# Rush



## dodgechargerfan (Mar 22, 2006)

So, I'm winging it down to Vegas for a family thing - 50th wedding anniversary - and I'm reading the airline magazine they stick in the seat pocket when I see that RUSH is playing on Saturday night in Vegas...



I hadn't really thought about seeing them while down there. I had always been scoping out tickets close to home - Buffalo, London, ON, Toronto, ON...

And we didn't have any set plans for Saturday night.

Soooo.....
A couple of calls and we scored a pair of tickets.

Not the greatest seats in the house, but it's hard to find a bad seat in the MGM Garden Arena.

What an awesome show!

I hadn't seen them since the Subdivisions tour.

The one thing about these guys that some people complain about is that they don't really have a show. That's to say that there aren't a lot of pyro effects - there's some, but it always works with the song. They don't over do it at all...

They always have the green lasers, it seems.

The video screens play some pretty wild and crazy stuff and there's always something funny as an intro to a song or two. Bob & Doug MacKenzie did the intro to The Larger Bowl.

The thing is, the "show" is the musicianship that these three guys can pull off effortlessly.


Alex was busy switching off from electric, to 12-string to mandolin.
It seems he's got some pretty wild modelling amps now because he had all kinds of guitars all wrapped up in one Les Paul and he'd switch from one to the other with a kick of a foot switch.

Then there's that drummer guy, Neil. the one thing that's tough to do at a RUSH concert is tap your foot to the beat. With all those crazy time signatures - and multiple signatures in one song, it's hard for a rythmically challenged moke like me to keep up. I once read that he had to teach himself how to play in 4/4 time for the song Witch Hunt.

These guys play tight. Complex, but still tight. It was amazing.

and the drum solo - done at the tail end of Natural Science - was ecclectic.
The best part was the last section where Neil goes into a jazz drum solo along with a horn section. For years, I've heard that while Neil is a great drummer, he's no Buddy Rich. Well, I think he was channeling Buddy on Saturday night. I think the horns were triggered by him, too but I don't know..

They played for 3 hours with about a half hour break.

Geddy has replaced his clothes dryers with gourmet food vending machines - the latest in amplification technology. The "chefs" came out a few times to tend to the food.
Alex had the Marshall stacks 6 in a 2X3 array if I remember correctly.
Neil had the 360 degree, 2-kit, kit. The acoustic drums are a brand new design from his drum maker - according to the program.
The sounds coming out of the electronic kit during the drum solo were crazy. That's the only time I noticed him playing the electronic kit - although I bet he spun around a few times during the night - I just didn't notice.

I think I might try and swing some tickets for the Toronto show and go see them again.

We tried to get a note to the band - we're from St. Catharines which is where Lakeside Park is located and Neil grew up around here - so we thought there'd be an outside chance that they'd invite us backstage... 
hey . it's worth a try.. but no one would take the note to them. Everytime we'd chase down someone wearing a laminate, they'd disappear.

I'm really liking their new album, Snakes and Arrows. It's very rockin' - lots of back to basic rock under it all.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Wild, you never know what you will run into in Vegas. You can usually get tickets as well. We are going to the TO show as well. Last time I seen them was at the SARS gig in TO and before that it was the Counterparts tour.


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## esp_dsp (Feb 27, 2007)

sounds like a wicked show.... im on the look out for some tickets to the TO show and i better get on it but i keep forgetting..... neil is such a wicked drummer..... and one of my dads buddys said that he used to play with the guys in rush but when they said they really wanted to get serouis he backed out... what a mistake lol


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## dodgechargerfan (Mar 22, 2006)

My sister's high school boyfriend played in a band called Fresh and beat RUSH in a batlle of the bands..

It was totally local hero support, but a win is a win, right?


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## Luke98 (Mar 4, 2007)

I envy you dodge, I'd love to see rush in concert, one of my favorite bands, if not my favorite... but i'm only 15 and the closest most bands get is montreal or halifax, neither of which are easily accessible.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Luke98 said:


> I envy you dodge, I'd love to see rush in concert, one of my favorite bands, if not my favorite... but i'm only 15 and the closest most bands get is montreal or halifax, neither of which are easily accessible.


Keep your fingers crossed.

I saw Rush at least three times in Moncton back in the 70s.


