Experience Slips Away

February 24, 1983:
The Signals “New World” Tour

How much innocence has slipped away in the 21 years since the first time I saw Rush as a wide-eyed 16-year-old? Entirely too damned much. That fateful evening would go down in my personal concert-going history as a prime example of what NOT to do at a concert. Specifically, to get so completely stoned so as to be utterly incapable of enjoying the show. Golden Earring opened the show and I spent their entire set trying to convince myself that I was Bob Marley. The guy next to me passed joint after joint after joint and I soon lost count. I remember being dizzy when Rush hit the stage. I was in the 6th row and climbed atop my seat for a better look. I remember a row of strobes going off and it was like having an image burned into my field of vision that wouldn't go away. I blinked my eyes and shook my head several times but no matter what I did the same picture was stuck in my mind. All of a sudden, the image shattered before my eyes like a glass painting and a sea of motes began to cloud my vision. My mouth began to water and my knees went weak. I thought to myself, "Either I sit down now or I'm going to puke all over the guy in front of me before falling on him." So I chose the former of the two and spent the remainder of the show with my head between my knees. After the show I got up to walk out and wound up puking up the cheeseburger and fries that I ate before the concert. I think I still had chunks on my face when my dad met me and my friends out in front of the venue and I promptly collapsed into the front seat of the car. Ah yes, good times......

April 8, 1990: The Presto Tour

Fast forward to 1990 and the “Presto” tour. It was at the Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum – the place where I saw my very first concert – Kiss in 1979. It was a weird and monstrous time in my life and musically wedged between the advent of Jane’s Addiction and the meteoric rise of Nirvana. It’s a tragedy that the most vivid memory I have of that evening was the giant inflatable rabbits on stage.

April 4, 1994: The Counterparts Tour

This was one of the lone bright spots of my Army years. Three long miserable years spent in a part of the country populated by people who made the bad guys from "Deliverance" seem like well-groomed master thespians. Drinking, vomiting, running, shooting guns and frequent visits to topless bars are just about all I can remember of that time. The Rush show was different though. It was a night that reminded me of the life I left behind and that there was still a Real World to go back to when my it was all over. I remember a bracing round of gin and tonics before heading over to the now-defunct and quite possible condemned Arena in St. Louis. I remember wanting very badly to smoke a doobie but feeling weird and awkward and outsider-ish approaching anyone to ask. One of the people I went with did and I finally managed to wring a measely hit or two out of a very tightly rolled joint. After all this time, all I can remember are the classic nut-and-bolt/Zarathustra intro from the album cover, and the image of Primus' Les Claypool hammering away at his stand-up bass while clad in a full-body pig suit.

November 29, 1996, May 8, 1997:
The Test For Echo Tour

To catch Rush twice on the same tour and within 6 months of each other was probably the best I’ve ever seen them. The May show was particularly sweet because it was the 20th Anniversary of 2112 and I got to witness it from the 4th row center stage. I was still in school and not working then. No schedules to juggle, no boss to beg for the day off and no worries about having to drag my tired ass in to work the next day. Pure bliss in every sense of the word and an experience I’m not likely to replicate ever again. At one point I thought that these would be the last times I’d ever see them. Disaster struck the band not long after this tour and for a time it seemed as if they would never return to the stage. Thank God I was wrong.

September 27, 2002:
The Vapor Trails tour

Aside from the fact that my wife and I got a late start and only barely made it to our seats in time for the show, this would be one of the best, probably the second-best time I’ve ever seen them. It just felt like such a gift and it was truly moving to see the guys come back so strong after all that Neil had endured following the T4E tour. Although it was great to share my love for the band with my wife, she was exhausted from a long day at work and couldn’t get into it. Again, when the band left the stage I found myself wondering if this would be the last time I would ever see them.

July 16, 2004:
The 30th Anniversary Tour, or "The Strange and Terrible True Story of How Clear Channel Entertainment Fucked Arizona Rush Fans Like A Bunch of Crack-Addled Street Whores"

How cruel is it that of all tours, this would prove to be the absolute worst experience I’ve ever had in my entire 25-year concert-going career?

Although I purchased my tickets online well in advance of the show, I never received them in the mail and was forced to wait in the will-call line to pick up a replacement pair.

At the risk of sounding like a bitter bastard, Clear Channel Entertainment sucks and they suck hard.

