The Untold Story of The Tragically Hip's Spontaneous Concert!

Fooling around in front of everyone in secret

Apr 13, 2025

For many years, beginning in late high school, the people I was friends with were huge fans of the Canadian band out of Kingston, Ontario, “The Tragically Hip.”

I saw them perform live more than a half-dozen times.

I saw their shows at the old Montreal Forum, outdoor venues, and smaller, more intimate clubs.

My favorite “Tragically Hip” memory will always be the concert when we were fooling around in front of our friends, and not one of them noticed!

Their surprise concert at "The Spectrum" is one I'll never forget!

One night, I was driving home from work at a live theater, listening to the radio station, “Mix96."

The DJ announced that day the Canadian band, “The Tragically Hip” performed a surprise concert in Ottawa, Ontario, advising listeners the rumor was they would appear in Montreal the next day!

He instructed listeners to pay close attention for an announcement the following day.

I had to work the following day, and because of Quebec’s language laws, we were required to listen to only French radio stations at the store where I worked, and I couldn't listen to the radio for the DJ’s announcement.

Still in the car, I knew my girlfriends had gone for coffee at a café I was about to pass, so I parked my car across the street and ran over. I ordered a cup of coffee and then explained to them what I'd heard on the way.

I asked them to listen to Mix96 the next day in case there was an announcement that The Tragically Hip was playing a last-minute concert in Montreal that night, explaining I worked until 5 pm, and couldn’t listen to the English radio station for the announcement.

At the time, we were 19 and I was working at a kid’s clothing store, a job I didn’t particularly enjoy (ok, I hated it).

I was manning the cash register during the lunch rush, a busy time for the store because people often shopped during their lunch breaks.

While scanning a customer's purchases, the store phone rang, and being the closest to it, I answered without pausing my work.

“Trix, Bonjour. Robin a l’appareil. Comment-est-ce-que je pe vous aider?” (“Trix, Hi, my name is Robin. How can I help you?”)

“Guess who’s going to see “The Hip” tonight at “The Spectrum?”

“I am!” I squealed in delight, “But it’s the lunch rush, so I’ll call you back during my break”, hanging up on my friend with a massive smile.

When my shift finished, I grabbed my backpack, said goodbye, and headed to the VENUE to meet the rest of my friends. As I weaved through the line, several people I knew stopped me to say, “Thanks so much for warning us.”

Word of mouth about The Tragically Hip's impromptu performance flowed like lava from Pompei (helped along by my friends — I was at work all day while they had classes), resulting in my running into many people with whom I was acquainted.

“The Spectrum” was a small, intimate venue: I went to a private Jewish high school, and one of my close friends rented the club for her Sweet Sixteen.

The stage was at the back of the front, a minuscule dance floor was in front of the stage area, and one step up, there were tables of seats surrounding the stage and dance floor in a horseshoe shape, contained by an iron railing.

We got great seats directly in front of the stage, in the first section of tables and chairs behind the dance floor, but there weren’t enough chairs, so we shared seats and sat on each other’s laps.

To this day, not one of the people who was there knew when I was sitting on one of the guys, he had his hands in my pants, and I had my hands in his!

We fooled around for years as "Friends With Benefits," without any of our friends knowing.

We had mastered the art of fooling around in public without anyone catching us. We were excellent at hiding what we were doing, and our friends were completely clueless!

I would often take one of my parent’s cars and drive to his house in the middle of the night. I'd park around the corner, and he would sneak me in, making sure not to wake his parents or siblings.

All he wanted from me was to fool around when he was horny. Otherwise, he barely spoke to me if we were at the same gatherings.

And he certainly didn’t want anyone finding out we were fooling around: he would have gotten too much grief, shame, and judgment from our "friends" about being with me.

Besides, he was interested in dating another girl. The kind of girl you bring home to Mommy and Daddy (her.) Not the girl you secretly fool around with when you're horny (me.)

He wouldn’t be the only guy to keep me a secret and be ashamed to admit he was with me, but he was the first.

All these years later, the memory of our clandestine meetings to fool around and not get caught still makes me smile.

Thirty years later, the people from that night are still entirely ignorant about the uniqueness of that friendship.

The Untold Story of The Tragically Hip's Spontaneous Concert!

Fooling around in front of everyone in secret

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