![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevins_concertsRush's triumphant return to the stage after five years.
I took that Friday afternoon off to go camping. After running around trying to make sure I'd gotten everything important packed (which I didn't), I managed to get down to Cyn's nearly on time. I ordered tickets for the Tool concert. We got on the road. It took us nearly an hour to get to the campground, but we'd got a little bit lost. Jim and Peggy were supposed to be there before us, but it didn't really surprise me to find out that they weren't. We had to leave for the evening before they showed up. I was really hoping they'd be there because Jim was supposed to be cooking dinner. We had to eat at BK.
We had to get back to town to pick up Phil for the Rush concert. We barely got there before he would have left without us. We got downtown and waited in traffic for several blocks before finding out that all the parking lots on the south end were full and they were routing traffic back north. Phil got out there anyway, so he didn't miss any of the show, but by the time we got to our seats, the band was in their second song.
Phil told us they played the Three Stooges Theme as an into, as usual.
The first hour was all from Moving Pictures through Roll the Bones, with two exceptions. After that, they mixed in quite a few other songs. They played many of my favorites - "Dreamline", "Leave That Thing Alone," "La Villa Strangiato", "YYZ", "Big Money", "Driven" - my favorite songs from many of their albums.
Neil had a drum solo that was just awesome. The first one-third wasn't all that exciting - great moves, but it just didn't do anything for me musically. The second part was when his kit spun around and he played the back half. That was just great - very rhythmic and "melodic". Then the kit spun back and the last part was just as great. After that he left the stage (to recuperate, I'd guess) and Geddy and Alex played "Resist" on acoustic guitars.
Their humor was set on high. Alex had a stack of amps behind him, but Geddy had a row of clothes dryers going. They were even miked up just like amps. They had t-shirts in them, going round and round, which they threw to the crowd at the end of the show. During "La Villa" Alex quit playing, and Geddy and Neil went in to a little jazzy backing thing, and Alex went off on some weird stream of consciousness story - something about "and the sky was my ceiling, and the mountains were my door, and the lakes, well, they were my toilet, I guess, and I was floating, and floating and floating..." Weird. But funny.
It was during that part that we got some emotion out of Neil. He didn't have much to do at that point, so he was able to hear what Alex was saying, and he was just cracking up. The other time that Neil seemed to be having fun was during "Working Man". If you're familiar with the history of the band, you'll know why he didn't have any trouble paying attention to what was going on around him during that song.
Alex did a guitar solo that blew me away. They had cameras and big screens going, and during the solo, they showed a close up of his left hand. He was playing two different things. He was doing this "Chikka chikka" rhythmic plucking thing, but at the same time he was doing a standard slowish solo, with sliding notes. I can't imagine that they would have overdubbed such a major part of the music. It wasn't like a little synthesizer that was triggered.
The big screens were great. Even though our seats were pretty good (a little ways behind the sound board) we couldn't see them play very well. We could see that Alex has put on a little weight, and Neil's intense facial expression. And of course Geddy's amazing nose in profile.
Phil and I (are Rush geeks and) always try to predict what song they will open with and what songs they will play in the encore and all those sorts of guessing games. Never in a million years would we have guessed that they would have opened their three song encore with "By-Tor and the Snow Dog". It also included the intro to Cygnus and "Working Man." All I have to say about that is: !!!
They didn't play "Closer to the Heart". That was fine with me. I have no particular attachment to any particular song, especially the older ones. It is a great song, but I'm not going to get all upset if they decide to skip a song. This had to be the first time I've ever seen them where they didn't play that song.
They played only four songs off the new record. That was fine. They started at 7:45 and ended at 10:45.
Partway into the intermission, a sound of crickets started up, very loudly. Pretty soon the video screen showed a mountain scene, just before dawn. The light grew brighter until the sun finally came over the mountains. There was a deep, slow rhythmic sound, like drums, and the camera zoomed in, to see some dragons rise out of a stone pit. One of them pulled out a cigar and lit it, along with part of the stage. Later on in the song ("One Little Victory") he came back and attacked the stage. I'd never seen Rush use pyrotechnics onstage. They've always had a great light show, and I'm happy that they still do. That's kind of dying out.
I think Alex played seven different guitars, but Geddy only played two - he's that good. :-D He played only two varieties of Fender Jazz basses, and the one was only used on "Driven". Oh - Geddy played an acoustic guitar, once. And keyboards and pedals, of course.
The sound very good, but it seemed like something was always too high in the mix and something else too low. In the first set, the drums were too loud, and Geddy's voice was too quiet.
