fish89

I definitely dug the fact Morello stood up for Rush. He was more primarily there for Public Enemy, but he had some very nice things to say about Rush after the induction. The quote on another thread from Sebadoh's lead guy (the one about the three greatest musicians in the world being in one band) is actually a modification of something Morello said regarding Rush at the RRHOF Induction. Rage, in general, seems to have a high degree of respect for Rush. Along with Morello's words, you have Commerford in Beyond the Lighted Stage, and Zack Dela Rocha apparently has had a say in Rage occasionally covering Working Man live. Chad Smith, like any drummer with half a brain cell, gets Peart is good, I am sure. The one that I don't totally buy, though, is Grohl. I will admit that I like the fact Grohl has come out in favor of Rush and I think he and Hawkins have done a nice job of playing tribute, but until very recently all of Grohl's musical love seemed to be directed at Jon Bonham. Grohl just strikes me as a musical opportunist. I don't doubt he had some love for Rush prior, but I find it awfully suspicious that his public accolades came after Colber, I Love You Man, the documentary, etc. But maybe he was just living in the Rush closet for a long time. Maybe he realized it was safe to come out... Regardless, I totally agree that it was very cool to see some well known musicians give it up for Rush along with the fans. I think Taylor Hawkins is the big Rush fan, and Dave is just coming along for the ride. I suspect that as a drummer, Grohl has always at least greatly respected Rush. I'm watching his series on HBO, now, and he seems like someone who is passionate about a lot of very disparate types of musicians. Just from the interviews I've seen, Taylor seems the most enthusiastic. I don't mean to say that Dave doesn't like Rush, but I think Taylor is the bigger fan. I think you might be right. And, again, I don't doubt that Grohl had a degree of respect for Rush or that he is/was a fan on some level. I just question the timing of his blatant Rush fandom. Either way, if he did really just jump on the bandwagon, it only helped the band achieve a higher level of notoriety.... but we all know that those of us who have been driving the wagon for decades sometimes roll our eyes at the late comers who are old enough to know better. Heard Foo Fighters on Howard Stern this morning (replay from earlier in the week. Taylor made some comment along the lines of "When we were in high school all we wanted to do was play Rush songs and smoke cigarettes"

I hate these "who's the best" polls as it is clearly subjective. If someone would come up with an objective measurement, then we could maybe answer this (fastes rudiments, best timekeeping, whatever). Having siad that, I love both of them, but Neil is a guy who is phenomnal within his band, Simon is phenomenal at whatever he plays with a WIDE variety of artists. Remember, Neil picked Simon's "Dancing Men" to be the first song the Burning for Buddy album. Great interview with SImon at http://www.drumheadmag.com/web/feature.php?id=16

So a couple things... 1) Ticket prices. I paid $126 per ticket (including fees) last night to go see my favorite band with great seats on the side of the stage. One of my wife's favorite artists is playing in Charlotte in two weeks - I will pay $381 a ticket to sit 4 sections further away to see Madonna. Won't hear me complaining about Rush ticket prices! 2) Setlist. There are two types of bands out there: nostalgia bands (everyone from The Who to Hootie and the Blowfish) that aren't interested in making new music and tour playing thier songs from day's gone by and bands like Rush that continue to put out new music. If I recall, almost every Rush concert I went to up through Power Windows, they ALWAYS played almost the whole new albumn they were touring. And even since then they have always played a significant portion of thier most current albumn. I loved the way the new album came across live and am glad they featured it. I was definatley surprised by the weight of the mid-late 80's albums (Signals, GuP and PW) and the lack of songs from both the recent past and ancient past. Personally I really enjoyed it as that is the era when I was in my prime Rush worship phase, but I can understand the criticsm that it is over-weighted to this period. 3) Crowds - I happened to be up in NJ a couple weeks ago and saw them up there as well as last night. While the crowd in Newark was definately larger, I wouldn't say it was any better. I had basically the same seats for both shows and I really couldn't tell much of a difference in the energy level. The crowd in Charlotte actually was better than I thought it would be - in case y'all ain't realized it, this is a much smaller town then NY/Northern Jersey and a lot more Nascar / Country Music fans! So while there will always be complaints and criticisms, my personal opinion was that these were both phenomenal shows - I thought Geddy sounded better than he has the last few tours, the performances by all three of them were great, the orchestra added a very nice texture, and I would highly reccommend attending.

I will say this. My greatest disappointment in life (well OK, not quite) is that my 13 year old son wants nothing to do with Rush. Doesn't like them doesn't listen to them... All he wants to listen to is Eminem, Ludacris, Black Eye Peas and a bunch of other stuff I'm not really a huge fan of. He probably heard "The Wreckers" twice from me playing it in the car or around the house. So last week have the family in the car and "the Wreckers" pops up and plays on my ipod - and he is singing along with the chours! Wife and I start laughing at him and he's like "Hey, this is a really good song" So that is at least one vote for trying to reach out to a different audience with this as the next "single" - although I agree, I will be shocked if it ever gets played!

One of the weirdest things I have ever heard...

$32 for lawn seats in Charlotte, I know a whole bunch of folks going. Wouldn't even think of paying $100+ for "good seats" but not a bad price for what should be a fun evening. Journey should be good, Deen Castonovo has done a great job replacing Steve Smith (who replaced Ansley Dunbar) and the new singer does a good job. I agree Foreginer without Lou Grahamm seems odd. And just to comment on the Styx singer - you know this is Larry Gowan who used to be signed to Anthem - Alex played on at least one of his albums.