Tuesday, August 07, 2007

A Very Nerdly Evening, Indeed

As many of you are no doubt aware, I’m a bit of a nerd. Not so much that I stage great IntarWeb forum debates about which is better, Star Trek or Star Wars (I’m NOT weighing in here, either), but quite enough that I listened to Rush as a boy/young man/older balding guy. I tend to go through stages with them. Though I was a totally crispy nut bar for them in High School, I left them behind in college. About every 4-5 years after that, I’d pick up a couple CDs I had missed and re-connect with my inner band-dork and rock out to Rush. It’s a nice pattern. Right now I’m firmly in a “I like Rush” phase. Later this year, I probably won’t be. Those are the breaks, I guess.

Remind me to tell you about my very first Rush concert, OK? This is about my most recent concert experience. The other thing can wait.

Because I am raising my children correctly, they are all becoming Rush fans. Even Jonah, (all of 9), likes them, but that’s really only because he plays YYZ on Guitar Hero II. So naturally when I saw back in early March or April that they were coming to SLC, I got all tingley in my naughty bits. And completely separately I assure you, I got excited that my kids would want to go. So I bought tickets for tonight’s concert. But I made a small strategic error, and didn’t realize that the lure of Geddy and Co. would be so strong and pull in Lucas (13). I only bought tickets for Carrie and myself. Though I should have known better. He’s pretty musically talented and Rush seems to entrance people who are also musical nerds as well as your run of the mill D&D and computer weenies. I hit the trifecta as a boy, playing D&D during band camp, which had been scheduled on my Commodore 64. It’s a wonder I ever convinced a female to date me, never long actually mate with me.

So I had a dilemma. Two tickets and three geeks who all wanted to sit in those really good seats I’d snagged. Though I tried to convince the boy to stay home by offering to take him to some future and inevitable Zeppelin Geriatric Reunion Tour, he didn’t budge and whined until I agreed to give him my ticket. I’d just have to find a friendly scalper, etc. Which turned out not to be that big a deal. I should have held out for MUCH better seats, though. Mine sucked.

And since I’d seen the band already and I had a kinda sucky seat, I decided to twitter the concert. So below you will find my “tweets.” Which is essentially a blow-by-blow of me sending little text messages to the twitter server.

And yes, in case anyone asks, I very much enjoyed the concert and I didn’t spend ALL my time looking at my cell phone keyboard. It didst yea, verily, ROCK. And it doesn’t take much time nor effort at all to pound out a simple text message and hit the “Send” button, so I didn’t miss anything of the concert. Plus, it was kind of challenge for me to see if I could name all the songs. Yes, I know… dweeb alert set to incandescent now.

And! Carrie pointed out to me (via text message since we were sitting apart) that the male-to-female ratio was in the 4-1 range. I disagree. More like 6 cheet-o loving boy type to every girl.

So on with the tweets! My comments after the fact are in italics. In some cases I have corrected my spelling and/or grammatical problems, caused by typing on my loathsome Blackberry.

• Rush set list updates: because, yes, i am _that_ big a dork. limelight. 7:30ish. The concert started a wee bit late. And the first song they played was ;Limelight” Which has a killer opening guitar riff. This bodes well for the rest of the evening.


• something form signals, i think. still 7:30ish I couldn’t immediately get the name of this song. The actual name of the song doesn’t come up until the end, which is typical of Rush sings. Goofy enigmatic Canadians.


• holy mellow crowd, Batman 7:45? They just don’t make rock concert crowds like they used to. People even sat back down. Lame, crowd people, very lame.


• dgital man. duh. 7:45ish I finally figured out the name of the song. It’s from Signals. The album with the Dalmatian sniffing around the fire hydrant.


• no idea. they are going to take away my rush nerd card. I still don’t know what song it was. Might have been from the new CD.


• seriously, i am surrounded by 40 year old geeks like me. who could not get a date in high school. little before 8 I took a long hard look around the venue. Bit like looking in the mirror, only much more frightening.


• mission. freewill. man, these old dudes can play 8ish Two songs there. Mission is kind of mellow, but Freewill rocks. And Geddy can break glass on this song. I was astounded, but he hit the high notes in that song like it was a walk in the park. Scary.


• main monkey business. (from the new CD. instrumental) there are monkeys on the screens. i’m a-scared of monkeys. little after 8 By this time I’d decided that though it was fun to give a detailed set list, it would be much more entertaining to begin to flow a stream of consciousness out live to the IntarWeb.