On June 4, I received an email advertising discounted lawn tickets for Rush and several other upcoming shows, but that Friday (June 6) when I tried to buy them at my local ticket outlet, nobody had any idea what the hell I was talking about. "Promotion? What promotion? I'm sorry, sir but my computer doesn't say anything about a promotion."

Sadly, it seemed the Clear Channel corporate octopus had failed to communicate with one of its many tentacles and I was shit out of luck. So, after firing off an embittered email and eventually pleading with one of their “Customer Service” reps, I was finally allowed to purchase the tickets online for the promotional price.

Great! I thought. Maybe the atheists are wrong. Maybe Clear Channel isn’t a parasitic leech sucking the soul out of the music industry! Maybe there is some hope in this world for Good to triumph over Evil!

Thanks for playing sir, but you're WRONG!!!!

Not one, not two, but THREE weeks went by and even though I was billed a full 3 weeks before the show I never received my tickets in the mail as promised.

As it turned out, I had to wait until the day of the show to get confirmation that a pair would in fact be waiting for me when I arrived at Cricket Pavilion in Phoenix that night.

No problem, I thought. Maybe this will be a classic case of “All’s well that ends well.” But as that miserable bitch Fate would have it, I was dead fucking wrong again.

After spending a bit of time getting primed in our motel room, my friends and I arrived at the venue 15-20 minutes before show time and were horrified to see a huge line at the will-call window that appeared to be at a complete standstill.

After getting in line, I quickly discovered that there were many other people who had been subjected to the concert-going equivalent of prison rape by the hideously incompetent, if not outright crooked, goons at Clear Channel Entertainment. They too had ordered their tickets online and had never received them. They too had to wait until the day of the show to be told that they were going to have to go to the will-call window. And now, through no fault of our own, we were all standing in a line that was going nowhere fast while the minutes ticked by.

Why was everything taking so long? Who were these brain-dead people working in the box office? Why the fuck didn’t we get our tickets in the mail as promised? Why me? Why now?

Nothing made any sense. All I knew was that I was pissed off and that I was going to miss a big chunk of the first part of the show, something that had never happened to me at any of the previous 6 Rush concerts I’d been to over the past 2+ decades.

Just as that thought exited my mind the lights went down, the crowd began to roar and my heart sank all at the same time as my worst fear was realized. The show was starting and I was still stuck in this stupid fucking line that was still going nowhere.

I felt sick and furious and confused all at the same time. Had a Clear Channel rep approached me at that moment I am certain I would have torn his heart from his chest and eaten it in front of him.

A few feet to my left, a stocky guy with bulging eyes and neckveins starting screaming at a guy in the front of the line who was apparently disputing something about his tickets.

It was pure mind-numbing bass-ackwards madness. We were clueless. The ticket people were clueless and we were all fucked.

What did the band open with? I don’t remember because my brain was boiling. How many songs did they play before we got inside? Four? Five? Six? Who fucking knows?

After what seemed like an eternity we finally got inside. I bought a shirt and two beers and headed out to the lawn to try and salvage what remained of the show which, by my estimates, I had already missed about a quarter of. I later learned that I missed a little under half of the first set.

How was the band? Excellent. Stellar. In top form as usual. Geddy’s voice was top-notch and Alex’s guitar was especially crystal-clear and sang with a ferocity I’d seldom seen.

Soon, after 3-4 beers and a couple of short Jamaican cigars, my bitterness subsided a bit and I was just happy to be there and seeing my favorite band rocking out again in top form.

They blew through the old (Red Barchetta, Limelight, 2112, Working Man) and new (Earthshine, Resist) with all the grace and perfection I’ve come to know, love and respect from them.

Tonight was different though as they proceeded to treat the enthusiastic crowd to several cover tunes from their new CD “Feedback”. To hear Cream’s “Crossroads”, Blue Cheer’s “Summertime Blues” and “The Seeker” - one of my all-time favorite Who tunes – reworked by Geddy & Co. was a rare treat indeed that I’m damn glad I didn’t miss.

During the intermission I eventually managed to track down my sister, with whom I shared the last half of the show. It was truly special to be able to share such a big part of my life with her and a memory I’ll always treasure.

But all too soon it seemed, it was over. Geddy wished us all well and said something about seeing us all again soon and just like that it was all over.

The band is slated to re-enter the studio after this tour is finished to begin work on their next studio album.

I can only hope that they’ll take to the road once again and that I’ll have a chance to see them for an 8th time because it sure would suck to have this miserable fiasco be the last time I ever see them.