2009/07/23  Rock The Park; London, ON Playing old and new material, the Tragically Hip were a huge hit on opening night ... Speaking of Hip, Ottawa alt-rocker Kathleen Edwards, who was on before the Hip and is excellent, had a tough job. She handled it with the in your face hipness of somebody who has great songs and loves the dentist who gifted her with cool new braces. "He's the only man in my life that ever said I had a small mouth," Edwards joked at one point in a set split between her own fine songs fired up by her terrific band and her running feud with a few too Hip fans. Some fans chanted "Hip, Hip, Hip" before she hit the stage and during breaks between her songs. To this reviewer, the icing on the cake of the Edwards' set was her obvious glee in firing "Hip, Hip, Hip" right back at fans who had that one thing on their minds. "You're not going to get them out here with that," Edwards said after her rivals in the crowd failed miserably to match her Hipfan intensity or volume. 'The good news is that one of the secret weapons for the Tragically Hip was poached so terribly from my band. I'll never get over it," she said before welcoming the man who was poached, Jim Bryson back for some of her set. Bryson returned to help the Hip. ... James Reaney The London Free Press				Album reviews Feature articles Interviews Show reviews