Live Between Us is the first full-length live
albumAn album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites.-...
by
CanadianCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
rockRock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
band
The Tragically HipThe Tragically Hip is a Canadian rock band from Kingston, Ontario, consisting of Gordon Downie , Paul Langlois , Rob Baker , Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay .The band is popular and influential in Canada...
. It was released in 1997.
The album was recorded at Cobo Arena in
Detroit, MichiganDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
, on November 23, 1996, during the tour supporting
Trouble at the HenhouseTrouble at the Henhouse is the fifth full-length album from Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. It was released in 1996...
. It is considered a good representation of a typical live show, with much
improvisationImprovisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
among both the singer
Gordon DownieGordon Downie is a Canadian rock musician, writer and occasional actor. He is the lead singer and lyricist for the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. He has released two solo albums, Coke Machine Glow in 2001 and Battle of the Nudes in 2003; the former was sold with a book of poetry of the...
and the rest of the band.
Downie often begins to sing other songs in the middle of his own, including
David BowieDavid Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Active in five decades of popular music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
's "China Girl" and
The Beach BoysThe Beach Boys are an American rock band. Formed in 1961, the group gained popularity for its close vocal harmonies and lyrics reflecting a Southern California youth culture of cars, surfing, and romance...
' "Don't Worry Baby" during crowd favourite "New Orleans Is Sinking", and both Jane Siberry's "The Temple" and
RheostaticsRheostatics were a Canadian indie rock band, active from 1980 to 2007. Although they had only one Top 40 hit , they were simultaneously one of Canada's most influential and most unconventional rock bands, a band whose eclectic take on pop and rock music has been described both as iconic and...
' "Bad Time to Be Poor" in "Nautical Disaster".
Live Between Us is the first full-length live
albumAn album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites.-...
by
CanadianCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
rockRock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
band
The Tragically HipThe Tragically Hip is a Canadian rock band from Kingston, Ontario, consisting of Gordon Downie , Paul Langlois , Rob Baker , Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay .The band is popular and influential in Canada...
. It was released in 1997.
The album was recorded at Cobo Arena in
Detroit, MichiganDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
, on November 23, 1996, during the tour supporting
Trouble at the HenhouseTrouble at the Henhouse is the fifth full-length album from Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. It was released in 1996...
. It is considered a good representation of a typical live show, with much
improvisationImprovisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
among both the singer
Gordon DownieGordon Downie is a Canadian rock musician, writer and occasional actor. He is the lead singer and lyricist for the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. He has released two solo albums, Coke Machine Glow in 2001 and Battle of the Nudes in 2003; the former was sold with a book of poetry of the...
and the rest of the band.
Downie often begins to sing other songs in the middle of his own, including
David BowieDavid Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Active in five decades of popular music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
's "China Girl" and
The Beach BoysThe Beach Boys are an American rock band. Formed in 1961, the group gained popularity for its close vocal harmonies and lyrics reflecting a Southern California youth culture of cars, surfing, and romance...
' "Don't Worry Baby" during crowd favourite "New Orleans Is Sinking", and both Jane Siberry's "The Temple" and
RheostaticsRheostatics were a Canadian indie rock band, active from 1980 to 2007. Although they had only one Top 40 hit , they were simultaneously one of Canada's most influential and most unconventional rock bands, a band whose eclectic take on pop and rock music has been described both as iconic and...
' "Bad Time to Be Poor" in "Nautical Disaster". The Rheostatics were the opening act on the tour documented by this album.
In the week of the album's release, Canadian radio stations played it so extensively that eight songs from the album appeared in the week's Top 20 singles chart.
The title actually comes from
graffitiGraffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
in
Kingston, OntarioKingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario, where Lake Ontario runs into the St. Lawrence River and the Thousand Islands begin.Kingston is the county seat of Frontenac County...
, which read "The Hip live between us." (with
live written as a
verbkalleah hit meIn syntax, a verb is a word that usually denotes an action , an occurrence , or a state of being . Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice...
). This graffiti was penned by early band member
Davis ManningDavis Manning is an alto saxophone player from British Columbia, Canada. He was a member of The Tragically Hip from 1983–1986, before they landed a record deal. When he left the band, he was replaced by current guitarist, Paul Langlois....
, describing the impact that the band was having on his relationship with his girlfriend. Manning eventually chose the girl over the band, leaving in 1986. The mural remained on the wall, a victim of graffiti itself, until the mid-2000s when it was painted over by the property owner.
Track listing
- "Grace, Too" – 6:18
- "Fully Completely" – 4:11
- "Springtime in Vienna" – 4:37
- "Twist My Arm" – 4:05
- "Gift Shop" – 5:09
- "Ahead by a Century" – 5:25
- "The Luxury" – 4:08
- "Courage" – 5:08
- "New Orleans Is Sinking" – 6:22
- "Don't Wake Daddy" – 5:30
- "Scared" – 5:00
- "Blow at High Dough" – 4:54
- "Nautical Disaster" – 5:31
- "The Wherewithal" – 4:14