Adam Turtle, Freelance Web Design in Belfast, Northern Ireland

Adam Turtle

Since1986

Rush

Last night after work I remembered Rush were playing in Concord, over on the East Bay. I wasn’t really up to much yesterday evening, so I went on to Craigslist and scored a ticket for $20 (take that Andrew Boyd!). I met the guy selling it on the BART over to Concord which was handy.

Concord was absolutely roasting. I got there at about 6.45 and it must have been over 80°. I got the free bus over to the Sleeptrain Pavallion and was rather surprised. It’s literally in the middle of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Honestly, you walk around a few hills and all of a sudden there’s this ampitheatre! It’s crazy! And it’s pretty big too, I think it holds like 12,000 people or so. My ticket was a ‘lawn’ ticket, and it’s actually just a grass hill behind the seated area. I wasn’t going to pay $1000 for front row seats on Craigslist!

So Rush came on at about 7.45 – no support act, just Rush. The crowd were mostly middle-aged men and the lawn crowd were definitely a mixed bunch, I happened to pick a spot behind the stoners, who were hilarious during Alex Lifeson’s guitar bits. Rush are very strict about no cameras being allowed into the venue. I managed to sneak mine in with some difficulty (they actually search you for them) but didn’t manage to get any decent photos. I did, however, manage to get a couple of minutes of video of Neil Pearts drum solo.

As for the music…outstanding is not even close. Honestly, if you were to close your eyes you could believe you were listening to their CD. The sound quality is that good. Peart’s drums are excellently mic’d, you can hear everything. They played until 11pm, with a short break in the middle so it really was a terrific show. They’ve got excellent video sequences and visualisations going on throughout as well as top notch lightening effects and pyrotechnics. I was totally blown away. I haven’t heard anything off their new album and wasn’t familiar with a lot of their older stuff but nevertheless it was all amazing. And Neil Peart’s drum solo was freakin awesome. With the amount of awards he’s won over the years I expected a lot and he totally delivered.

Geddy Lee, the bassist, stopped using bass amps in 2002 in favour of connecting directly via DI to the mixing desk. So since then he’s replaced the stage area with random things like vending machines and washing machines. Last night he had 3 Henhouse brand rotisserie chicken ovens on stage complete with an attendant in a chefs hat and apron to “tend” the chickens during the show. It’s hilarious, they were miked and everything.
All in all, definitely a band I would go and see again. At the risk of sounding lame, Spirit of Radio was one of the strongest songs on the set, but there were a few instrumentals that totally rocked too. If you get the chance – go see them! Especially if you find a cheap ticket on Craigslist!

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