Curmudgeon alert - am I alone in this?

[JohnRogers]

[ytserush]

16 hours ago, Timbale said:

Not trying to ruin anyone's buzz… I'm sure it's going to be super fun.

 

It was. You could feel the love in the room.

[ytserush]

6 hours ago, Rush Didact said:

 

If you listen to the bootlegs of the Darien Lake show on the VT tour, you'll hear a really high-pitched and obnoxious "WOO!" right smack in the middle of the pause at the emotional peak of Resist, when Ged and Al and the whole rest of the audience is dead silent.

 

That woo is 17 year old me, who was absolutely mortified by what he did and instantly regretted it. I'm sure everyone around me was annoyed, but now when I listen to that bootleg it makes me smile and remember how exciting it was to be at my first Rush show (and my first big rock concert too).

This reminds me of the time I was immortalized in the 6/2/90 Knickerbocker Albany video a few times when the guy who was filming randomly focused in on part our section at a few points including during War Paint. That really freaked me out the first time I watched that.

[Principled Man]

4 hours ago, snowdog2112 said:

 it took all the patience I had not to turn around and yell "What in the world is wrong with you????!!" 

 

 

I hereby chastise you for NOT yelling at the nincompoop.   

 

 

They're gonna play it, so SHUT UP AND WAIT FOR IT, DUMBASS!!     

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Principled Man

[Rhyta]

On 11/17/2023 at 7:37 PM, Rush Didact said:

I haven't watched any video of the events so far, so that's disappointing to hear.  I hope the Massey Hall show isn't like that...

Have to realize we are only getting snippets of the events and it may not be like that the whole time.  People are excited to have some contact with Geddy and some fans always act foolish, that's just how it is.  I have enjoyed watching YouTube interviews with Geddy and the audio book is good, it will take time to finish it since I think it will be more enjoyable to read in snippets (IMHO) but it is nice to hear some things we didn't already know about. 

[goose]

On 11/18/2023 at 3:23 AM, BigMontanaSKY said:

Be happy for them. & The one man show known as Ged............

 

I, like many people, re-discovered a lot of the catalog of songs during the Pandemic years.

 

I hate admitting this but one of my favorite concerts featured a mosh pit so large and unruly I didn't jump into it. I was glad everyone was feeling the music, but I opted to relax by a barricade. LOL As long as everyone is having a good time, what is there to be angry about....?

 

 

Sorry to tell you this, but you're doing OLD wrong.

 

 

 

 

[goose]

On 11/18/2023 at 12:25 PM, Principled Man said:

 

 

I hereby chastise you for NOT yelling at the nincompoop.   

 

 

They're gonna play it, so SHUT UP AND WAIT FOR IT, DUMBASS!!     

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reminds me of the time I saw the band America.  A rather drunk lady in a balcony box kept yelling "HORSE WITH NO NAAAAAME!  HORSE WITH NO NAAAAME!"  About half way through the show, between songs the bassist told her "Relax, lady, relax! It's coming."

[goose]

On 11/18/2023 at 7:19 AM, Timbale said:

Yeah, I'm not really angry...being a little bit playful...BUT, there is something that rubs me the wrong way about it.  There's something in it that seems to be about people trying to "prove" themselves to be a "real" fan - like, yeah, dude - you know what Bytor & The Snowdog is...we all f**king do. Where the hell do you think you are? It's a gathering of fans who have paid hundreds of dollars… You don't have some inside knowledge that you need to let me, the guy sitting next to you, know about.  It's very possible that I am wrong about this… But the yelling out "Woo!" at some quiet moment when it will stand out and be heard (as opposed to being at a rock show and cheering) just seems like really narcissistic behaviour to me.

 

And honestly… Having that kind of environment where everyone cheers and whoops for every reference or mention creates a certain vibe in terms of the conversation that is happening that becomes a little bit more about pandering to the audience itself. There are a lot of podcasts that I like where are my least favourite episodes are always the ones where they do an ep in front of a live audience. Everything becomes a bit of an inside joke… And there's a certain amount of playing to the audience to get laughs or whatever reaction that makes it a way less interesting listen for me. 

I'm gonna have all my friends bring Geddy Talk Super Fan bingo sheets to the show.  "Sign of Eth" will be everyone's middle square.

[HalfwayToGone]

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.

[BastillePark]

5 hours ago, HalfwayToGone said:

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.

The yelling things at those on stage I understand is ridiculous and maybe even rude but clapping or cheering is another matter. What I don't get is the standing ovations for simply walking on stage. Actually I do get it, it's a symptom of the participation trophy thing but it's beyond silly. Like every military member or fire fighter is a hero and it's absolutely not so.

[edhunter]

It reminds me of what my father described his first AA meeting as being like.  He looked around the room and thought “No way am I as bad as these guys.” (He was).
 

