This post has nothing to do with bikes or racing!

I have seen Rush in concert 6 times on 4 tours in 5 states. I have been listening to them for close to 20 of their 35 years as a band. Maybe not as impressive as the average Rush fan; but for a 31 year old female from suburban upstate NY, who also loves hip hop, that isn't half bad!

Rush Concerts attended:
1993 Counterparts Tour - Worchester, Mass & Albany, NY
1997 Test For Echo Tour - Denver, CO
2004 30th Anniversary Tour - Hollywood, CA & Las Vegas, NV
2008 Snakes & Arrows Tour - Las Vegas, NV

They only had an opening band for the two shows I saw in '93, and both times.. it was CANDLEBOX (ummm......). I come to find out that the other band touring with them on that tour was Primus! Darn, would have been way better.

In any event, the best show by far out of the 6 was 2004 at Hollywood Bowl. It has been a long time since I had seen them in concert but man there is someting about that venue. The sound was fantastic and any seat is a good seat! I looked out over the crowd and nearly EVERYONE was air guitarting, drumming and singing. It was pretty much a crowd of die-hard fans, and then we had Greg, who after that show gained more appreciation for the band and their music.

Last weekend, Greg and I headed to Vegas to see Rush perform at Mandalay Bay, in a slightly smaller venue than the last time we saw them in Vegas (MGM Grand Arena). Still it was nearly sold out and the fan-base/crowd had aged even more (surprise surprise!!) The average concert-goer was a 45 year old male, balding with a belly. Walking from Luxor to Mandalay Bay, I counted the Rush t-shirts. It reminded me of our last time seeing Rush in Vegas. We went to Excalibur to play some cheap blackjack and discovered this is where all the Rush fans were hanging out! Makes sense with Excalibur's sci-fi/fantasy theme... :)

Greg and I tried to figure out another band that would pull in roughly the same audience. We looked around at the T-shirts in the crowd and decuded that SLAYER would probably be the winner. Although we did see several shirts for a British Hard Rock band called UFO.

Band t-shirts we picked out from the crowd (Metallica being the only band I technically like):
- UFO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_(band))
- Grand Funk Railroad
- Metallica
- Slayer

Highlights of the concert include, but are not limited to:

• $7.00 huge cups of cheap wine
• Watching the people in line to buy $40 RUSH t-shirts (nothing smaller than size mens M! I miss my bootleg cheapo t-shirt from the 1993 tour!)
• South Park characters pretending to be Rush playing Tom Sawyer!
• Non-stop air drumming and guitaring and singing along! (i can hear you all laughing at me)
• Fav songs including: Dreamline, Freewill, Tom Sawyer, YYZ, and any Neil Peart drum solo!

Yes i had Neil Peart signature Vic Firth drum sticks back in my percussion days. Of COURSE! And I have all of the sheet music to one of the Rush complilations: Chronicles. Spirit of the Radio was my all time fav on the piano/keyboard. Fortunately my piano teacher let me play contemporary, pop, rock, jazz and only minimal classical! Ahh those were the days!

Ok now you can laugh at me.... You may only understand if you, too, are a Rush fan!