.
What makes The Tragically Hip so enduring, though, isn’t just the music itself. It’s the unbreakable bond behind it—the brotherhood that allowed them to grow, to experiment, and to endure. Gordon Downie, the band’s poetic soul, often downplayed his role. “He would say his voice was just another instrument in the band,” Langlois remembers. There was no ego, no vying for the spotlight—just a deep, mutual respect that allowed the band to create without limits. “That was a big part of why we did what we did,” Langlois adds.
And the main theme the band wants fans to see when watching the documentary? Brotherhood. “What I hope viewers see when watching the documentary is friends getting together, making music in real-time, and doing it out of true friendship and the love of music. The Tragically Hip is a true testament to a collaborative experience between best friends who became brothers, and I think we could all use a little bit more of a collaborative experience in our lives,” Baker explained.
Now, as fans new and old gather to witness The Hip’s story on film, there’s a sense that something has come full circle. The documentary, in all its tender honesty, serves as both a love letter and a eulogy—an ode to the band that carried the weight of a nation’s soul on their shoulders and to the friendships that made it all possible.
The Tragically Hip was never just a band. They were and always will be a brotherhood—one forged in music, carried by memory, and sealed in the hearts of Canadians forever.
The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal is now available to stream on Prime Video.