Every time I’m in a room full of Rush fans,  I look around and think “Oh my gosh, what a bunch of f***ing dweebs. No way am I as bad as these guys.” (I’m not…..I think).

[Relayer2112]

I've only seen two performers that were bothered by crowd noise...Steve Howe and, believe it or not, Roger Waters.  You would think that performers who have been doing it for years would just let it slide as drawing attention to it just causes more problems.

 

I was at Geddy's book tour show in Philly.  There were people yelling and applauding all the time but, since Geddy responded positively to it, it wasn't a huge deal and didn't really throw things off.

[thizzellewashington]

Seattle crowd was fine.

[Timbale]

On 12/1/2023 at 5:21 AM, HalfwayToGone said:

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.

Not a "hater", just expressing my opinion on (checks what website he's on) a discussion board.  Never said "Waaaah", gave the thread a self-mocking title and did my best to give as much context for why I feel the way I feel.  "Waaah, 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" is a rather creative way to categorize my (and others') perspective on it.  Was not calling on people to remain silent...just irked that people feel the need to draw focus toward themselves, away from the actually reason why others' are AT a show like that...particularly with a price tag like these shows have.  If I had to sit next to some dude who had to yell every time Neil's name got mentioned just so everyone around him knows what a big damn fan he is, yeah, I'd be really annoyed.  And you, I'm gathering, wouldn't.  Cool.

 

And if we're going to limit discussions only to shows that we've personally been to, we should get the admins to make a rule...because there are a lot of "so called fans" making posts and comments on all manner of Rush shows, tours, interviews, video shoots and recording sessions through the years that they didn't attend...

[Rush Didact]

On 12/1/2023 at 3:53 PM, Relayer2112 said:

I've only seen two performers that were bothered by crowd noise...Steve Howe and, believe it or not, Roger Waters.

 

Roger Waters seems generally bothered by nearly everything, why wouldn't I believe that?

[Relayer2112]

18 hours ago, Rush Didact said:

 

Roger Waters seems generally bothered by nearly everything, why wouldn't I believe that?

I was being sarcastic :)

[Rush Didact]

43 minutes ago, Relayer2112 said:

I was being sarcastic :)

 

Ah!

[HalfwayToGone]

On 12/3/2023 at 9:16 PM, Timbale said:

Not a "hater", just expressing my opinion on (checks what website he's on) a discussion board.  Never said "Waaaah", gave the thread a self-mocking title and did my best to give as much context for why I feel the way I feel.  "Waaah, 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" is a rather creative way to categorize my (and others') perspective on it.  Was not calling on people to remain silent...just irked that people feel the need to draw focus toward themselves, away from the actually reason why others' are AT a show like that...particularly with a price tag like these shows have.  If I had to sit next to some dude who had to yell every time Neil's name got mentioned just so everyone around him knows what a big damn fan he is, yeah, I'd be really annoyed.  And you, I'm gathering, wouldn't.  Cool.

 

And if we're going to limit discussions only to shows that we've personally been to, we should get the admins to make a rule...because there are a lot of "so called fans" making posts and comments on all manner of Rush shows, tours, interviews, video shoots and recording sessions through the years that they didn't attend...

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.

Edited January 10 by HalfwayToGone

[Timbale]

On 1/10/2024 at 11:25 AM, HalfwayToGone said:

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.

To each their own.  I think categorizing my objections as being about "applauding the star of the show" is to pretty grossly misinterpret what I was saying.  If you really think I don't believe Geddy deserves applause at his book tour shows, I think you really didn't get my point.  "Participation trophy" is actually a perfect description of what I was talking about - people who in public spaces actually want the attention while doing something seemingly altruistic like cheering an artist.  From all the footage I've watched of the book tour on youtube - which is a fair amount - I am very often struck by how the tone of the night is kept from getting too deep at times because there's always someone who needs to "whoop!!" when Geddy mentions the title of a song every damn person in the venue is intimately aware of.  My opinion of that kind of behaviour is that it is self-serving, and not really about the artist...and certainly not about the community gathered to enjoy the show.  Perhaps I have PTSD from all the dudes I've had behind me at Rush shows over the years yelling "play 2112!" as if the band can hear them from the Greys in Maple Leaf Gardens.  I don't know.  One of my fave interviews with Geddy is on a show called Speakeasy with Michael Chabon.  Despite the fact that it is a live interview in front of an audience, it manages to be a great conversation that doesn't have to "play to the audience" or get derailed all the time by applause.  Like I said, to each their own - I know if I had gone to one of the book tour stops, I would have been annoyed.  I envy you that you wouldn't, because it makes live performance an often frustrating thing for me.

 

[yyz2112]

It's definitely cringey.   Shout and scream at a gig all you like but this in an interview.