(rush in alphretta)Greetings folks!!! Last weekend Kat and I went to see Rush in Charlotte with my NP band-mate / best buddy Randy, and then went with our little girl Jackie and NP drummer Chris on Tuesday. Not really sure what to say on this one here - I saw my most favorite band in the world play a 3 hour show twice in the span of 3 days. Rush is a band that never disappoints live. When I was young their music was the first music to really inspire me to want to learn to play and never settle for just "knowing how". They made me want to strive to be the best possible player that I could become, and Geddy Lee continues to amaze me every time I see them play. No one can really appreciate how talented the man is, or exactly how much he does within the course of a show until they've actually watched him in person. Still after all these years - totally awe-inspiring.
---CHARLOTTE NC---
(photo by Randy Garcia)The weekend started with a drive to Charlotte from Atlanta on Saturday. We had some nice, comfy hotel suites to relax a bit in upon our arrival. We then headed out and ate way too much seafood, which we worked off by bowling a couple of games at the local 10-pin alley - a good time was had by all.
Sunday we had some Denny's breakfast and then got ready for the show. We ended up having totally amazing seats for this one. The band was great, although immortal drummer Neil Peart made a pretty obvious mistake during the band's opening number "Limelight" that seemed to motivate him pretty hard not to make anymore. Thus the man played with a bit of an angry look for most of the night. All in all - they killed it, and had the crowd roaring right from the start of the show. We capped it off with an intense run to Taco Bell, and headed back to the hotel for some sleep before an early Monday drive back to Atlanta.
---Alpharetta Ga---
(havin a beer on the lawn on Alpharetta 7.22.08)This was supposed be Rush's last show supporting their 2007 album "Snakes & Arrows", which is amazing by the way if you've not heard it before. Anyhow - they ended up having to reschedule one more show after this one due to some nasty, stormy weather in Colorado last month.
Coincidentally enough, the start of Monday's show was delayed nearly an hour due to some very nasty and severe thunderstorm activity. We had only grabbed lawn tickets for this show since we had seen them so well in Charlotte and back in June in Philly. The rain pretty much let up by show time except for a few sprinkles, and we made our way to a nice spot on the lawn to enjoy the show.
Rush was even tighter on this night than Sunday - although Charlotte seemed like a more energetic performance due to the fact that the crowd was really way more behind the band and into the show throughout in Charlotte. The crowd was a little more tame in Alpharetta.
So anyhow - that's probably all for me and Rush til sometime in late 09', maybe 2010 at the earliest. But they've left us all anticipating their next record and tour, knowing that they always deliver to the high standard that Rush, and their fans have come to count on.
So to my heroes - Geddy, Alex, Neil....
Thanks guys - don't know where I'd be without you.
