OTTAWA -- At first I was perplexed when Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie greeted a teeming throng of fans at the Bluesfest last night with "Happy Canada Day."

It seemed to make a little more sense about 45 minutes later, as Downie introduced a song off the band's ninth release, In Violet Light, which was recorded last fall in the Bahamas and released June 11.

"It's called The Dire Wolf," said Downie, chuckling. "It's a Grateful Dead song."

Just maybe he was making veiled references to the massive turnout, a sellout crowd of 26,000 who came to see Canada's favourite band.

There wasn't a lawn chair in sight last night, and it was a good thing. Those who crammed, crushed and clustered their way onto the Festival Plaza lawn -- many well-refreshed by cans of well, what else, Canadian -- became very well acquainted with one another.

The Hip took the stage promptly at 8:30 p.m., starting off with another new tune, Use It Up, before moving into more familiar fan favourites like My Music At Work.

It was only at the third song, a rousing rendition of Blow At High Dough that I felt myself begin to lift up and down with the jumping, close-knit crowd. Though uncommonly cramped, it was the beginning of a fantastic show by the Kingston boys: Robby Baker and Paul Langlois on guitar, Gord Sinclair on bass and Johnny Fay on drums. As Downie's raspy voice stretched into a wail 15 minutes in, the body surfing began and never stopped.

"A lot of drunk people," Paul Kerluke astutely observed over my shoulder.

Kerluke and his friends, like many other fans, helpfully moved the show along by enthusiastically shrieking the words to popular Hip tunes including Bobcaygeon and Fireworks.

The crowd seemed to already know and love the first single off In Violet Light, the catchy It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken -- by which time Downie had a cool can of Heineken in his hand, dubbing it "the Dutch 50" -- and they liked or tolerated some of the other new tunes including Silver Jet.

But it was upon hearing perennial favourite New Orleans Is Sinking, at the cathartic conclusion of the band's three-song encore, that the fans finally went completely mental.

Opening act Sarah Harmer joined The Hip onstage to sing a barely discernable back-up on Wheat Kings. Earlier in the evening, Downie had surprised those gathered for the slight singer's 45-minute set to sing an equally low-key contribution for her song Silver Road.

CAPTIVE AUDIENCE

It was hard to believe I'd had the entire lawn almost to myself during The Hip's mid-afternoon soundcheck, as drops of flying beer landed on my jostled notebook during the 90-minute show. And I have to salute the marketing savvy of moviemat.com, apparently a Renfrew company which had the foresight to fly a banner advertising $14.99 Triple-X porn to an incredibly captive audience.

The normally unintelligible Downie -- remarkably coherent though as bizarre a dancer as ever -- even pointed it out.

"But I'm cool with that," he said.

So were we, Gord, so were we.