The docuseries No Dress Rehearsal tells the story of The Tragically Hip, from forming in the town of Kingston, Ontario, to becoming perhaps Canada’s most beloved band, to the death of frontman Gord Downie, who passed away of brain cancer in 2017.
Acclaimed for his flamboyant stage presence and poetic lyrics, Downie was often the most visible member of the Hip. But if No Dress Rehearsal makes one thing clear, it’s that the band would not exist if it weren’t for all five of its members.
“I definitely wanted to create something that really showed the contributions of all five of the Hip,” says Gord’s brother, Mike Downie, who directed the project.
No Dress Rehearsal takes its title from the song “Ahead by a Century,” which is referred to in the doc as the “second Canadian anthem.” “Ahead by a Century” was the closing song of the Hip’s final show of their final tour, which was announced after Gord’s diagnosis.
“[Gord] was great, of course,” guitarist Paul Langlois remembers of that final show. “He said before the tour, ‘It’s not like I’m gonna be up there crying about it,’ and that’s exactly how he treated it, and that’s exactly what the crowd wanted. … I had a lot of thoughts and emotions, but they were mostly of a very positive nature.”
Before the premiere of No Dress Rehearsal, “Ahead by a Century” popped up in the final season of Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, and Langlois hopes that the doc continues to introduce new people to the Hip.
“It’s worth the time to sit down even if you don’t know the band, because it’s a story more than [anything],” Langlois says. “With a lot of music in it, of course.”
No Dress Rehearsal is streaming now on Prime Video.
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