Hehe, no. I’m not that clever.
Well, that may be a good thing in Geddy’s case.
In looking at the tour schedule, it’s pretty band-friendly. They’re only playing at seven cities; in five of the cities, they’re doing two shows, but with a day off in between. And, all of the cities are separated by one or two weeks, meaning that Geddy and Alex can do their two shows, then fly home for a week or so, before flying to the next city (where their road crew has already been setting up).
So, I think this supports the hypothesis of “we want to get out and play in front of crowds again,” while doing it in a relatively easy fashion, for a couple of 72-year-old musicians.
Ouch. Ha!
Listening to them talk about the upcoming shows makes me think they are really looking forward to this being a fun time. They are looking to do a lot of shows they didn’t normally do live. Since it isn’t the classic Rush lineup already they don’t feel obligated to do the exact same things that are on the studio version. Geddy doesn’t feel obligated to be stuck playing bass, keyboards and pedals while singing. They can have other musicians allowing him to have fun playing bass.
It sounds like a great way to go out and have fun while making a good chunk of change. I’m guessing Neil’s family is going to get a third of the revenue.
They announced today that all the shows are sold out. However, they have now added 17 new cities.
Still nothing anywhere close to me. Denver is closest and that’s a 9-ish hour drive.
Impressive, since tickets start at around $400.
Ticketmaster prices for NYC started at around $200. I gave up during the middle of the presale. I don’t know what the aftermarket prices are.
I could try for the Philly date. It’s arguably easier for me to get to than the NYC dates. I’m at the point in my life that I don’t mind splurging on an occasional high cost ticket. I’m also at the age where I don’t want to fight against the ticket bots.
Two shows in Boston. I think I’m gonna have to go.
Alex and Geddy are both 72; they probably mainlined Geritol before this performance. I would have been OK with a nonstop Anika Cam.
This is why they chose “Finding My Way”.
Hey, there’s a keyboard player. Geddy isn’t doing everything himself anymore. Back in the day it was like watching a juggler with him singing, playing bass and and keyboard and doing stuff with his feet too.
1st concert is up on various sites and from varying quarters, getting good reception from most, fan video:
I saw that there are a few clips from “Time Stand Still” and Aimee Mann actually sang live.
My favorite section from the intro was the two crows at about 1:30.
Edit: Oops, wrong Aimee/Amy!
I saw them at the Forum for the Power Window tour. Bought “not so good” concert tickets, but it turned out to be the Upper Crust of basketball seats, so they came with drink service, free program, extra padding I think.
Suprise Bonus! Still have the program.
Rick Beato recently posted separate hour-long interviews with Geddy and Alex on his YouTube channel. He also has an interview with Terry Brown, their long-time producer, which runs about an hour and a half. Definitely worth checking out if you are a Rush fan.
I also noticed that Anika does not wear gloves. She must have calluses an inch thick on her hands!
I just bought tickets for the Monday night show in Boston. Getting excited for the show.
I just got back from their third show at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. It was amazing! As a longtime Rush fan (my first album was Grace under Pressure, and my first tour was Presto), I was sad when they hung it up for good, and devastated when Neil died (especially since he kept his illness so private, so nobody but his closest friends knew before it was announced). I figured we’d never hear Rush again, and that was okay because what was Rush without Neil?
I was skeptical when I saw they’d decided to tour again with a new drummer, but Anika Nilles quickly won me over when I saw a few clips of her playing, so thanks to some friends with a Citi card, we got tickets to the L.A. show.
It was so great hearing old favorites like “Tom Sawyer,” “Subdivisions,” and “Dreamline,” along with crowd-pleasers like “Closer to the Heart,” and the entirety of the “Moving Pictures” album. They still had the goofy films, and all three of them were grinning like they were having the time of their lives (there was a keyboardist too, but I only noticed him on one song where he was featured, and he pretty much faded into the background otherwise). They put on quite a show for a couple of guys who are over 70–Geddy is as spry as ever, and Alex, while he doesn’t bounce around as much, hasn’t lost any of his skill on the guitar.
Anika is a beast on the drums! She hit the iconic Neil fills (such as the famous “Tom Sawyer” ones) without a hitch, and played like she’s been playing with these guys for years. If she made any mistakes, I didn’t notice them.
Only one glitch–something went wonky with Geddy’s bass at the beginning of the 2112 overture, so they had to start over–but nobody seemed to mind. They played for almost 3 hours total, and everybody left happy. Saw quite a few Rush shirts, hats, and tote bags at the airport this morning.
We’ll be seeing them again in San Jose in October–it’ll be interesting to see how they change up the setlist by then.