Last night I went to see Rush at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. My buddy Brian and I went and had eigth row
seats. His parents are patrons of SPAC, so they are able to get tickets early for shows. Though we ended up not
being the REAL eighth row, due to about 4 rows of folding chairs in the orchestra pit, they were still amazing seats.
Brian had headed down to his parent's house on Wednesday to spend some time with the family, so I got up Saturday
morning and drove down to his house just south of Albany. This drive will produce some more rambling later on,
trust me. I got down there around 1:30. We hung around the house for a while and then drove up to Saratoga. We
checked out the state park to see if we saw any gatherings of fans which Brian had heard rumors of on the net. We
found none, so we headed in to town for a bit and wandered around. Lots of little stores that our mom or sister
would enjoy, but nothing that reall thrilled us. We then headed over to Bruno's where my cousin works
to grab some dinner before the show. After an EXCELLENT meal there, we headed over to the show.
Brian's parent being patrons once again worked in our favor, since we were allowed to park in the patron's lot
which is right next to an alternate entrance and away from the rest of the lots. We wandered around the grounds
for a couple of minutes and then headed in to the show.
The crowd at the show was VERY interesting. Having been a Rush fan for many years and meeting many others
(mostly through the Ytsejam), I think I expected a lot of people who really knew music and generally listened
to good music most of the time. I was wrong, I guess. There was a fair amount of white trash there, a number of
frat boy types, a bunch of groups of teenagers who seemingly not fans, and then the group that I expected. It
always makes me wonder when I see people at shows who don't seem to belong there. I would never go to
a Backstreet Boys show or something and not expect to get lots of strange looks. Though I do like to go to
a wide variety of shows, I still think I fit in to some extent at all of them.
Brian and I located our seats and sat down. We chatted with a guy sitting next to us about some summer shows
(definitely one of the types I expected at the show). Soon after we sat down, the lights went down and the
band came out. Since I don't want to ruin the setlist for anyone reading this who doesn't want to know, I'll
just say it was FREAKIN AWESOME. You can find something which is pretty close to what we heard
over on Rush At Resist.
The band definitely sounded very good and we're all in sync. Alex seemed a bit wacky with his dancing around
at points, but it was amusing. Neil was in the back, looking all too serious, but kicking ass every second of the
show. Geedy had some good banter for the crowd and seemed to be having a great time up there. Actually,
besides Nei l and his constant stone face, the band looked like they were having a blast. All in all, that guy,
that guy, and the most handsome man in the world and leader of the band sounded great, you definitely could
not tell they had been off for 5 years.
The band played 2 sets, the first went about an hour and twenty minutes (7:40-9) and the second went about
and a little more than an hour (9:15-10:25) with a 10-15 minute encore. The video screen and lights at the
show were awesome. I would say they were almost worthy of Phish at points. One of my favorite was the
video just before the beginning of the second set.
After seeing the show, I am definitely considering heading to the show here at Great Woods ... errr ..
The Tweeter Center in Mansfield, MA, even if I am heading there on Saturday for Phil and Friends.
