r30
Finally! I made it. The Charlotte concert flew under the radar, I blew the Irvine excursion and just listened from across the fence, and thus missed Jack Black on stage in his boxers after tossing his clothes into Geddy’s Maytags and posing as the man in the star. But I made it to Atlanta, and was duly rewarded.
I decided there is no way I can describe it for you. So I decided to chronicle my own Rush concert attendance and give a nod to their 30th anniversary by remembering some of my own experiences and those who shared them with me. Here they are, with some thoughts about each. Some of these memories will seem really random and weird, but they are just what has stayed in my head, ya know.
Warning: this is a long post, it might take you 30 years to finish.
I’m pretty sure that this was just Mark and me. We sat way up high, stage right looking down at Alex. We were above the suspended speakers and the sound was bad. At the beginning of Subdivisions, I couldn’t make out the pitch of synth, so when the chords began, they sounded like they were in the wrong key. I also couldn’t hear Alex’s guitar solos. He broke a string in the middle of the solo for “Closer to the Heart” and Geddy started playing a quick improv on pedals.
This was Allison’s first Rush concert. We drove down from school with Toni and Jamie in Toni’s yellow car. I was slow in getting this album, so I didn’t know it very well. The concert included 9 songs from the new album and I was disappointed because I didn’t know them. It kind of tainted my “Grace under pressure” experience and I had a hard time warming up to the record. Of course, Allison loved every minute of it, and to this day, that is her favorite recording. I’ve come to like it a lot too. But years later, I heard an interview with Geddy in which he said that he just never warmed up to “Grace Under Pressure”. Weird. After the concert, we exited the opposite side of the civic center from where we’d entered, without realizing there were parking garages on both sides. We looked for Toni’s yellow car until the garage was completely empty before we realized we were in the wrong garage.
I don’t remember much about this concert except the animation of the marathoner and the lasers drawing him on the screen. I really love this record – the songs, the epitome of 80s production, all the trance and atmospheric Alex stuff.
First Rush show after marriage and Allison couldn’t come. I had to drive over to Pittsburgh to meet Mark and Fred after work and was a few minutes late. I walked into the civic arena just as Tommy Shaw was singing, “Oh momma, I can hear you a-crying, you’re so…”
It has started snowing as soon as I got on the turnpike and soon I could not see the road in front of me. I snuggled up behind a semi so that I could follow his lights, and drove for 3 hours in sheer terror. I was determined to get there. After the concert, I thought it might be safer to drive down to Morgantown and go home via route 48 because there would be less traffic and I was less likely to be run over by a tractor-trailer. It was worse because there was no traffic. No visible tire tracks in the snow on the 4-lane and when I got to Maryland, I was driving about 10 miles an hour on the interstate. Once, just before Cumberland, forward motion stopped and I began sliding backward down the mountain (on the interstate!!!!) with my brakes applied. I had to attempt that hill several times to find a path with traction. I made it to Hancock and found no snow at all. I got home, rattled to the bone, just before it was time to be at work.
First Rush show after the SC move. This was opening night on the Presto Tour, in the tiny Greenville Memorial Auditorium (now replaced by the BiLo center). Greg Gillmeister drove down and went to the concert with Allison and me. I enjoyed the giant inflatable rabbits in the hats. Al bought a t-shirt. It has paint on it now.
Allison and I went to this concert together when Jack was 3 weeks old. I’m pretty sure this was the first time we’d left him. I think he stayed across the street with Karen Foreman. Only three weeks out, and it felt like we were pardoned for a moment. We wore the rose of romance, an air of joie de vivre. (they opened with “force ten”)
Will was 4 days old, fresh home from the hospital, and I felt really strange leaving him lying on the couch all wrapped up in bili-lights. Al blessed my departure and her mom was there to help.
The intro was the nut and bolt animation with “Also Sprach Zarathustra” as the soundtrack. I loved the big fat guitar on “Driven”, and later mimicked it as a nod on my own song on “Habby was here” when it was my turn to drive.
The return of the two-and-only, college roommates, By-tor and the Snow Dog, concert togetherness. Mark drove down and we met in Charlotte for the concert. Afterward, he followed me to Columbia to spend the night before driving back home.
This was the first tour that became, “an evening with Rush”. No more opening bands. Just two fat sets with an intermission. I remember the video for “half the world”, the video of the rock climbers scaling the big rock man, and the old shots of the band as kids with their early instruments. I bought a tour book. But I don’t remember much else about this concert.
Allison and I planned a mini escape far in advance for this concert. We bought incredibly good seats, and booked a room at the University Hilton for the night. The room wasn’t all that special, but the concert was great.
We drove up early and ate with the gang at Razzoo’s. I think it was gwill, cisco, caruthers, brandon and mitchy. We all bonded with rat toes. I hope I didn’t leave anyone out. I had the shrimp brushette and sweet tea. We were just late enough to the concert to have to listen to "Tom Sawyer" as we were walking across the parking lot.
The concert was amazing. It was great to sit up front and see and hear so well. Fun to watch the folks come out and switch the laundry and re-feed the Maytags. Alex, began the new tradition of Lerxt’s Rants, during “La Villa Strangiato”.
With me for this road trip were 3 newbies – my son Jack and Dan and Esther. Pretty cool to join all the other old geezers at the concert with their sons. I hope Jack enjoyed going with me as much as I enjoyed taking him.
Right before the concert began a large owl flew down from the light rigging and sailed through the rafters and landed right in front of Jack and me. He sat there for about 90 seconds and then flew out toward the lawn, banked left and out of the amphitheatre. I’ve searched for discussions of the r30 tour’s previous concerts and no mention is made of an owl. So was it just weird coincidence? Is that some subform of serendipity? Then after the concert, there was an awesome fireworks finale over the lawn.
So all day, I’ve been trying to think of some way to express how cool this concert was, how unbelievably subtle and connected the abstract animations were to the meanings of the songs. How well woven the animation and video were. THE LIGHT SHOW! Lerxt’s rant (no story this time, just scat laughing and crying – he even made Neil laugh). I thought I’d post a set list, but realized that would be just a bit silly since it was a 3 hour experience rather than a succession of songs. They played 30 though, from every album except Presto ( I missed “the pass”), plus the Overture. The included covers were “Summertime Blues”, “The Seeker”, “Crossroads”, and some Alex references to “Day Tripper”, and “I feel Fine”. Two apt songs to explain what we were doing and how it made us feel.
that's what rod was thinking at 11:55 PM
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