NB rocks!


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Hot damn.... next weekend is a double bill concert weekend for us. We have Rush on Saturday night at the ACC and then Steve Vai at Massey Hall on Sunday. Looking forward to it.


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## maybeyes (Dec 20, 2006)

*Seeing Rush on the 21st*

The more I read about this tour, the more excited I become at seeing them next Friday. Should be a cool show by all accounts.


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## fretboard (May 31, 2006)

Saw the show in London last week - awesome*

(* denotes that although they were as tight and locked in as any time I've seen them (5 other times) - my buddies and I gave up trying to keep track of all the little "filler parts" that were piped into the mix.)

I'd leave it as everything they played in London was very well played - just not everything coming out of the speakers was being played live... You'd probably have to play guitar to notice the majority of the "phantom" guitar parts - but a couple tunes had some piano going on, while Geddy was thumpin' the bass... Just an observation is all.

None the less, a great evening of great music - and I wouldn't say I'm terribly familiar with the 8 or 9 new songs they played. They were certainly played well enough to not be a distraction.


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## jcon (Apr 28, 2006)

fretboard said:


> but a couple tunes had some piano going on, while Geddy was thumpin' the bass...


I saw a recent interview with Geddy where he mentioned he didn't want to play a lot of the keyboard parts on this tour - he'd rather be playing bass.

Cheers,
Joe


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## hendrix (Aug 21, 2007)

maybeyes said:


> The more I read about this tour, the more excited I become at seeing them next Friday. Should be a cool show by all accounts.



I am seeing them on the 21st to theres no way I am ganna be able to sleep on thursday


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## NB-SK (Jul 28, 2007)

Some guys I knew when I was at university, three music students, entered a 'battle of the bands' on a lark. They played Rush instrumentals (La Villa Strangiato and another song whose title I can't remember). It was them against a half dozen trash metal bands that were made up teenagers. The funniest thing happened. The audience voted for their favorite and they placed my friends dead last...but guess who won the individual prizes for best bassist, guitarist and drummer...


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## djem (Sep 14, 2006)

fretboard said:


> Saw the show in London last week - awesome*
> 
> (* denotes that although they were as tight and locked in as any time I've seen them (5 other times) - my buddies and I gave up trying to keep track of all the little "filler parts" that were piped into the mix.)
> 
> ...


I'd have to say that Rush is my favorite band overall. Grew up listening to them and they were the first band I saw live. 1977 at Maple Leaf Gardens for the Farewell to Kings tour. Seen every show since and watched them develop as a band. You have to realize a few things about the phantom (sequenced) parts. From what I saw at the Far Cry show, they were still triggering those parts. Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows were probably their most intense shows due to the amount of synth and layering used for the studio cuts. They actually had a brutal time coordinating the live show to sound like the studio album while trying to actually play all the parts. I can see that not being fun after a while and I think they felt the same. That's why they pulled back on the synths.

The Wednesday show.......

Mix was crap for the first 3-4 songs. Finally got it right after that. Played 9 songs from the latest album (wow!) and played some tunes that I haven't seen them play in a long, long time. It was nice to see Alex playing nothing but Gibson (LP's, ES-175 & ES-355) and Geddy actually brought out the Ricky. They both had respectable tone.

All in all it was a good show, but I have to say I liked the R30 tour better overall.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Just returned from the gig (Sataurday Night) and although I really enjoyed seeing the boys again, and Marnie being able to see them for the first time, the set list was prolly the worst of all the shows I have seen them play. Huge tunes absent are too many to name.

The absence of any PRS guitars was cool. All Gibson for Alex.


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## ne1roc (Mar 4, 2006)

GuitarsCanada said:


> Just returned from the gig (Sataurday Night) and although I really enjoyed seeing the boys again, and Marnie being able to see them for the first time, the set list was prolly the worst of all the shows I have seen them play. Huge tunes absent are too many to name.
> 
> The absence of any PRS guitars was cool. All Gibson for Alex.


+1 on the set list. They played great as usual but I was expecting more of the classics? 

So the question is, how do I get my hands on a Les Paul with a Floyd Rose on it? :bow:


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

Here are some pics from the Ottawa show (not mine, swiped from another forum).


http://www.flickr.com/photos/djmudbelly/ 




:rockon:


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