Author Topic: Rush! (Read 859 times)

kmh364 · « **on:** August 15, 2004, 05:24:36 AM »

Rush @ PNC Bank Arts Center in Joisey last night. The three Canucks from the great white north are are not looking too old and are musicaly in fine form. The mix was muddy as they were much too loud, but it was a good show anyway. Good mix of Old and new (2112, Xanadu, YYZ, Roll The Bones, etc, with a couple acoustic numbers plus covers from their new Album).

Geddy is playing his old beat-up black J-bass with the maple neck and black block markers almost exclusively. Instead of his regular amp rig on-stage he had a matching front-load washer and dryer and a vending machine (laundry detergent???). Man, those Whirlpool's had great low end, LOL! Good light show/video presentation with a Jerry Stiller cameo....lot's of vintage pix that ran the gamut from long dutch boys/velvet bell-bottoms to mullets/parachute pants to no hair/jeans LOL! Alex played his usual 8-million guitars incl. various Gibsons (LP's, 345's, SG's, 1275 doubleneck's, etc.) Fender Tele's and PRS's. He had four custom Marshall Plexi-style boutique heads (with blue light-up faces) and eight 4x12 cabs. I couldn't make out the name on 'em.

The crowd was the most obnoxious I've seen at this venue despite a lot of people bringing their families (i.e., little kids). I got clocked in the back of the head and got up and got stepped-on countless times due to grown adults who couldn't stay in their seats (you know, the $7 beer/p**s cycle). It rained like hell so the mile walk out to the car was a miserable one. Even the unwashed, unshaven, newbie wanna-be flower children at the Dead show this week were better behaved than this lot.

Sigh, I'm getting too old for this s**t, LOL!

kmh364 · « **Reply #1 on:** August 15, 2004, 07:50:44 AM »

Corrections: The Lifeson amps are Hughes-Kettner's. His one Gibson was an ES-355, not a 345.

bracheen · « **Reply #2 on:** August 15, 2004, 06:04:56 PM »

That must have been the same crowd that was at the Clapton show here a couple of months ago.
http://club.alembic.com/Images/449/10734.html?1087652737
I wonder how many buses they used to get up to New Jersey.

Sam

bassman10096 · « **Reply #3 on:** August 15, 2004, 07:12:46 PM »

My observations: Concert crowds have always varied from band to band (my historical perspective). Some more good natured, sloppy dressers, and even brighter and dimmer (intellectually, in the eye of the beholder, of course) than others.

As I've grown older I started going to shows again - first because my kid and his friends were too young to drive - more recently because I found I still enjoy live music in big venues.

But the audiences are all a bit of a challenge. Sometimes enough to piss me off, sometimes enough to detract from the show. (I also had the privilege of exposing my 15 year old boy to his first near miss at being puked on by a drunk.)

I don't believe the crowds are substantially worse than they were in my earlier years, but I am very different than I was then. I didn't WANT the exuberant idiot at last week's Phish show to burn me with his cigarette as he danced windmills next to me. I HATE the inept traffic control that wastes hours of my time getting in and out of the parking lot.

These things didn't bother me as much when I was younger, because I was more likely to be among the obnoxious ones and because I guess I hadn't developed the expectations adults have of being treated with minimal consideration and respect.

Survival tactics: You can't change the crowd - there's more of them than us. A couple things have helped me: (1) Buy the best seats you can afford. Generally ups the average age of folks around you. (2) Don't put up with any sh-t, but don't be a jerk about it. The dancing guy with the lit cigarette next to me responded really well when I said, Look man, you're scaring me with that thing. Could you do something about it? He apologized for distracting me from the music (He really did say this!), and spent the rest of the evening chatting affably about his take on the show (He was actually pretty insightful - not at all as dumb as he looked.). On the other hand, when someone is sitting in your seat, a quick jerk of the thumb upward and You're in my seat and a big friendly smile is all anyone gets. Doesn't give the kid a chance to behave inconsiderately, or to feel like the old guy was a jerk so he deserved it. (3) If you know the show has to end by a particular time (i.e. local 12AM outdoor concert curfew) get yourself moving and watch the encore from the door. This has saved me as much as 2 hours getting out and home from outdoor shows at Alpine Valley in WI.

So much for the sermonette. None of this is foolproof, but I've found the kids at shows generally better to deal with than I at first expected.

