Even with Gord Downie gone since 2017, there is still a hankering for the music of the Tragically Hip, so guitarist Mark Hall, drummer Raz Bruce, bassist Jack Horne and vocalist Darryl  Watanabe  were happy to resurrect the Hip’s spirit by introducing their new Tragically Hip tribute The Hip Trip by playing all of the Hip’s hits and a lot more at the Slice, July 3.

Horne’s bass was excruciatingly, bowel shakingly loud, but it didn’t matter to the packed house, who, beers in hand, were happy to dance and sing along to their favourite Hip Hits. They partied on even when they blew a fuse mid set during “Poets,”  but Slice owner Derek Hoyle and the band quickly resolved the issue.

 Local acousitc duo the Trippy Hippys aka Laurie Wintoniak Joy Pizzengrilli opened the show. I only caught a few of their beautiful harmony laden covers, coming in from doing a live Hotrock Blues Beat on CKXU 88.3 f.m. They usually perform at Honker’s Pub.

 The Hip Trip were solid, Mark Hall had the Hip’s big, beefy heavily distorted guitar sound down.

But it was vocalist Watanabe who made the show. He was a dead ringer for Downie and even looked a little like the beloved Tragically Hip frontman.

“50 Mission Cap” was an early highlight and the Hip hits took off from there, with an equal balance of slower more introspective numbers like “ Bobacaygeon,” “Fully Completely” and “Wheat Kings,” to the flat out rockers like “Twist My Arm” “Little Bones,” “Poets” and “Three Pistols.”

 “ 38 years Old” was a highlight that came near the end of the set.

— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat editor