STRATFORD - The iceman playeth and it was truly Hip.

With frontman Gord Downie twitching and shaking off the fashion police with an ice-cool, all-white outfit, The Tragically Hip showed there is plenty left in the tank of Canada’s No. 1 rock band.

The Hip headlined last night as the Ovation Music Festival continued in Stratford. The three-day fest ends today when Bachman Cummings — the combined forces of ex-Guess Who stars Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings backed by a slick road band, the Carpet Frogs — are the headliners. Last night’s crowd was estimated at 25,000 fans, a huge happy gathering for the Hip.

Downie didn’t hold back once he arrived, with conservative politicians on his hit list.

“Here’s one for President Harper and Prime Minister Bush . . . anybody want a gun?” he shouted when it was time for Grace, Too early in the set.

He twisted around the stage so much, he flipped over his mic stand, but Downie pulled it back and kept moving all the way through the 90-minute set.

After the encores starting with Heaven is a Better Place Today, Downie had a final bit of advice for the fans.

“Drive the speed limit when you’re going home,” he said in signing off.

The Kingston rockers had been in overdrive all night.

The Hip’s early blasts included Springtime in Vienna, New Orleans in Sinking and Gus the Polar Bear from Central Park.

Downie tossed in a little coded introduction to each one, a bit of word play on the song’s title. Twenty minutes into the set, the man in the white all the way to his white-capped head had a funny line for Summer’s Killing Us. Pitching his voice into the falsetto regions generally occupied by bad British comics, Downie observed it was “(powerful) warm in here.”

Behind, his Hip bandmates were hot. Hip fans will never agree but Downie’s most obscure thoughts just get more and more lost in translation to the non-believers no matter how intensely he sings them.

Guitarists Rob Baker and Paul Langlois are probably the band’s secret weapon, able to blaze away in tandem, playing riffs as directly twisted as Downie’s best lyrics.

Last night, bassist Gord Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay showed that years of playing arenas can be switched over to a big Perth County field without a drop in rock detail or raw power.

Day 2 at the fest produced such a huge crowd, there were lineups everywhere — for tickets, washrooms and refreshments. In a case of Year 2 growing pains, road closings on Friday’s opening day around the temporary site were eased yesterday after some non-Ovation businesses nearby were riled. Early in the evening, there was a line of cars on the way to the site’s parking lots. Later, when the Hip was in command, it was so jammed in front of the Hip that Downie asked the crowd to take it easy.

The job of preceding the Hip — presumably a sign of the headliners’ approval — went to Canadian alt-rocker Hawksley Workman. A man with a cult following who did his best to toss it all away to substance abuse, Workman’s return to action was signalled earlier this year by Unplugged-style gigs at Aeolian Hall in London.

Last night, he showed the old Workman magic — brilliant songs and an edgy voice and stage presence no one could fake — can work outdoors with a full band, too. Workman was certainly dressed for the outdoors on a cold night — which it was last night, whatever the calendar says. He had on a Sam Roberts tuque, pulled down to the eyes, a scarf pulled tight to the neck.

As a performer, he was loose enough to bring out a new one — a catchy pop tune with a joyously crazed chorus something like “I know, I know, I know . . . her name.” A little later, he used a blast from a song by The Who as a detour in the middle of one of his best crazed love songs — Jealous of Your Cigarette. Not many performers appearing just before Canada’s No. 1 rock band would mix it up so completely with one of the few songs those fans might recognize.