Rush Review
Thursday, June 21, 2007
I went to a Rush concert. Yes, I figured I was told old for that sort of thing, but then again Rush was big when I was in high school back in the 1970s, so what the heck.
I'm not going to review the concert because we're not that kind of blog, other than to say that amazingly, Geddy Lee still has his pipes, Alex Lifeson has lost a lot of weight since I saw him in 2002, and Neil Peart is perhaps the best drummer ever. The South Park interlude is hilarious. And don't go to the Rush website during office hours unless you've got your speakers turned way down, because they blast music when the page loads.
No, what I found interesting was the crowd. The median age seemed to be about 45. If there were teenagers about, it was because their parents dragged them to the concert. Everybody was very nice, and while most people near the stage stood for the entire concert, few were dancing very much. Old knees just can't handle that sort of thing. The guys next to me bailed after the first set so they could sit further back and see the stage. Nobody rushed the stage. My, how things have changed.
A large percentage of the crowd seemed to be videotaping key portions of the concert with mobile phones. Whenever a popular song would start, the grey light of phones would start popping out. I can remember when we used to hold up lighters to show our approval.
We had to empty our pockets in order to enter the venue, supposedly for security. Frankly, there wasn't anyone armed around that could have stopped someone that wanted in, so I suspect they were more interested in making sure that we paid $10 for a watered down beer rather than bringing our own. Or maybe they were just making people feel better with an appearance of security.
Seating was carefully controlled. I had to show my ticket stub several times to get to my seat. I guess the days are gone when people could buy a cheap seat and rush the stage. That always used to tick me off when I'd gone to the trouble and expense to procure excellent seats.
All in all, it was a great evening. And it was as completely toned down from what I remember a rock concert to be as I've become in the last 30 years.
I'm not going to review the concert because we're not that kind of blog, other than to say that amazingly, Geddy Lee still has his pipes, Alex Lifeson has lost a lot of weight since I saw him in 2002, and Neil Peart is perhaps the best drummer ever. The South Park interlude is hilarious. And don't go to the Rush website during office hours unless you've got your speakers turned way down, because they blast music when the page loads.
No, what I found interesting was the crowd. The median age seemed to be about 45. If there were teenagers about, it was because their parents dragged them to the concert. Everybody was very nice, and while most people near the stage stood for the entire concert, few were dancing very much. Old knees just can't handle that sort of thing. The guys next to me bailed after the first set so they could sit further back and see the stage. Nobody rushed the stage. My, how things have changed.
A large percentage of the crowd seemed to be videotaping key portions of the concert with mobile phones. Whenever a popular song would start, the grey light of phones would start popping out. I can remember when we used to hold up lighters to show our approval.
We had to empty our pockets in order to enter the venue, supposedly for security. Frankly, there wasn't anyone armed around that could have stopped someone that wanted in, so I suspect they were more interested in making sure that we paid $10 for a watered down beer rather than bringing our own. Or maybe they were just making people feel better with an appearance of security.
Seating was carefully controlled. I had to show my ticket stub several times to get to my seat. I guess the days are gone when people could buy a cheap seat and rush the stage. That always used to tick me off when I'd gone to the trouble and expense to procure excellent seats.
All in all, it was a great evening. And it was as completely toned down from what I remember a rock concert to be as I've become in the last 30 years.
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