Yer Hipstories: Reflections From The Final Tour - Toronto Night 2

August 12, 2016. Night two of three at the Air Canada Centre. The rare record is "In Violet Light", and four fans who were in the building take jD back.

Friday, August 12, 2016. The Air Canada Centre, night two of three - the middle child of the Toronto stand, the night Patrick calls the forgotten one. Which is a strange thing to call a show Steve ranks, out of the 32 Hip shows he saw, as the best one. Not the biggest. Not the saddest. The best.

Ten years to the day, jD sits down with four fans who were in the building - Brian from Buffalo, Steve from Toronto, Patrick from Newmarket, and Katrusia from Hamilton. (He was there too. He'll get into that another time.)

Brian opens with something he says he has never told anyone - not on the Hipbase, not even his wife. He heard the rumour about Gord months before the announcement, and spent that winter connecting dots he did not want to connect. Katrusia heard the news on CBC, which felt fitting. Patrick read the email in a newsroom, surrounded by people who suddenly had to cover the story he was living.

The ticket tales alone are worth the price of admission (which, for this panel, was face value across the board - a point of pride). A friend in House of Blues accounting. A table in the Air Canada Club. Steve watching night one from the gondola - a bird's eye view of a bird's eye view - and securing his night two seat from a location he is brave enough to name on the record. So there's that.

Then the set list. 'Courage' into 'Locked in the Trunk of a Car' into 'Eldorado' to open. 'Membership', the white whale, finally landed for two of the four. 'Throwing Off Glass', live, in 2016. 'What Blue' making its case as the best of the final stretch. 'Grace, Too' carrying more weight than anyone was ready for. And 'Ahead by a Century' to close - a strange choice until it wasn't, with every person in the building on their feet, singing every word.

The panel follows the thread to August 20th - two bottles of wine and a laptop in a Buffalo living room, a three-hour detour to stand alone under the Bobcaygeon sign, pizza in residence and pints at the Brass in Kingston - and lands where this series keeps landing. You never regret the shows you see. You regret the ones you miss.

(Also, one of these panelists played a living-room concert for a baby who has not arrived yet, and the first song was 'Wheat Kings'. You'll hear it.)

THE PANEL

• Brian from Buffalo - 54 Hip shows, a "Phantom Power" diehard, and a teacher who crossed the border for this band for years. 'Membership' was the last "Phantom Power" song he had never heard live. Not anymore.

• Steve from Toronto - 32 Hip shows, engaged that Canada Day, and proof that "In Violet Light" belongs to Kingston in the summer of 2002. He calls this the best Hip show he ever saw.

• Patrick from Newmarket - five of the final six shows, every ticket at face value, a journalist brain that deletes nothing, and a 25-year chase for 'The Luxury' that ended on night one of this stand.