SHARING THE SHOWS
So after a few days showing my brother the historical spots in Hampton Roads (Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown Settlement, Mariners Museum), he took off for Maryland, and I took off with Maggie for the screening of Rush: Cinema Strangiato. While I love bands like the Dead, Phish, and Widespread Panic, Rush hits me in a visceral way those other bands can’t quite accomplish. I got into them around the end of my senior year in high school, when I transitioned from slacker into academic. That year, my English teacher, Mr. Leonard London, had allowed me the freedom to make connections between film (something I loved) and literature (something we were studying). From there, I became enamored with academics, hence leading me to the career path I’ve been on; at that time, I was introduced to Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures, albums I played nonstop. During my freshman year of college, Test for Echo hit the stores, and I drove my roommate, Pete Rosado, crazy by planning it nonstop, so much so that he requested his own room the second semester. Ahhhh, good times. And I saw them six times during their career.
After what felt like an hour of previews and commercials (was this a screening or an infomercial?), we saw…another commercial, this time for Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass. After that came one of the psychedelic cartoons reminiscent of the ones that went up on the screen during the Rush shows I saw. The plan was to play the setlist from their final tour back in 2015. Side note: I have very few regrets in life, but one of them was not seeing them at Madison Square Garden during that tour. I had saved up a bunch of money to travel to Ireland and England and was trying to save money. If I could go back, I’d have subsisted on generic macaroni and cheese for a month and just hit the show, but hey, we’ll always have the memories. After a “Jacob’s Ladder” soundcheck, the Holy Trinity opened with the “Anarchist” and went into “Headlong Flight,” two awesome tunes from Clockwork Angels, which came out the summer I was studying for my comprehensive examinations during my Ph.D. program (which I passed). Let’s just say that album provided an additional soundtrack for my academic prowess. “Roll the Bones” was next. Fellow Canadians the Trailer Park Boys (one of whom referred to the singer as “Freddy Lee”) made an appearance on the video behind the band, as did guitarist Tom Morello, actor Peter Dinklage and I Love You, Man co-stars Jason Segel and Paul Rudd, who play diehard Rush fans in that movie (this video was a nice highlight of the Time Machine Tour). We went back in time with 1984’s “Distant Early Warning,” and Jonathan Dinklage was interviewed on his violin-playing before we saw him play “Losing It” with the boys. “Subdivisions” closed the first set (what Rush fan can’t identify on some level with the kid in the video?). During the intermission, we heard a bluegrass version of “Tom Sawyer,” and we met Geddy Lee in a pirate costume, Jerry Stiller, Jay Baruchel, and the South Park kids playing the part of Rush with Cartman butchering the lyrics to “Tom Sawyer” before we were treated to the real thing. Taylor Hawkins from the Foo Fighters graced the screen discussing how after resisting at first, he agreed to play “YYZ” with Geddy and Alex. We then saw them play it with Neal. “The Spirit of Radio,” “Cygnus X-1 Book II,” and “Closer to the Heart” followed. In between those songs, we got to see a photo session with Alex and Geddy (introvert Neal was absent). “Xanadu” and “2112” closed the set. We were gifted with a four-song encore: “Lakeside Park,” “Anthem,” “What You’re Doing,” and “Working Man” (my theme song from August through May, and for parts of the summer months). After the encore, the boys returned to find their dressing room hijacked by, not Jason Segel or Paul Rudd, but some drunken puppets. As usual, they were calm, cool, and collected about it. Over the end credits, Alex sang a song he had made up (the title escaped me), but his voice was very reminiscent of the Violent Femmes’s Gordon Gano. It was nice to see a different side of him. Sadly, this is the last blog post of the summer season. As of August 26, I get up at 5:30, yeah, and I’ll go to work around 9 (This is for my teaching gig. Starting at between 5:40 and 5:55, the plan is to devote an hour a day to writing my book). So I won’t be blogging as frequently, but I will outline the shows I plan to see this fall season thus far (and there may be a few more in there): Tuesday, 8/27 – Australian Pink Floyd Band – Chrysler Hall – Norfolk, VA Saturday, 9/28 – Joe Russo’s Almost Dead – The Anthem – Washington, DC Wednesday, 10/2 – Roger Waters: Us and Them (movie) – Studio Movie Grill – Hampton, VA Friday, 11/1 – Dead & Company – Madison Square Garden – New York, NY Friday, 11/8 – Dead & Company – Hampton Coliseum – Hampton, VA Saturday, 11/9 – Dead & Company – Hampton Coliseum – Hampton, VA Saturday, 11/23 – Fade to Black (Metallica tribute) – The Vanguard – Hampton, VA Thursday, 12/5 – Dark Star Orchestra – The National – Richmond, VA Saturday, 12/7 – Dark Star Orchestra – The Norva – Norfolk, VA As I type that, I realize that for most people, that’s a lot of concerts. But for me, of course, it’s… Love y’all! Thanks for reading!
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