G'nome shirt from concert

[Running Rebel]

In Neil's latest blog Dec/2012 about the last leg of the tour he mentions the shirts he shoots out of his T-Gun during the concert.

 

　

One fun feature I have added to my performance this tour is the "T-shirt gun." For many years, at the beginning of our encore, Alex and Geddy have carried out baskets of bundled T-shirts and tossed them out to the crowd. That never appealed to me — not feeling comfortable in front of my drums — but somewhere I must have seen one of the air-powered guns that are used at sporting events to shoot souvenir T-shirts into stadium crowds. That, I thought, might be fun.

 

Michael soon took over as my weapons-handler, while John "Boom-Boom" Arrowsmith, our pyrotechnician and daily-events photographer, prepared the "ordnance" (T-shirts tightly bundled in fluorescent tape — so people can see them coming!). I run out for the encore, and Gump hands me the loaded gun. I climb up on the strings riser, and wait for the lights to come up on the audience (again, I want people to see the flying shirts — don’t want anyone getting hurt). I fire the first two rounds, then bend down to let Michael reload while I turn the dial to prime the pressure. Soon we had it down to a tight routine, and were getting off four separate shots. Then I would lay down the gun and scramble across the subwoofer to the drums, ready to start "Tom Sawyer."

 

At first I was shooting T-shirts with my "yearbook" photo from the tourbook — created by Geddy for all three of us on an app called Oldbooth — then one with my "g’nome" character on the front, and finally a West Side Beemer Boyz version, with a riding shot on the front, and one of my favorite maxims on the back, "The Best Roads are the Ones No One Travels Unless They Live on Them."

 

Here is a great shot by Boom-Boom, showing the first shirt in flight, and the second just leaving the muzzle. Michael waits to load the last two shirts.

 

 

 

http://www.neilpeart.net/news/december_2012/t-gun.jpg

 

 

It was never in doubt from moment I heard RushCon was going to be at the same time as the concert that I would fulfill a life long dream and head off with Mrs. Rebel to see the Toronto show. The vacation turned out awesome, RushCon was a blast, and ended the week with my favorite concert of all time spanning around 50 shows over 34 years.

 

On the way to the show riding the bus from the motel to the concert with other RushCon attendees my wife was talking to a couple guys that we had been frequently talking to over the weekend, about how she was going to get one of the concert tees that the band throws out. I "winked" and told them she had been "planning" on getting one for months now. We actually didn't even know where we would be sitting except the first 15 rows due to the, well, you know... They were laughing in amusement at her forthright conviction it would happen. On the other hand, despite being one of the "faithless" I have learned to never question her veracity on such things. For whatever karma there "might" be in the universe, she seems to have some mystical connections to such events that I have been yet to find a natural explantion for, and so have come to expect such things "falling from the sky" with a matter of regularity.

 

When the final encore was about to start up, Alex and Geddy suddenly appeared running across the front of the stage throwing out tees. We were in the third row, (smiling blond direct center) (pic borrowed

w/permsission)

 

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k168/yangster1020/Toronto/T61.jpg

 

 

 

and as the shirts were being thrown out I quickly realized that the gods were maligned and fate was not to be with my dear wife that evening as the shirts being thrown out came no where near us. When suddenly, my wife bends over and starts reaching around in the dark on the ground around our feet and arises with a black bundled tee shirt wrapped in rubber bands. I looked up and around in shock and amazement. What the hell? How the f*ck? Look back at her. Back in the air. Around. And back to the stage where they were now preparing to play and was simply left dumbfounded.

 

This must have been prior to Neil's use of florescent tape. It was a stealth attack shirt!

 

I obviously (as did the wife) missed that Neil was even doing this. Later looking through some of the excellent pictures posted on this forum, I found this shot from that exact night. That could be her actual shirt, lol.

 

 

 

 

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k168/yangster1020/Toronto/T24.jpg

 

The guys on the bus were dumbfounded and dying laughing as she whipped it out to show them on the bus ride back after the show. They were the first to say it obviously came from Neil' "gun" . It had actually fell from the air and landed on her. No one around us had noticed, all being fixated on Alex and Geddy apparently. She had simply felt something falling and a "slight" brush against her and having a feeling it was "something" started looking around on the ground for it. The smile on her face realizing she had a shirt was priceless. The dumbfounded look on mine was probably worth more :)

 

And if you have never seen a Neil G'nome shirt, this is what it looks like. :)

 

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k168/yangster1020/2012-12-15_08-43-37_270.jpg

 

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k168/yangster1020/2012-12-15_08-43-47_980.jpg

 

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k168/yangster1020/2012-12-15_08-44-21_650.jpg

 

 

And I for one, will never question the existence of those "G'nomes". hahahaha

[CygnusGal]

:D

 

That is an awesome story, Reb! Thanks for sharing! :)

[Thunder Bay Rush]

Dude, great story! 50 shows? WOW!

 

And, you are one lucky guy because you have a very beautiful wife!! Her smile could cause a twenty car traffic pile up... ;)

[WIDE-ANGLE WATCHER]

Great story......Great shirt.....Great band.

[tripdad]

Great story and great seeing you guys in Toronto. Looking forward top the next tour. We will have to hook up again.

[Running Rebel]

Thanks all!

[rushfanforever!]

That's one cool :rush: shirt!!!

[iBytor]

whoa!!! haha I want it!!!!! That's WAY awesome!!!!