Today’s Tom Sawyer

Rush

28 October 2012: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Ohio

In the foreword to my book, Marvel legend Tom DeFalco defines the Golden Age of Comics as whatever point at which the reader first discovered comic books. I couldn’t agree more and have been known to expand that same theory to musical discovery. Because he's a drummer and a fan of sci-fi/fantasy/all things geeky, I introduced Jack to Rush’s music a few of years ago, but it wasn’t until this year’s Clockwork Angels album and accompanying steampunk novel came out, that Jack fully claimed the band as his own.

My original intent was to take Jack to the Time Machine Tour last year, but travel plans forced me delay his live experience. As is often the case, hindsight proved that things turned out for the best. I’ve seen and heard the DVD/CD from that Cleveland tour stop and was disappointed with lead singer Geddy Lee’s vocals and, beyond the Moving Pictures set, the song selection didn’t do much for me. Any fears I may have had about either Lee’s voice or setlist decisions going into this show were quickly erased.

Jack and I have been excited about this show for months. With our anticipation peaking, we headed out early, and arrived downtown around 6:30 for the 7:30 curtain. The garage I had intended to park in (attached to The Q) was already full and only accepting pre-purchased passes, but I had a backup plan and hit the garage directly across from the main entrance and box office of the arena. Leaving our jackets in the car, we dashed across the street and between the raindrops to get to the show. After a bite at Clevelander Michael Symon’s signature restaurant in The Q, we decided to scope out our seats.

On the way, we heard a voice call out Jack’s name. It was his drum instructor there with his son! We chatted with them for a bit (including his instructor telling him they’d break down drummer Neil Peart’s bells performance in their next lesson!) before heading off to check out the concert swag. The vendors only had adult small sized shirts in two designs, but thankfully one of them was one Jack really wanted. Decked out in his new shirt and clutching a newly purchased pin set, we headed to our seats to settle in for the show.

Walking into our row, a first-generation fan jokingly quizzed Jack as he passed, asking “When did Rush release their first album?” In a moment of introversion, the kiddo didn’t answer, but after we got into our seats, Jack turned to me and said, “It was 1974, wasn’t it, Dad?”

I’ve heard complaints about this tour’s setlist choices, but as far as Jack and I were concerned, it was pretty damn perfect. Focusing almost exclusively on their ‘80s output and the new album, this felt tailor made for both of us. The three-hour show was divided into two acts: The first leaning heavily on Power Windows; The second consisting of three-fourths of the Clockwork Angels album, along with a string of classics to close out the main set and encore.

Thematically, the song selection just works. The philosophies behind the Kevin J. Anderson/Neil Peart Clockwork Angels novel mesh with the ideas in “Grand Designs” and “Middletown Dreams” and “Territories” off of 1985’s Power Windows. Cuts like Snakes & Arrows’ “Far Cry” (the lone song from the early 2000s in the set) and Roll the Bones’ “Dreamline” also fit perfectly in the setlist by bookending the new material.

The first set highlights included the show-opening “Subdivisions” and “Territories”, along with the Roll the Bones’ instrumental, “Where’s My Thing?” – providing the kiddo his first exposure to a Peart solo! Jack was truly transfixed by The Professor. He was completely in tune with what the rhythmist was doing, clearly studying his every move when projected on the big screen. Jack thrilled with every rotation of the drum riser and every flip of the stick. On the drive home, Jack asked if I noticed how Peart wasn’t tossing his sticks in the air or twirling them just for show, but that he was using that as an opportunity to change up his grip on the sticks. (I hadn’t noticed that.) Two additional, shorter drum solos followed in the second set, but that first one cemented Jack’s appreciation of the master.

The band’s use of moving pictures (pun intended) – projecting both live images from the stage and canned videos – was great. I don’t know if the footage accompanying “Territories” was a holdover from an ’80s tour or something new for this one, but we both enjoyed it and the footage for “Far Cry”. And I had to laugh in surprise when the kiddo nudged me and exclaimed “The Three Stooges!” during “Big Money”. I had no idea he even knew who they were. But it was the videos for the Clockwork Angels material in the second set that really stood out.

When the band took the stage after a short intermission, the Clockwork Angels String Ensemble joined them. It was this set of songs that has endeared the band to Jack, and reignited my love of Rush. “Caravan” is Jack’s favorite Rush song, and it delivered live – bombast, pyrotechnics, everything an 11-year-old could ask for! While I dig that song, I was thrilled when the band ripped into “Wish Them Well” (one of the few Clockwork Angels songs they’ve been rotating in and out of the setlist), my favorite of the new stuff. The surprise for us, though, was “The Wreckers”. A powerful song with an accompanying video that ended up a live favorite of Jack’s and mine among the second set.

Jack commented a couple of times that the strings seemed a little lost in the mix on certain songs, but they shone during a number of Clockwork Angels cuts and “YYZ”.

I was surprised to see the entire upper bowl curtained off, but I don’t know that it was necessarily a bad thing. The band can still say they’re playing arenas, the fans get a more intimate show and better seating options, and everyone’s happy.