• large bowl. (new) secret touch. circumstances. (ancient song, man) i’m the only one who knows all the words, i think. 8:20ish The song is actually called “The Larger Bowl” and it was introduced in a video clip by Bob and Doug MacKenzie. Very funny stuff. Beauty, eh? Knock it off, you hoser!


• yep, geddy forgot the lyrics and he’s asked me to come up and sing a few bars. around 8:30, I guess No comment


• Le ick. the one rush song i truly loathe. something about wheels from grace under pressure. i need a bong hit. where’s the bong? 8:40 maybe The song is called “Between the Wheels” and I really do loathe it. It’s banished form my iPod.


• so I’ll take this opportunity to say that Alex has lost a lot of weight since i last saw them. Same time as above while the hateful song was playing He really did look pretty good. When I saw them in 2002(3?) he’d plumped up quite a bit. But he looked great. I’d do him. Wait… That didn’t come out right at all.


• dreamline. (ooh! lasers!) and we are at intermission. gonna go check on the kidlets 9ish Dreamline ended the first set. And Geddy said something about the old folks needing a rest, which was pretty funny. I lol’ed. The kidlets were totally fine. Possibly even impressed and awed. Good first set.


• the kids have WAY better seats than i do. but the 13 year old boy is way happy, so i guess it’s OK little after 9 it’s true, their seats were great. They could see the whole stage. All the screens. I, notwithstanding the fact that I paid for a reserve seat had one of the reserve seats on the far end, stage left. I could see Geddy in profile. He has kind of a largish nose.


• while we are still in intermission, I’ll just say that though I adore Geddy and want to have his babies, his voice is _kinda_ screechy. shades after 9 just more musing. Ignore it.


• far cry. working those angels? (um. mandolin solo. why?) snakes and arrows? (it’s new, gimme a break) a bit after 9:30 The re-opened with Far Cry off the new CD. It’s a pretty heavy, loud and moving song. Great opener. The thing I called “snakes and arrows” is in reality called “Armor and Sword” and is rather intricate. But it’s mellow and I began to nod off. OK, not really, but I would have liked them to sprinkle in some of the older stuff in the “it’s our new stuff!” section.


• @zuhl I will take requests, as long as the request is Barry Manilow. Are you a fanilow? 9:40ish probably This is actually a “tweet” that Angela made in reply to something I said much earlier in the day about her playing the french horn. This is the original tweet I made, but I got confused and thought she was talking about my having said I was going to sing a few bars of “Circumstances.” Which is why I say what I say next:


• @fluidpudding yes! i’m singing the copabana song next! dedicated to you! 9:45 So embarrassing. I can’t even get the copacabana song spelled correctly. But the silliness continues:


• the crowd is not at all as into Barry Manilow as I’d have hoped, Angela. im getting booed pretty badly now. closer to 10 No comment


• another new song i dont know well. but i do know how to pass the dutchie to the left hand side, man. seriously. people are smoking “stuff” before 10 Yes, I was a teeny bit bored and started making stuff up.


• dont they know you can get a TICKET for that sort of thing? still not quite 10 a line stolen almost VERBATIM from an old Steve Martin routine. I have ZERO shame.


• the way the wind blows. (new stuff again _sigh_) subdivisions. (finally a song I know!) little after 10 most likely Subdivsions. Oh man, I love that song. And it was great to hear it. I think I listened to that on the way home from school in 11th grade every day one March.


• natural science. (this song just rocks. except the couple in front of me has chosen to make out during it. wtf? stop that. eew.) witch hunt! around 10 after 10 Natural Science is indeed a terrific song. Starts out kind of mellow and crescendos into something completely OTHER by the end. And “Witch Hunt” is a rarity. I’m not sure if that one has been played since the Moving Pictures Tour back in 1981. It’s a bit of a creepy song. About witches, duh. Both those songs are also 1.5 hours long. Each.


• more cowbell! “witch hunt” needs more cowbell. “malignent narcisism” when are they going to play “stairway”? 10:15 or so Witch Hunt really does have cowbell in it. But obviously… it needs more. And I really do know how to spell “malignant.”


• drum solo. total nerd-gasm 10:30 I was going to call Jon so he could hear the solo through my phone, but he was probably asleep or something by this time. Old married dudes are like… you know… not into staying up past 10:30. Not like me, totally dweebing and rocking out on the drum solo. In all seriousness, I heard one guy shout out, “I love you, Neil!!” Carrie, in her seat eighty feet away, also heard some dude propose marriage to Mr. Peart. It was a good solo. It was quite a good drum solo. Not so great that I want to switch teams, but this is probably what most of the nerdlings in the audience came to see, Neil Peart bang the crap out of the drums. His Buddy Rich swing section at the end was wonderful.


