RUSH!

So I got to see Rush last night, even though there were storms all around the NYC area, and getting there was a 2 hour ordeal. It was a great show - which I sorta expected, but they had more in them than I had pegged them for, which was a pleasant surprise. I didn't find anyone to take D's extra ticket, but it was okay in the end, and it was great to see some old friends from my hometown after a long time.

It seems that everytime I see someone at Jones Beach, there's a storm brewing and just about to break. More crazy lightning effects, as I've had in the Sting/Annie Lennox show last month, and the Seal show in 1995. Woah. Let's see - I also saw Tori Amos there, and The Cure.

Well - just doing some reading on Rush's 30th Anniversary, and HERE'S something trippy for you:

Geddy Lee didn't know it at the time, but on his 21st birthday -- July 29, 1974 -- he and his bandmates hit a career lottery.

That was the day Neil Peart joined Lee and Alex Lifeson in their band Rush.  When Peart replaced drummer John Rutsey, he cemented a lineup for the Toronto-based trio that has lasted for 30 years, with Lifeson on guitar and Lee on bass and lead vocals.

I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!! Neil Peart joined Rush the day before I was born, and that is the birth of the line-up that's stuck through for the past 30 years. I can't believe the coincidence... reminds me of how I used to think that it was weird that Bruce Lee died the same year that I was born (don't ask me why), but THIS - THIS is something else.

So here's a list of some of the songs Rush played... Between the Wheels, Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, Spirit of the Radio, YYZ, Subdivisions, Roll the Bones, Animate Me, The Trees, Bravado, Dreamline, Vapor Trails, The Seeker, EarthShine, Secret Touch, Red Sector A??, Mystic Rhythms...

There was just no way that I could write the songs down - and it was a 3.5 hour show - so come on! But they were good, and the end segment of the show (last hour or so) was really quite enjoyable - the setlist is below in order...


19. drum solo
20. resist (acoustic)
21. Heart of Soul (acoustic)
22. 2112 overture & sphinx
23. La Villa Strangiato
24. bytor and the snowdog
25. xanadu
26. working man
*encore*
27. summertime blues
28. crossroads
29. limelight

Really something else that they can still kick it, and fill the sound out with just the three of them.