stephena

I always figured that they started somewhere a little more remote because they grab the arena for up to a week before the actual show. it might be near impossible and VERY expensive to book a place like MSG or the like for a full week... leading up to the opener

the people with pork belly contracts (tickets) are thinking, "Hey, we're losing all our money and Christmas is coming. "I won't be able to buy my son the GI Joe with the Kung Fu grip. "And my wife won't make love to me cos I ain't got no money." They're panicking, screaming, "Sell, sell." They don't want to lose all their money. They are panicking right now. I can feel it.

I think they have done a great job over the ''A Night With' tours in putting together set lists that are both new and fun for them to play, which keeps it seemingly fun and fresh for them onstage, ergo fun for us fans AND oldies that we really want to hear. Overall, i would think that we as fans, are really only in agreement over a few songs that we REALLY want to hear, the rest is going to be pure personal opinion. I.e. someone really wants to hear Virtuality or Dog Years - I don't but i am sure someone does... I can't imagine that ALL of us want to hear at least a few of the following: Fly by Night Cygnus - if not all a good portion of it Hemmis - if not all a good portion of it Jacob's Ladder BBB Finding My Way Best I Can What Your Doing Anthem Lakeside Necro In the last 10 years or so we have seen: Camera Eye Xanadu Trees By Tor Working Man this does not mean we don't want to hear these but we have to be pretty happy that they have played them fairly recently. there was a time, before the VT tour, that i would have been OK with not hearing Tom Sawyer IF they would have used that 5 minutes to give me something from my list of wants above. now, however, i would probably walk away from a show where they did play something else and NOT TS and be a little disappointed... i am sure some oldies that we have not heard in a while will surprise us that Friday night in Tulsa, and i am sure there will be a song or two i would be indifferent about either because they have played it on last tours or i just don't like it. however, i am SURE i will walk away like i always do in awe of what they did play and the show that they gave us

I don't believe for second that this is the only leg of this tour. I mentioned to a few RUSH friends of mine that basically this is not our first rodeo with this... and we usually end up seeing a second leg / more dates. AFTER these R40 dates they will say something like, 'we've spent the last few 4 or 5 months preparing and touring, and we are not getting any younger. We are going to take the rest of the year off and enjoy the holidays and see what next year brings.' Then around the holidays we will start to hear rumors that they are going to ANNOUNCE something in early 2016. The rumors will consist of more N. American dates and probably a short stint in Europe (or vice versa). Then mid winter of 2016 they will make an announcement: 'on the success and enjoyment of touring for R40 we have decided to extend it into 2016.' I bet they add 15 (or so) more dates in N. America (probably hitting cities like Cleveland, that have been good to them over the years) and 15 or so major European cities (probably the 'standard' cities one would think of). They will do the N. American and European dates, finishing in the fall of 2016. On that they will say, 'we have spent the last year touring (even though it was a couple of 4 month stints in a 14 to 16 month span) we are now going to enjoy the holidays with our families, take a year off, and see what the future holds for us and the band.' At that point i would think, outside of some sort of special projects - movie soundtracks or maybe a single or two... THAT will be the end of RUSH as we know them. I don't think they will every say 'FINAL TOUR' it's not their style, but I don't think this 30+ date leg is really the end.

As i am reading through this thread, i am thinking the same thing. Radio City HANDS DOWN! - i mean it's Radio City Music Hall and PNC - good sound for an outdoor venue, easy in and out, lax tailgate 'rules', overall just a really, really good place to see a show. Never sat on the lawn but PNC is a really good place

FWIW... I am new to this board, but i can vouch for FS2112, been seeing him at shows for a long time... really nice guy and ALWAYS up front... usually right in front of me :-)