TORONTO -- When it comes right down to it, the concert experience isn't about ticket prices or box office receipts or set lists or SoundScan sales numbers or souvenir T-shirts or any of the other garbage we sometimes convince ourselves matters.

What the concert experience is about is moments; those instantaneous constellations of circumstance that can't be captured on records or movies or (heaven forbid) music videos, but are treasured in memory long after the houselights come up. A whole bunch of those moments occurred here Friday night, but perhaps the most astonishing came before The Tragically Hip had even mounted the hallowed stage of Massey Hall.

In the anxious moments before the concert's scheduled start, the entire capacity crowd, suddenly and without prompting, rose to its feet and belted out "O Canada," as if the same idea ocurred to about 3,000 people at the exact same moment. It was breathtaking, and when the quintet (with additional support from keyboardist Chris Brown and singer Kate Fenner) took the stage seconds later, they appeared to be taken aback by the spontaneous, but somehow entirely appropriate, show of patriotism.

Although the group's new disc, Music@Work has already muscled its way into the top of the Canadian retail charts, this show is one of only four the group has scheduled in Canada (they played Montreal's Theatre St. Denis and music video channel MusiquePlus earlier in the week and were scheduled to perform at MuchMusic in Toronto Saturday).

Given the scarce Canadian concerts and the august venue (Massey was the scene of both Gordon Lightfoot's "Sunday Concert," Rush's "All The World's

A Stage" and thousands of spectacles before and since), both the band and their fans seemed prepared to make the most of it and make an event of it.

Even though "Music@Work" is fresh on store shelves, the effect of transplanting the music from the studio hothouse and allowing the material to grow wild in live performance had already enhanced many of the songs.

"Putting Down" was given greasier Keith Richards-calibre muscle by guitarist Paul Langlois. The beatbox-like rhythm and guitar filigree of the haunting "Toronto #4" was enhanced by Johnny Fay's mallet work on the drums and Fenner's gracious harmonizing with singer Gordon Downie. The lullaby-like "The Completists'" was ever-so-slightly reconsidered with a modestly funky groove and "Lake Fever" was fortified by a funky Hohner clavinet part from Brown that unleashed new magic in what was already an outstanding piece of work. Even "Tiger The Lion," on record turgid and inponderable, was ominous and spooky in concert, which was probably the intended effect all along.

And it says something about the calibre of their repetoire that, in a 20-song set, they can neglect to play "New Orleans Is Sinking," "50 Mission Cap" and "Blow At High Dough," and you'd scarcely even notice. It also says something about the band's interpretive powers that they can continue to play favorites like "Hundredth Meridian" and "Nautical Disaster" and still find something vital with each performance.

During "Springtime In Vienna," as momentum accumulated toward its scream-along chorus ("We live to survive our paradoxes"), the exchange of enthusiasm between band and audiencewas not at all like the tawdry vaudeville that passes for live music these days. It was more like some strange kind of ritual between the spectator and spectacle, the sort of collective exaltation that, before our secular age, was probably easily accessed at church.

That's not to lay any silly sacred claims on the work of The Tragically Hip, but more a comment on how few contemporary opportunities there are for this kind of communal outpouring of ... well, emotion is the only word that seems appropriate. Each time I've seen The Hip in concert (and I believe this was show #10 for me), what impressed most was the overwhelming feeling of affection ping-ponging back and forth between the bleachers and the stage.

Of course, we can get caught up in the fretting about the group's chart status or progress finding an audience state-side or their internal cohesion, but there's a simple antidote to all of that, and it's witnessing what The Tragically Hip and their fans are capable of when they get together.

If that sounds hokey, well, if you'd been a part of the moment, you'd know what I'm talking about.

Set List

Something On My Music At Work Gift Shop Putting Down Springtime In Vienna Toronto #4 Fireworks The Completists Nautical Disaster Don't Wake Daddy Freak Turbulence Bobcaygeon Fully Completely Lake Fever At The Hundredth Meridian Encores: Tiger The Lion Ahead By A Century Little Bones Flamenco Poets