The myth that Rush doesn’t have any female fans is just that, a myth. The arena was easily split 50/50 between the sexes. And the new material and amount of kids there with their families dispel the idea that Rush is nothing more than a dinosaur band with an aging catalog and matching fan base. We saw everyone from preteens to pensioners. The air drumming cliché, however, holds true. I think if you’re a Rush fan of a certain age (myself included), it’s simply impossible to not air drum to the likes of “YYZ”, “The Spirit of Radio”, or “Tom Sawyer”. And from the vantage point of our seats, it was actually very cool to see the entire floor section air drumming along with Peart during those classic songs.

Clearly a Rush concert amateur, Jack informed me at the intermission that his legs were going to be bruised for days because of the hand drumming he was doing on his thighs as he drummed along.

My musical tastes and my dad’s have never really intersected – certainly not while I was growing up! It’s been such a cool experience over the last few years to be doing things like this with my kid. And when I hear Jack explaining to Tracy the day after the show how “we got them to do an encore!” I realize that even though I’m working without a blueprint, I might be doing something right. I have seen Rush twice previously: once in the ’80s, and again in the ’90s. But this time will always be special because it was Jack’s first Rush concert. A perfect storm of music, youthful enthusiasm, bonding, air drumming, and joy: Emotional feedback on timeless wavelength.

(All photos by Adam Besenyodi.)

Concert Regrets

One of the things about learning to brew your own beer from somebody is you better get along with them because that first session takes hours! Thankfully, my first brewing session meant I was able to hang out with my buddy Jeff. Killing time in his garage on a brisk Saturday afternoon in early October, sitting around the kettle as my winter spiced ale brewed, the conversation wandered at that nice, familiar pace that only comes from having been friends for over 20 years. Of course, considering our history, music was a big topic of the day, including concert regrets. I have two concert regrets – not shows I wish I’d never seen, but shows I missed.

My Number One with a Bullet is Roger Waters’ Radio K.A.O.S. tour stop at Blossom Music Center in August of 1987.

It was the summer before my seventeenth birthday, and I was working a couple of jobs, including mowing the lawn at the local community park and busing tables at a crappy restaurant. Up to that point in time, I had only attended two concerts – David Lee Roth the previous fall, and Mötley Crüe earlier in the summer of ’87. I seem to remember it being a combination of my own money management issues and my parents not being all that comfortable with my concert going activities yet as the main reasons I was unable to attend the show. I’m sure the normal teenage notions of independence and arguing with my parents about “freedom” and “space” came into play, too.

I don’t remember who I was even going to go to the show with, but I knew even then that this was a show I really needed to see. And, by all accounts, it was a spectacle. Radio K.A.O.S. wasn’t a huge hit, but it was and still is one of my favorite albums. (I did an in-depth piece on it back when I wrote for PopMatters. You can check that out here.) Waters took DJ Jim Ladd on tour with him, and the show was staged as a giant radio show, complete with phone booths set up around the venue for audience members to “call in” and ask questions. Of course, it was never filmed and the likes of it will never be seen again, but, man, I think it would have been amazing.

Of course, a month or so after the Roger Waters show, I did see Boston at the Richfield Coliseum. I’m sure my parents’ fears and my money woes were cast aside because I saw the concert with my older sister, my health teacher (who my sister was dating at the time), and my best buddy Mark. I wouldn’t attend my first concert at Blossom until a year later when I saw The Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, and John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band on a triple bill the next summer. And, for what it’s worth, I did see Pink Floyd on their Momentary Lapse of Reason tour in the fall of ’88, so I guess that’s something.

My other concert regret is a little different and much more recent, so the wound is still fresh. Jack has been taking private drum lessons for just over a year now, and he just started up with fifth grade band this school year. He loves percussion, and I’m always eager to share anything I think he’ll appreciate – like The Black Keys, The Who, and Rush.

So when I saw Rush was touring to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of Moving Pictures, I knew I was going to take Jack. I was able to get in on the presale and get us some amazing seats in the lower bowl, stage right, near the stage. I was ridiculously excited. Then, after purchasing the tickets, I realized that there was a good chance we were actually going to be in Hawaii the day of the show.

This was a trip Tracy was trying to earn through work, and you don’t turn down free airfare, five-star hotel accommodations, and all food and entertainment included. I get that, and I was not then, nor am I now, ungrateful for the opportunity to return to the islands and enjoy a fantastic family vacation. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that there is a tiny little part of me that is still disappointed that Jack and I didn’t get to share that concert-going experience.

I have seen Rush numerous times throughout the ’80s and ’90s, but this was different. The band was playing Moving Pictures in its entirety, I was taking my kiddo with me, we had killer seats from the pre-sale, and the band was taping the show for release on DVD and Blu-Ray. I have never, to my knowledge, attended a show that has been officially released like that, and even though we weren’t at the show, you damn well better believe that Blu-Ray is on my Christmas list this year!