That's Huckleberry Finn , Stupid!!

Here is my Rush Concert review finally. Of the 9 times that I have gone to Rush concerts, I have only been unhappy with one of them and I blame the terrible sound quality of whichever Jacksonville stadium they were in that year. So, it is no surprise that I loved it.

I brought with me Andy, who has only seen them once and knows about 3 songs, and Robert who has never been to a concert and knows none of the songs. Thankfully, the show was so good that they both really enjoyed it.

Also, thankfully, they played no less than 9 new songs instead of going too far down nostalgia lane. I am one of those weird people that enjoy seeing new material and like the classics to be kept under control. It makes me feel less old.

The one down side to the concert is that the SECC is not really that big of a place, so the video screens were banished to the stage area, which kind of defeats the purpose which I imagine is to allow us poor people on the higher seats to see what is going on down on the stage, as well as demonstrate video and animation clips. The fun part is that not the same clips were on all of the screens, so we could only see the left hand side one and most of the middle one.

There was a clip of the South Park kids trying to play Tom Sawyer to introduce the song. I have no idea if this is part of a real episode or not because our South Park episodes are really old repeats. Carmen, as usual gets all the words wrong: ' That Tom's Sawyer's a mean mean guy, he floated down a river on a raft with a black guy! I'm Geddy Lee and I can sing whatever lyrics I want!'

There were also some lovely Reefer Madness clips during 'Passage to Bangkok' as I think like most old time rock songs, it is about drugs. Bob and Doug Mackenzie made a short appearance as well. Those Canadians have to stick together.

Oh and yes the music was fantastic. Rush is a love or hate thing with most rock fans. I have always said that it is a shame that many people can't get past the high frequency singing because there are few people on the face of the earth than can play their instruments as well as these three guys. The drum set is obnoxiously large, but never wasted and Alex still tends to hold several guitars at once, but they do only have 3 people to make a sound that 5 would find difficult to achieve. It is also a shame that rock radio has done what it normally does with groups, even long lasting ones, they play the same 3 to 4 songs over and over, rather than giving any other material a chance. For a band that has released 20 studio albums and 5 live ones, it simply is not fair.

To me a concert is not just about the music, but about the crowd as well. Glasgow crowds are different from Florida crowds. They sit and listen and only cheer between songs. To an outsider one thinks that they are being unenthusiastic. I think maybe it is just a keen interest in the music. I have always been annoyed by people in the upper stands that stand up so then everyone behind them has to stand up. I have always wanted to slap 'whooopers' or people who whoop and cheer in the middle of a song right next to you. I am glad to be rid of them.

There were lots of dads there and also embarrassed kids. I mean if your dad was wearing a faded tight old Rush Tshirt and doing air guitar, well you may be embarrassed too. Now, I was pretty far back and did not see what was going on up front very much. I did see that there were some signs being held up in the crowd, which I would have been upset about it I were behind the people. However, according to various Internet blogs (oh so reliable right???) most of them were jokes and it is rumoured that the crew gave some of them out. Some of the signs spotted:

• My Grampa Says Your Cool


• Can I roll your bones? (they have a song called 'Roll the Bones')


• I was conceived while my dad was at a Rush concert (I don't think the mom was)


• My mom thinks you're hot!!


• Freebird!


• I though ZZ Top had beards

I give the concert a big double thumbs up and not just because it is one of the few place on earth where there is no line for the Women's Toilets. After all, there were only about 10 of us there.

Next Time: I will try to fit in a yearbook post or two before I leave. And stay tuned to see the real live crazy cat lady.