RUSH

Saw RUSH in MTL on April 20 (4/20), 2011.  I had also seen them on the initial leg of their tour in July 2010 at bluesfest. It was our first concert on the ground floor.  As the show was just about ready to start, a tall dad came in with his 12 year old son.  We thought we would be able to see over his head, but dad let him stand on his chair.  D'Oh!  We're too short for this.  We'd have to get front row next time. 

I'm a huge Rush fan, their lyrics are brilliant.  They are sometimes open to interpretation, but are about science fiction, dystopia, psychology, life, science over dogma, alienation, driving, coming home, individualism, integrity, following your heart and soul, hard work, self-sufficiency.  The music itself is composed by 3 brilliant multi-tasking artists.  A game I enjoy while listening to them is to isolate each individual instrument.  Anyways, I could write a long essay about them but maybe some other time.

On this second leg of the tour they seemed a little tired, but duh, they performed 80 shows on that tour.  5 shows previous, they taped the DVD.  The light show was great and the videos in the background complemented the performance.  The funny intros were very funny, well made.  I thought the Tom Sawyer video was very funny as was the RASH history.

Well, I could go on and on, but you're bored, I can tell.

We are somewhere behind the top right cymbal.  Notice Geddy is wearing a Habs shirt.

This is the official set list:

    "The Spirit of Radio"
    "Time Stand Still"
    "Presto"
    "Stick It Out"
    "Workin' Them Angels"
    "Leave That Thing Alone"
    "Faithless"
    "BU2B" (from Clockwork Angels)
    "Freewill"
    "Marathon"
    "Subdivisions"

Intermission

The entire Moving Pictures Album:
    "Tom Sawyer"
    "Red Barchetta"
    "YYZ"
    "Limelight"
    "The Camera Eye"
    "Witch Hunt"
    "Vital Signs"
    "Caravan" (from Clockwork Angels)
    "Love 4 Sale" (Drum solo)
    "Closer To The Heart"
    "2112 Overture / The Temples of Syrinx"
    "Far Cry"

Encore:

    "La Villa Strangiato" (with polka intro)
    "Working Man" (with reggae intro and Cygnus X-1: Book I outro)

People in my neighbourhood

In my work neighbourhood.

This guy is around almost every day.    He's a bit of a minor celebrity around here.  Dozens of people stopped or commented on his haircut.  He usually has a big bushy hair and beard.  Before the haircut, people would comment on how he and is dog looked the same.  He said his hair had too much THC in it.











Hot dog vendors are out:

Better

Been there forever

Looks like Daniel.  Actually his name is John.  He's been around for a couple of years now.  

Coyotes

A trick I use to help me fall asleep is to plan a trip to a happy place. I visualize packing my car, or truck, or motorcycle, or canoe, or DeHavilland DHC3 Beaver.  Protip: don’t google ‘beaver’ at work.

Soon i can see the blinding kaleidoscopes playing in the small waves, and feel the sun massaging my parched winterface. Congratulations, sleepyhead. There is a problem with this method. The rude awakening. Unfortunately, you usually don’t wake up in such a happy place.  So there I was, showing off the canoe to the wife and kids, when a crowd of giggling teenagers showed up. Except it wasn’t teenagers, it was coyotes. Rude awakening.

So i storm outside to the back porch. And yell. Loud. Again. They’re too busy cackling away to hear me it seems. I wait for a lull in their conversation to wedge in another yell.

I take another step forward, and the frosty deck under my bare feet makes a barely noticeable cracking noise; similar to a small branch or large twig that snaps under the weight of a two-footed, non-furry creature the coyotes coward away from. Anywho, they shut right up, all of them, at once. They’re kinda primitive, and creepy.