Report here if you are going to one of the Rush Texas dates in the next few days. The pre-concert excitement has begun for me per Dallas show tomorrow night. It's like xmas eve feeling. Doubt I will sleep much tonight. Can't wait to get my Rush on again. It has been a little over two years since the last time to see them in concert. Not sure how many shows this makes for me...thirteen or something. lol
Yeeeeahhhh! Going to both San Antonio and Houston shows, set list has many many hidden gems in it! I've seen every tour since Grace Under Pressure myself.
Great show. Last time gettys vocals were not that great but i didnt expect them to be. Still instrumentally amazing.
I will be there Sunday night. I'm in the lower bowl looking straight at the stage. I haven't seen them since 2007. This will be my 7th show, but that's over the span of 25 years...
For the first time in almost 30 years, I will be passing on a Rush show in my local area. Seen 'em at least once on every tour since Signals...22 shows.
My seats are on the lower promenade about 5 rows up on Alex's side at American Airlines Center. They are pretty close...about one section over from the stage. Should have a great vantage point of all the guitar action. Wish I had an idea for a sign as I want a guitar pick or drum sticks as they send their roadie guys out to deliver that stuff to the people with good signs or who catch their eye. Was thinking something stupid like: "Recycle Your Guitar Picks and Drum Sticks Here." or "All I want for Christmas is a Guitar Pick and a pair of Drum Sticks." or "Need drum sticks as my air drum sticks broke." or my slight against St. Nick: "Take a hike, Santa....Rush is here!" or "Sticks and stones may break my bones...but I prefer the sticks!"
I'm assuming there's no opening act and the show starts on time? (need to let the babysitter know....) About how long is it running? Is there an intermission?
No opening act per usual. They almost always start on time...especially playing indoors. There is a small intermission (like 20 minutes) between two sets per usual...and then an encore I'm sure. I've never known a Rush show to really go longer than 3 hours in duration. I would be shocked if they were still playing at 10:40 PM for a show starting at 7:30 PM.
Just got back. The show was great! They started about 7:45 PM as it looked like they were waiting on the crowd to settle in. The American Airlines Center was pretty packed. I thought it was a good crowd. Had a video camera mounted in middle where camera went around in circles always pointed to the stage. Had a couple camera guys on each side of stage and one on floor in back and walking around. No real spoilers below...just general stuff but don't read if you don't want to know anything. The set list for set one was good but some slower stuff from 80s and 90s albums. Good stuff but hard to rock out to in some cases. Would describe crowd in first set as more laid back. The second set was really cool and covered mostly new stuff. The end of second set and encore was old popular stuff. Some surprising songs left out IMO. The crowd was most into it toward the end as the song choices were more conducive to clapping, head bobbing, and arms in the air. So, I think it was just how the set list was laid out made for more of a cerebral show with all the visuals. The newer stuff was really impressive and got a pretty good response IMO albeit some on lower prom chose to sit. Neil had some issues all night trying to catch drum sticks he threw in the air. He missed like 3 out of 4 catches and the one he caught wasn't too clean. Otherwise, Neil seemed on his game. Alex and Ged were great. I thought Geddy's vocals were really good. Thought I heard a few errant notes from Alex during some stuff but he was pretty spot on most of night. I've never seen Alex so animated during the show. It was great. He even did a little act during one song that implied one of his bandmates was "high" (uh...guess the song)...all using facial expressions. Really funny! All in all a great show. Crowd size was good for a Wednesday night and crowd response was adequate to great. I had a lot of fun and was pretty drunk. It wasn't too loud and the mix was good. The string section was a nice change but they were pretty low in the mix. I was definitely Rushed out by the end of that one. Ended about 10:45 PM. Interested to see how DVD turns out.
Definitely not a classic hits oriented show for the old schooler. This is more a show for the hardcore fan and fans of the keyboard era stuff along with the new stuff. Rush kind of got all that classic stuff out of their system on the last Time Machine Tour. They did play an extra song on the setlist from the new album for the DVD...so we got one extra song in the show that made it run a little longer. Oh...and it turns out my sign ideas I posted earlier with catch phrases to try to get a handout guitar pick and/or drum sticks would have been a hit. I only saw a few signs and they were nothing special. I think I would have gotten some sticks. I should have done it I think. Darn.
Seeings as how my favorite Rush album is Power Windows, I'm completely pumped for the San Antonio show as I'm sure I'll hear Big Money, Manhattan Project, and Grand Designs at the least. Getting to hear Tom Sawyer, Spirit of Radio, 2112, Subdivisions, and YYZ alone is worth the price of admission. The greatness of Rush is that they cover the gamut- side-long concept songs, great "pop" stuff (although Rush is really never pop), hard short stuff like from Clockwork and Vapor Trails, etc. And if you don't hear The Necromancer, Xanadu, The Camera Eye, or Natural Science live- well, that's what the ride home is for. I don't blame them for not playing some older stuff- how the hell would Geddy sing Anthem, anyway? Enjoy this band as much as you can- you won't ever see a band quite like them again.
I know they are rotating the setlist and I think you get one extra from PW....which is one of my faves and I missed it sorely at the Dallas show. I also missed not hearing Manhattan Project because strings would have been perfect with that song. Spoiler Middletown Dreams
Man, you should have gone to the Time Machine Tour. Or, did you go to R30? I went to both. Those were big classic hits shows. But, even still, I expected a few more hits on this current tour. They basically see it as they have more liberties this tour to play more of what they want because they just did a hits tour last time revisiting Moving Pictures in its entirety. I still think you will enjoy the show. But, the new album takes several listens to digest all that is happening. I would hate to go to the show never having heard the new album. But, at least you can enjoy the visuals part of the new stuff which was cool to look at. lol Oh..and to the poster who hated Clockwork Angels (the new album)...the irony in that statement is it is probably the best reviewed album in many years as far as print reviews go (not including fan). I don't even think Rush got decent reviews back in the early days...not as many as this one got. But, I understand those who "don't get it". It's not everyone's cup of tea. From a musicianship standpoint, the boys are playing their butts off on the new album and sound like they are 30 years old so you can't say their playing isn't up to snuff. Maybe you just don't like the concept album? It's a different sort of album for sure.