• solo 12 string guitar thing now. which is nice. i nodded off during the drum solo. after 10:30 The song is called “Hope” and was written by Alex, all by himself. It’s real purty.


• distant early warning. (and a tear just came to my eye. love this song) spirit of the radio. (chickens are done) 10:40ish Carrie loves “Distant Early Warning” so I was glad she got to hear it live. I like it, too. The chicken reference: The had these three huge rotisserie chicken roasting things on stage. Presumably with real live chickens roasting in them. During “Spirit of the Radio” a roadie came out and began pulling chickens out. Bit of a “whatever, dude” moment, frankly.


• south park playing Tom Sawyer. tom Sawyer. but played as a polka? I’m confused. close to 10:45, I think They had a “Lil Rush” band on the screens. The South Park characters as L’il Rush and playing Tom Sawyer. Very funny. And then the “boys” played it for real and everyone went nuts.


• i swear i never tire of this song. Quarter ‘til 11 or so Tom Sawyer is probably the most famous Rush song ever. Certainly it’s the one everyone has heard. Don’t get me wrong, I like it, too, but man… I bet they’ve played that song a million times now. There are much better Rush songs, of course, even better songs off that album, but it does have an impact when they play it that loud. All the old geeky geezers (’self included) were chanting and waving their arms in unison. Awesome.


• encore time! yay! one little victory. (complete with cheesy dragon vid!) bit before 11 This is a wonderful encore intro song. Killer guitar lick. It always reminds me of running the marathon, because it’s on my iPod. Man, I’m a dork.


• passage to Bangkok. dude. stoner tune! with video from Reefer Madness! close to 11 Digging way deep in the archive for this one. The accompanying video was delightful as well. Funny. And Geddy plays a Rickenbauer bass on this one, which makes the bass guitar nerds swoon, apparently.


• YYZ. Be still my heart. Getting on toward 11 My fav. It’s an instrumental song. All the kids today know it because it’s on Guitar Hero II. Lucas was probably over there playing along on his PS2 controller he smuggled in for just such an occasion.

Typical Rush concert. They have such a huge oeuvre to choose from (35 albums, kiddies), naturally there are songs I wished they played. Nothing from Power Windows, for example. And forget about hearing anything from Caress of Steel, that’s just never going to happen. And my other favorite song, “Red Barchetta” did not make an appearance. *le sigh* The only bad thing was that though I have the new CD, I hadn’t really sat down and played it through a zilion times to know every song by heart, like I do with almost all the rest of their junk. So I was a little, not bored by any means, but I kind of wished they just get to the “meaty” stuff sooner.

If you are at all a fan of Rush, go ahead and go to a concert. They are fun to watch. And, though it’s totally a rock concert and my ears are still ringing right now, the sound was expertly done. You can understand all the lyrics and hear all the notes. Which I’m afraid you can’t always say about a rock concert. Though that also might have to do with the venue. We saw it at the USANA amphitheater, which is an outdoor affair, and that is always better than an enclosed arena.

Lastly! Pics! In direct violation of the “No Camera/No Recroders” rule! But they totally suck! So I’m not sure why it matters! But I sure am excited about it!

If this weren’t so blurry, you’d be able to see Geddy, Alex and Neil. But it’s blurry, so you can’t. Sorry.

Taken from the kids’ good seats. This was during intermission. Those glowing red things are the chicken roasting devices. A real dome scratcher, I’m here to tell you.

Again, pretend it’s a clear shot. But know that they are ROCKING!

1. Funny thing, when I first read “I listened to Rush as a boy/young man/older balding guy” I thought you meant, you know. Mr. Limbaugh.

   Then I remembered you said something about a concert and I thought, oh. Right, *that* Rush.

   Sorry for any mental unpleasantness triggered by my confusion.

   And okay FINE I’m jealous. There are you happy now?

   Posted by Radioactive Jam  on  08/07/07  at  05:12 AM

2. OK, now I feel old.  I saw Rush on their signals tour.

   Posted by michael  on  08/07/07  at  09:46 AM

3. My old ears are still ringing.

   But it was totally worth. If they come close to your city, GO!

   Posted by jon  on  08/07/07  at  09:40 PM

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