I took that Friday afternoon off to go camping. After running around trying to make sure I'd gotten everything important packed (which I didn't), I managed to get down to Cyn's nearly on time. I ordered tickets for the Tool concert. We got on the road. It took us nearly an hour to get to the campground, but we'd got a little bit lost. Jim and Peggy were supposed to be there before us, but it didn't really surprise me to find out that they weren't. We had to leave for the evening before they showed up. I was really hoping they'd be there because Jim was supposed to be cooking dinner. We had to eat at BK.
We had to get back to town to pick up Phil for the Rush concert. We barely got there before he would have left without us. We got downtown and waited in traffic for several blocks before finding out that all the parking lots on the south end were full and they were routing traffic back north. Phil got out there anyway, so he didn't miss any of the show, but by the time we got to our seats, the band was in their second song.
Phil told us they played the Three Stooges Theme as an into, as usual.
The first hour was all from Moving Pictures through Roll the Bones, with two exceptions. After that, they mixed in quite a few other songs. They played many of my favorites - "Dreamline", "Leave That Thing Alone," "La Villa Strangiato", "YYZ", "Big Money", "Driven" - my favorite songs from many of their albums.
Neil had a drum solo that was just awesome. The first one-third wasn't all that exciting - great moves, but it just didn't do anything for me musically. The second part was when his kit spun around and he played the back half. That was just great - very rhythmic and "melodic". Then the kit spun back and the last part was just as great. After that he left the stage (to recuperate, I'd guess) and Geddy and Alex played "Resist" on acoustic guitars.
Their humor was set on high. Alex had a stack of amps behind him, but Geddy had a row of clothes dryers going. They were even miked up just like amps. They had t-shirts in them, going round and round, which they threw to the crowd at the end of the show. During "La Villa" Alex quit playing, and Geddy and Neil went in to a little jazzy backing thing, and Alex went off on some weird stream of consciousness story - something about "and the sky was my ceiling, and the mountains were my door, and the lakes, well, they were my toilet, I guess, and I was floating, and floating and floating..." Weird. But funny.
It was during that part that we got some emotion out of Neil. He didn't have much to do at that point, so he was able to hear what Alex was saying, and he was just cracking up. The other time that Neil seemed to be having fun was during "Working Man". If you're familiar with the history of the band, you'll know why he didn't have any trouble paying attention to what was going on around him during that song.
Alex did a guitar solo that blew me away. They had cameras and big screens going, and during the solo, they showed a close up of his left hand. He was playing two different things. He was doing this "Chikka chikka" rhythmic plucking thing, but at the same time he was doing a standard slowish solo, with sliding notes. I can't imagine that they would have overdubbed such a major part of the music. It wasn't like a little synthesizer that was triggered.
The big screens were great. Even though our seats were pretty good (a little ways behind the sound board) we couldn't see them play very well. We could see that Alex has put on a little weight, and Neil's intense facial expression. And of course Geddy's amazing nose in profile.
Phil and I (are Rush geeks and) always try to predict what song they will open with and what songs they will play in the encore and all those sorts of guessing games. Never in a million years would we have guessed that they would have opened their three song encore with "By-Tor and the Snow Dog". It also included the intro to Cygnus and "Working Man." All I have to say about that is: !!!
They didn't play "Closer to the Heart". That was fine with me. I have no particular attachment to any particular song, especially the older ones. It is a great song, but I'm not going to get all upset if they decide to skip a song. This had to be the first time I've ever seen them where they didn't play that song.
They played only four songs off the new record. That was fine. They started at 7:45 and ended at 10:45.
Partway into the intermission, a sound of crickets started up, very loudly. Pretty soon the video screen showed a mountain scene, just before dawn. The light grew brighter until the sun finally came over the mountains. There was a deep, slow rhythmic sound, like drums, and the camera zoomed in, to see some dragons rise out of a stone pit. One of them pulled out a cigar and lit it, along with part of the stage. Later on in the song ("One Little Victory") he came back and attacked the stage. I'd never seen Rush use pyrotechnics onstage. They've always had a great light show, and I'm happy that they still do. That's kind of dying out.
I think Alex played seven different guitars, but Geddy only played two - he's that good. :-D He played only two varieties of Fender Jazz basses, and the one was only used on "Driven". Oh - Geddy played an acoustic guitar, once. And keyboards and pedals, of course.
The sound very good, but it seemed like something was always too high in the mix and something else too low. In the first set, the drums were too loud, and Geddy's voice was too quiet.