Bill

kmh364 · « **Reply #4 on:** August 16, 2004, 06:07:28 AM »

Sam & Bill: Yeah, I whined in that thread about the obnoxious crowds at the Yes show @ MSG too. I expect a NYC crowd to be more obnoxious than a NJ crowd. I go to several shows @ PNC each season...it's my current favorite venue....usually the crowds are decent. Rush brought out the all the Joisey morons this time. I just don't get it: I try to act respectful of others who are supposedly trying to enjoy the show just like me. I treat them the way I wanna be treated. I guess to have a little respect for others and a little common courtesy or manners is asking too much. When we were all kids at a show, we were all guilty of getting as highed-up as we could and making as big of an ass of ourselves as we could. That was then...this is now. The big kids should now have grown-up and grown-out of that type of behaviour...but they haven't. What did Dr. Evil say about Aging Hipsters? Very apropos here.

dannobasso · « **Reply #5 on:** August 16, 2004, 10:25:05 AM »

That is why I don't go to shows that have seating all on one level. But do keep in mind that the older you get the more reserved your behavior when in public. I am sure that we all have said or done things at shows years ago that we would find inappropriate. I also think that there aren't many irresponsible Alembic owners. I didn't go to the show, I bought the DVD from Rio. I just came back from Vegas and Cali. Joisey doesn't have a lock on morons. Check out the Rainbow any night of the week! The guys in my band have a theory about anything below exit 12. Alembic owners the exception of course. Starland Ballroom is a great place to see a show. Represent Jersey man! Oh yeah, the govenor. Never mind!
Danno

bracheen · « **Reply #6 on:** August 16, 2004, 10:41:02 AM »

I think Jacksonville just has the small town dressed up like a big city attitude. You are right,Danno, years ago I tried my best to take inappropriate to a whole new level.
I just may have to break my no more live shows vow for Bonnie Raitt in October though.

Sam

kmh364 · « **Reply #7 on:** August 16, 2004, 12:31:47 PM »

Starland is cool...I've been there quite a bit this year...I'll be there for Dickey Betts, King's X and others before the year is through. It is close to me and pretty cheap. The price and the fact that it is a general admission club does foster the moron factor. The drunken morons spilling drinks, blowing smoke, and stepping on toes I can do without. I love to see live bands, but I leave a place like that exhausted from standing and being pushed and stomped on (and I'm 6', 215lbs!), especially after a weekday show that sees me up until after midnight when I originally got up @ 4:30am! On top of that, I wake up with a killer hangover due not to too much drinking (I usually don't drink or I have one Guiness Draught), but due to migraines from smoke and loss of sleep.

811952 · « **Reply #8 on:** August 16, 2004, 01:59:11 PM »

Kevin, I'm green with envy over your getting to see and hear good live music so close to home. The pickings are a bit thin where I am, with the nearest venue for acts like Yes, Tull and Rush a good 100 miles away, but I digress...

Does anybody know if Geddy has ever laid his hands on an Alembic? Surely he has, yet he seems like the kind of guy who doesn't exactly actively seek out the perfect bass, if you know what I mean. I would think an Alembic's responsiveness would be a nice complement to his finesse. I know the Wal is a fine, fine instrument, but not as clean and transparent as a Series Alembic...

John

bassman10096 · « **Reply #9 on:** August 16, 2004, 08:31:43 PM »

Kids are tough for grownups. That much my teenager and his friends have taught this old guy...

As I was thinking about this thread in the car today, an amusing thought occured: I grew up in NJ outside NYC. Does anyone here have any recollections of the all-time worst outdoor concert venue of all time...Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City?

The Stadium was deep in a filthy, burnt out industrial zone, surrounded by stinking tidal marshes. The most depressing experience I had there was Summer '73 at an afternoon Clapton show. Hot, humid, polluted air, sky yellow with sulfur, Clapton at his strung-out worst. The show promoter had arranged for someone to shoot off arial bombs (just a rocket with a very loud bang). Sound was bad, Clapton was even bad (when you could hear him) and very irritable - pissed off at the audience, the band, etc. The rockets kept going off in and out of synch with the show. The guy I went with described the whole experience as sort of hellish. Finally, after having stopped the show twice due to fights among infield audience and launching a tirade at the pyrotechs to stop the f--king bombs!, Clapton disappeared from the stage, not to return. The show (if that's what it was) lasted no more than 40 minutes! Afterward, it took nearly 3 hours to exit the parking.

