Brava Doh!

Shock is the right word. f**k. RIP.

Which night? Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday two shows per night in T Bay for some reason, Not sure why but I'm not complaining!

I ran into Geddy and Alex by accident walking back to my hotel in Halifax in 2013, the night between the two shows. When I realized who they were, I engaged them in some minor banter about shopping at midnight on a Wednesday (never dawned on me that their internal clocks on tour would be of a 4-12 variety so sleep wouldn't come at "normal" hours so to speak...). They were polite enough for sure, as we got to the front of my hotel (on the waterfront), I thanked them for so many years of entertainment and they said thanks back for saying it. Then they continued down the street into the night...god only knows where they were going as it seemed out of the realm of the waterfront area and more like it was moving towards residential space. I imagine they knew or heard of an out of the way watering hole and were checking it out. The whole thing didn't take long but I was grateful that I met them in a natural environment and had a chance to thank them for so many years of music, which is all I could ever really ask for. I'm not a "star gazer" so to speak, and would never have interacted with them unless it was random and accidental, like this was. It was very cool, and both Geddy and Alex were also very cool with me.

He has been there. I've seen him on TV at several games. I do believe less this year than others, you are right, but he has been there.

I miss that there will be no more coming. Rush trips were a staple of mine for so long, replacing those trips with something else will take time. But it'll happen.

Works for me. It sounds to me like something that shouldn't be there but with Rush maybe they left it in on purpose. You never know.

Also, in the song "Presto", just before Geddy sings "The evening plane rises up from the runway...", there is a weird noise, almost sounds like an old man mumbling a "ruuurrr" sound. Again, very brief, but noticeable. It doesn't sound like an instrument to my ear. Maybe an odd bass note?

That is one thing about Power Windows and Hold Your Fire, with the elaborate keys there seems to be a ton of little things hidden on those albums, be it by design or just by the layers of sounds masking other sounds. Always a fun listen and I can sometimes still find little things here and there I hadn't heard before (or had forgotten were there) so many years later.

The softer part after the second chorus in "Open Secrets!", after Geddy says "Let it Go..." with just the lingering synth notes playing...the music between that and when he starts the lyrics again with "I find No Absolution..." has a ton of interesting sounds and music playing...keyboard, piano, possibly an odd guitar riff. I used to isolate that short piece on my CD player with the A/B repeat function (Damn great feature back in the day if you were a Rush fan) and listen to it a lot. Through a good set of headphones I imagine those sounds would be there with even more clarity. At the end of the second chorus of "Time Stand Still", between "longer" and the start of Neil"s drum roll, there is a little guitar sound that is very unique to my ear. Very short, hard to explain in words. Just one of those odd little noises you hear that because it's Rush you think is probably there on purpose. The remastered intro to The Camera Eye is a favourite as well, with all the original sounds included. That intro makes so much more sense with all of that included. At the end of Grand Designs, just before Neil's last little role before the Keys are all that is left, there is a noise that sounds like someone bumped something with a mic. barely there, but it's there. I don't know what it is exactly and it's almost not there, it's so quiet and brief.

I've got 10th row floor Alex's side and I have a spare if anyone is interested. Face value is all I want. Could meet up later to flip the ticket at the excel or at Tom Reid's. If interested email me at wfsucs@yahoo.com It's the seat next to me but I'm harmless. :)

Thanks.

In Minnesota, I think the side seats are in the sections that they added when they pushed the stage back a full section due to the pace of initial sales when tickets first became available. The upper decks are still open near the back. The odd pair of floors and whatnot coming available is probably just the usual promoter hold-back on some decent tix to stimulate sales. I expect there to be the usual 8-10000 fans there. Last tour was right around 8000 at the Target Center iirc. EDIT: amalfc, do you have a % sold number for St. Paul? I'd love to know if you do, thanks.

Problem is you have posts like johnnyonthespot's in this forum that NEEDS to be moved to the R40 Spoiler section that someone will invariably click on by accident. Soon I'll be getting emails from people about the setlist and this or that song and I'll have to avoid those too. Last tour three people sent me reviews of the first show, lol. I wasn't avoiding the setlist but if that happens this time I might be cooked. Never mind my friends in St. Paul that even if I tell not to share what they know about the setlist, song titles start slipping out anyway. Oh well. If it happens it happens.

I wonder if this was a calculated setlist leak or if nobody actually thought about it when sending the VIP Swag out. It would have been pretty easy to send along a special coupon for the tourbook once you arrived that the venue, no?

If not a medley to start, an encore medley like they did on the RTB tour would be cool. I don't see them not doing some sort of R30-ish style medley this time out...and I'm all for it. As far as an opener goes if not a medley, I would expect it to be something familiar, that they can play almost in their sleep...sort of an on-stage warmup for them to get into things. Subdivisions, SOR, Tom Sawyer, Limelight, all tunes they have played ad infinitum, have opened the last 4 tours. Good for them to ease into other stuff as the set moves forward, plus it gets a tune they are more or less sick of playing out of the way right off the bat.

R40 Medley

I was just about to ask if the tourbook was included with the swag, for exactly that reason.

I looked at the pub date and it's from last October so I doubt it would be something used for this tour. I like the concept though.

Very cool if true.

I dunno, there wasn't much more for them to say besides "Thank You", and it wasn't said in a way that made me think they were shooting a rolleyes smiley at me in their brains while doing it. I was just happy I had the presence of mind to tell them that on such a chance meeting.

No Neil, just Geddy and Alex. Gump was travelling by himself insofar as I could see.

I think a medley or two is inevitable. It's not like R30 was the first time they did one, their encore on the Roll the Bones Tour was an extended medley too.

I was walking back to my hotel in Halifax in 2013 the day between their two shows there and happened upon Geddy and Alex walking near my hotel. It was about midnight or so. I recognized them from the back about ten feet away but my brain was trying to tell me that it wasn't possible it was actually them. I caught up with them and said Hi and told them how much I appreciated their music and how much it had meant to me. They both thanked me and continued on their way...by this time we were in front of my hotel down at the waterfront. It never dawned on me how noctournal being on a tour like that would make you. After all, you play in the evening until late, and then it takes time to decompress and "come down". It wouldn't be unusual for them to be up and kicking around half the night, same as anyone else with an afternoon or evening job. It was food for thought after the fact if nothing else. That was a pretty cool experience overall, and I'm happy I got a chance to meet them briefly and thank them like taht. As a Rush fan, is there anything else you would really want the chance to do in their presence? On my way out of town the day after the second show I also ran into Gump at the airport. Got to say hi to him as well, which was also pretty cool.

In Canada we, of course, had Muchmusic. Countdown and a lot of other more obscure Rush videos got a lot of airplay, partially because it was Rush and partially because they needed to show a certain percentage of Canadian material to satisfy the CRTC. I always preferred Muchmusic to the bits of MTV I saw on friend's dishes back then, it seemed more down-to-earth in presentation than it's American forerunner.

If they didn't move the whole floor up people would complain them to death. I would think they will add more floor seats in the back if anything.