24 Oct 2007

"Celebrate the moment"

" A certain degree of imagination
A measure of make-believe"
Neil Peart 2002

It's Sunday 14th October and that can only mean one thing; the day of the concert at Manchester. Months of waiting are finally over and we can begin our own personnel tour. Its a short one granted, but it's twice as long as the last time we saw them. Last time on the R30 tour we set off into Manchester rather early and ate some utter rubbish before the concert. This time we take it easy and have a fantastic meal of monkfish in a garlic and borlotti bean sauce cooked by yours truly with a friend whose coming with us. All set to a background of music from various Rush albums, utter bliss. An absolute ridiculously expensive bottle of Sauvignon Blanc helps as well. Finally we set off and within 40mins are parked up outside the arena with time for a visit to a couple of bars before the gig. One beauty of Rush is they can be guaranteed to come on stage exactly when they say and theirs never a support, just a full 3 hour show from them.


Finally we take our seats, the lights dim and the pre show film begins. Then we are straight into a non stop show that never lets up. People had moaned for various reasons about this set list. There are too many new songs in it (you don't say! they are touring for a new album) and it's killing the atmosphere. Well once again Manchester showed that when Rush come to town you can't sit down and there are no dull moments.

I have to admit I was slightly worried about the tickets we had for this gig. Last time we were only 6 or 7 rows from the center of the stage and it was fantastic but this time we find ourselves half way up a side, 1 block back from Alex. Reading gig reports on forums and speaking to a friend on the phone the previous night had not helped either. He had mentioned how the sides of the arenas were looking dead and everyone was just sat like zombies. In the end I resigned myself to thinking "well at least when we get to Rotterdam we have floor tickets" though Jackie didn't seem to be worried saying that Manchester would be different. Boy was she right, In fact I think blocks 102 and 103 were rocking more than anywhere else in the arena and you could see the guys noticing this all night.


Too many highlights to mention but Natural Science has to sit up there. But I have to mention how brilliant I thought songs like "Far Cry", "The Way the Wind Blows", in fact all the new tracks came across. Alex really looks like he's having a blast ripping out the raw energy in these songs. Other delights were "Mission", a song I find works so much better live without its over precise and clinical guitar mix from the album.

Came out with the biggest smile on my face, the inability to string a sentence together properly due to having lost my voice and knowing we have to get some sleep as we have a flight to catch tomorrow. Wonder if Rush travel on Easyjet?




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Must have been quite near you Danny. Went to Newcastle(floor) Sheffield(floor) and London(sides). Manchester was the best :) so you picked the best UK gig to watch them

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