My wierdest, grossest concert experience occured at, you guessed it - Roosevelt Stadium - that same summer at a rained-out Dead show. The sky just opened and the rain and lightning didn't slow or stop for hours. The wierdest image I retain to this day was the depraved scene in the men's rooms. 4 of water on the floor, way over capacity due to people seeking shelter from the storm, guys peeing in toilets, sinks, garbage cans and even a plastic garbage bag that was stapled to a wall. Ugh!!

Phil actually came out during a brief let up in the rain and played his bass for a couple minutes. The solitary positive to the day was the sound of Phil's Alembic. It just thundered and soared (courtesy of the Wall of Sound)!! It was the first time the thought crossed my mind and those fateful words passed my lips: God, I gotta get me one of those Olympics somehow!. Despite a canopied stage, there was way too much water to operate anything electrical - thus - a rained-out, rain or shine show.

Nonetheless, most of my contemporaries and I returned to Roosevelt again and again. Kids just have no standards...

Anyone else out there have any fonder memories of that hellhole in Jersey City?

Bill

kmh364 · « **Reply #10 on:** August 17, 2004, 05:56:13 AM »

Bill: you can at least relive some of them...ck out dead.net for the Dick's Picks series. There are some old gems from the old Roosevelt stadium shows.

Personally, my fave s**thole was John Scher's Capital Theatre in beautiful downtown Passaic. Many good shows (JGB and the Dead in particular)
echoed in that place before it was razed.

The Haunted House, er, um, I mean the Ritz in NYC was also another dillapidated theatre venue that was cool in it's time.

Or...the ubiquitous Birch Hill Nightclub in Old Bridge hosted many a decadent show...it's now a senior's community.

kmh364 · « **Reply #11 on:** August 17, 2004, 06:07:11 AM »

John: In my estimation, there are not a lot of great things about living in the NY/NJ Metropolitan area, but access to great music is one of them.

Personally, I have to put in another 12 years or so and I can retire to either the Western US or Oz
where I can persue my lifelong passion of riding my Harley EVERY DAY YEAR-ROUND in perfect comfort and without electric underwear, LOL! Try that in Joisey, LOL! I'll deal with the music scene thing wherever I end-up. I also don't think there is a civilzed place on earth that UPS and/or FedEx doesn't reach, so I can always get an Alembic fix for my GAS, LOL!

effclef · « **Reply #12 on:** August 17, 2004, 06:23:23 AM »

KMH - that band is one of my all time favorites. Moving Pictures was the first LP I ever bought.

The Rush in Rio double DVD is nice, and shows the exuberant Brazilian fans...Neil's electronic drum kit breaking down in the rain...and Geddy and Alex rocking like 20 year olds.

Seems to me Mica said Geddy used an Epic for one track on his solo MY FAVORITE HEADACHE album.

And I'm with you - with his Rics, and now the old Jazz, he turns up the treble and clanks away. Alembics already have all the treble you need so I am surprised he doesn't use one after all these years. Weight could be an issue. Only Geddy knows for sure!

EffClef

kmh364 · « **Reply #13 on:** August 17, 2004, 06:31:47 AM »

Until Moving Pictures, I didn't care that much for Rush. That album turned me on to them and their earlier stuff. I used to cruise in my '78 Trans Am with the t-roofs off and crank that album so the whole world could hear it back in the day!

You're right: Only Geddy knows for sure. He played the other killer bass player's choice (i.e., Ricky) for many years, but hasn't openly played Alembics. Maybe he just wants simplicity, something Fenders have and most Alembics don't.

bassman10096 · « **Reply #14 on:** August 17, 2004, 06:42:05 AM »

Kevin: You raise a good point. I was just reliving the glow of the venue itself (Jersey is sometimes guilty of some extreme ambiance). Despite that, some of the Dead's most memorable performances (i.e. the raindate for the Roos. Stad. show I mentioned)went down at RS and the Capital (THAT's a blast from the past!). Those two venues were the Dead's NYC territory (along with the Beacon in NYC and Nassau). They always put on a great show there.

I grew up in north Jersey, but left there nearly 20 years ago. It's hard to find accessible musical diversity in a lot of other places. Living near Alpine Valley and Summerfest in Milwaukee has helped that a lot,

Keep truckin'...

Bill