In an unparalleled moment of national pride laced with sorrow, Canada stopped for a few hours on Saturday night to venerate the Tragically Hip, the band that for many has come closest to defining that country’s cultural identity.

“Thank you,” Gord Downie, the Hip’s frontman, told the crowd from a stage in Kingston, Ontario, “for keeping me pushing, and keeping me pushing.” In late May, Mr. Downie, 52, revealed that he had terminal brain cancer. Far from retreating, the band instead planned a short summer tour, by turns jubilant and wrenching, that has transfixed much of Canada for the last month.

Kingston, the group’s hometown, was the last stop.

Mr. Downie arrived onstage at the Rogers K-Rock arena — on The Tragically Hip Way — in a suit and jauntily feathered hat, and, with his four bandmates of over 30 years, tore through a three-hour set of blues-rock hits and lyrical deep cuts. The mood was triumphal: The concert started after a spontaneous audience rendition of “O Canada” and ended with three encores.