HalfwayToGone

FWIW this time it was a very big and less overpriced array of stuff—quantity over upsells I guess, and a fair amount of old promo vinyl.

I heard another EON album is coming—wouldn’t be shocked if some surprise guest appearances end up on there.

Sorry for the months late reply, but yes that one was signed by the whole band. There was another sale just a week or two ago—also tough to grab the signed stuff aside from a few framed photos that sat for a while.

Got my poster this week—signed in silver paint (looked white in the photo, so bonus!). Got one that isn’t damaged significantly either—tiny crease on one corner.

I have shelled out a lot of cash for some things, but no thanks—I know stage-used gets a premium but not usually until the secondary market gets ahold of it. I’ve seen stage used Gibsons and signature snare drums go for much less immediately after a concert signed by the musician. I did pay quite a bit for a signed vapor trails tour poster (incl. Neil) and last time around I scored the signed vinyl for fly by night and power windows (only alex and geddy).

There were all sorts of things that were sold out before I even checked and a lot was not signed—one poster that was there for Rush in Rio was around $60 or less. I get texts and emails—sign into your account and make sure any permissions for notifications are up to date. I have no access at all to the email my account that os attached to my account but I get text alerts and I also follow the instagram account for the store and they usually warn ahead of time and then announce when it’s live. Same goes for any exclusive limited thing like a signed My Effin Life or whatever.

For the big wallet crowd—it has already been live over an hour but last I peeked there were still a couple of signed posters available (very pricey though, because Neil signed them too) and the always present never sold out ridiculously expensive framed piece with used strings and a used drum stick.

Wait longer and check back when people have been sitting on them and get sick of it. Prices will drop. One sold for under $80 yesterday.

I can think of a couple of options—keep an eye on places like ebay, and for listings that give the option make an offer and maybe someone who is sick of sitting on it will take what you offer.

If you were the only person expressing this sort of objection I’d cut you more slack, but you’d be surprised how many whiners are complaining that charging an extra $70 for the book so they can hear Geddy talk mostly off the top of his head for 2 hours with only one person there to help him out and try not to bore everyone to tears in the process, having no clue how it’s gonna go, is “a shameless cash grab.” Meanwhile concert tickets are climbing to around $1000 for anything close to the stage for legacy performers—metallica seats in the last row of the ginormo stadium with 30,000 seats were more expensive than front row seats for Geddy in a tiny theater holding a couple hundred people after you subtract the price of the book. And right up there someone actually saying that applauding the star of the show is the same as a participation trophy. At what appearance on what planet does any audience NOT applaud the star when they are introduced and walk onto the stage? And no, reviewing something and complaining about having not seen more than one minute of a 2 hour event if ANY of ot is not the same as watching an entire movie and then giving an opinion. Most of these sad sacks started with these complaints BEFORE THE FIRST APPEARANCE EVEN HAPPENED!! Like they have ESP or something. So no, I am not a person with no boundaries defending others with no boundaries, and I am fully aware and wouldn’t disagree there are plenty of clueless and in their own world Rush fans (see my other comment about my brother being slapped on the butt at the end of an air drum solo by one of those crazy oblivious fans and having to warn that guy where his imaginary drumset ends if he wanted to keep his teeth). Quite the opposite—I think these complainers think he world caters to their infantile fantasy of how everyone else should be exactly like them, and how the world should hand them everything they want for the honor of being wanted or approved of by them. PS: A lot of the same complainers are the people who shamed Neil in places like here for retiring, like “he owes me for being a fan and being one of several million people who paid him for his records and concerts” (that he ALREADY DELIVERED—and quite well if ya ask stupid me who was HAPPY for the guy to finally have a second shot at having a family and actually being there this time around). In hindsight, most of those people ought to be ashamed of stuff they said about him at the time, but I can go back and read it all be extremely proud of everything I said back to those people at the time. I’m only gutted that after being so happy for him his retirement was robbed from him and his family this time was robbed of him and now there can never be even a chance of him coming out of retirement because of missing the stage or drumming or having some incredible inspiration.

There were actually a bunch of preorders exactly like this from various online booksellers for the same price—they are hand signed with the signature on a separate dedicated page bound into the books (that were provided by Harper Collins I believe). They must have had him sign a gigantic stack of the pages before they were bound into the book. They aren’t numbered at all so I am clueless how many might be out there, but not charging extra for them is especially sweet—the signed editions normally are vastly inflated with extra do dads, so it’s nice to see them at no extra charge at all. The fact that everyone can’t get them is sadly the limitations of Geddy being only human and not wanting to sign millions of copies. People who were on the lookout vigilantly were rewarded. I actually grabbed 2 signed copies but only after bookends ripped me off for $300 prior to my realizing I was stupid and should have done a little google search and saved myself $260.

It sucks that you had to step up and deal with someone else’s kids. After all, I’m sure the parents had every intention of becoming hopelessly messed up in their middle age just to make your life worse. And I’m sure no one who raised either parent had anything to do with their development of judgement or impulse control as adults. And I’m sure they tried meth at 50 because their life was absolutely perfect at the time, not because they were somehow damaged or failed by those who are supposed to care about/help them in childhood or earlier in their adulthood.

Having been to the first show in NYC, it was nowhere near as bad as people seem to think w/people yelling out. Far quieter and more attentive/well-behaved audience than any rock show I ever attended for sure. The haters (most of whom didn’t even go to any of these shows) should ask people who were actually there instead of reviewing the shows based on second hand video clips and a hypocritical notion that everyone should feel and behave exactly the same way as they do at a live public event or else they’re “selfish”. I can understand being upset the guy behind you uses your back as a set of drums for an entire rock concert as if everyone does it (which has actually happened to my older brother at a Rush concert—it almost resulted in a fist fight). That said, these shows are all unique and very moving at times and extremely entertaining.

So many haters. “Waaaah, people clap and cheer at live shows instead of being mute and making the people on stage feel like they are in a room full of bored sleeping people, Waaaah!” So called fans, who weren’t even there, complaining about how lame it was, sound like a bunch of whiners. If you were there and had an awful time, fair enough, but panning the show from watching some youtube clips is what’s really lame.

Beautiful photos you got! I was up near the front of the balcony at the Beacon towards the left in the selfie throwing the malloy in a black hoodie w/red rush logo next to a guy w/bright red coat wearing a mask. If I post it somewhere I’ll add a marked/enlarged crop of it.