The Tragically Hip performs at the Air Canada Centre, February 14, 2013.J.P. MOCZULSKI/The Globe and Mail
It was the album that spawned some of Canada's most memorable hits, and was credited with securing the Tragically Hip's spot as one of the most respected rock acts in the country's history – and when the Kingston band touches down in British Columbia, they will perform it from start to finish.
Released in 1992, Fully Completely also laid to rest the group's reputation as a bar band and bolstered their arena status with thoughtful tracks including Locked in the Trunk of a Car, Courage (For Hugh MacLennan), At the Hundredth Meridian, Fifty Mission Cap, Looking For A Place To Happen and Wheat Kings, as well as the title track.
Since then, the band has sold millions of albums, landed more than a dozen Junos, been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and Canada's Walk of Fame, won a Governor-General's Performing Arts Award, had a street named after them and even had a Canada Post stamp issued in their honour.
And while 22nd anniversaries are not often cause for large-scale celebration, the band last year released a special reissue of the landmark album featuring remastered recordings of the original songs, two previously unreleased studio tracks and a concert CD recorded at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern in 1992.
They also announced the aptly named Fully and Completely Tour, which began its Canadian leg last night in Victoria, and is stopping in Vancouver, Kelowna, B.C., Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax and other Canadian cities over the next several months.
On the tour – which is being run entirely on green power – the band is performing Fully Completely in its entirety, as well as short sets of favourites before and after the album performance.
Famed for powerhouse live shows and front man Gord Downie's quirky dance moves and wry banter, for the band members – several of whom have known each other since they were toddlers – taking the stage is still as essential as it has ever been.
"Songs are only half-finished when they're recorded, and you have to perform them to finish them," Mr. Downie told George Stroumboulopoulos in 2012, extrapolating from something he read by John Cage. "And I feel like that's what's going on every night. You're still trying to finish the song."
The Tragically Hip are at Rogers Arena in Vancouver Friday and at Prospera Place in Kelowna on Saturday (ticketmaster.ca).