Rush Road Trip - Coors Amphitheatre

September 25th

With another day of rest between shows I went back to work the following morning while at the same time our buddy Eddy began his return trip home to the bay area. It was great sharing our experiences with him. Eddy is a terrific guy. Involved with the crew behind the scenes at RushCon I look forward to hanging with him again in the near future.

At work with Charlie.

For the Coors Amphitheatre event we took advantage of another specially discounted limo (thanks again Zeke!). It would be a two hour ride (one way) for most of us attending the event that night so forking out a few extra bucks a piece was worth not having to drive the run ourselves. The passengers in this ride included my buddy Dave, Jeff and his girlfriend Dawn (who by the way was about to attend her very first Rush concert tonight), Judy, myself and Teresa (ALXSPC). Teresa once had the good fortune of having Alex Lifeson hand her his guitar pic at the close of a concert years ago (once again her luck runs true to form this concert tour - more on this later I promise).

Jamming to Rush CD's in our limo.

Teresa and Judy

Two hours on the I-5 and one "seal breaking" pit stop at a McDonalds restaurant later we pulled into downtown San Diego where we made a last minute run to pick up our ticket agent Jeff.

While on our way to the Amphitheater Jeff - our ticket agent - feeling extra generous made the decision to upgrade tickets from fifth to third row for Judy and I, in addition to providing fifth row tickets to Dave and Teresa.

We were beside ourselves with glee!

Our ticket agent Jeff rides with us to the event.

Toasting our good fortune!

Arriving at the venue with plenty of time to hang out (and buy beer), we ran into our Rush fan buddy Matt (ProjectAtlantis).

On a side note - back in Las Vegas, Matt was originally planning on staying an extra day to enjoy the casinos and various extra curricular activities to be found there when his trip was cut short after having a run-in with a cement truck while en route to the MGM Grand. Does that suck or what? On the other hand - after taking a good look at the damage done to his vehicle I concluded that the impact mark left on the side of his car looked a lot like the fiery red meatball thingy on the cover of the Vapor trails CD - skid/trail marks and all! Mind you - you may need to stretch your imagination and cross your eyes a bit while looking at the damage to see what I mean but otherwise BAM! Instant Vapor Trails logo. Woo Hoo! Talk about putting the dink in co-ink-a-dink eh?

Alrighty folks... This time around I thought about including a rundown of tonight's set list along with a play by play highlight report of my recollections on the Coors Amphitheatre event. Below is more or less my account of happenings as they transpired that night. Enjoy!

Rush opens up for San Diego.

RUSH Concert Accounts & Set List Details Part I:

We arrive in our limo about a half hour before show time - get cleared through security - plus one concealed camera - purchase our brew on tap - partake of some munchies - hook up with Matt - do the last minute rest room run then make our way to our seats down in front. Heh, heh. The lights go down at approximately 8:15 p.m. Bam! Rush hits the stage and the crowd is on it's feet for the remainder of the night!

Tom Sawyer: Opening song - No video on background screen per se yet plenty of live video close-ups of the band in action.

Distant Early Warning: More of the same.

Geddy screams "Hello!"

New World Man: Same as above.

Roll The Bones: Video clips of the skeleton as seen on previous tours. We (Judy and I) sing in unison - "Why are we here? - because theirs beer!" ;)

NOTE: Alex is still coughing as a result of the cold plaguing him on this leg of the Vapor Trails tour.

Geddy yells "Thank You" and "Hello San Diego". He follows up with "How are you doing tonight? It's great to be back in Southern California. To punish you properly we have a gazillion songs to play for you tonight so let's get to it. This next song is called Earthshine."

Earthshine: No video but lot's of close-ups again.

YYZ: More close-ups.

Geddy yells out "Thank you" once again and introduces the next two songs as personal favorites of the band beginning with The Pass.

The Pass: Video plays as per previous concert tours (NOTE: Judy sheds more heartwarming tears).

Bravado: This is the song that introduces the state of the art video technology created by Spin Productions which utilizes a computer system called Catalyst. The Catalyst system is capable of storing 65,000, 3-minute QuickTime movies in it's computer bank resulting in a visual aid accompaniment like no other. Impressive eh? Adding to the song in this case is a behind the subject shot of a bird flying through planes of clouds in a blue sky. Along the way the bird flies "too close to the sun" resulting with the loss of it's feathers before it is consumed by digital flame only to return intact by the end of the song - a Phoenix perhaps? As it is - I absolutely love the song Bravado. I allow my imagination to soar along with the digital bird through the backdrop of animated clouds...

Big Money: Digital money flies across the background screen.

Geddy: "We'd like to pull a song out the closet for you this evening. It's called The Trees."

The Trees: Ever a pleasant surprise! The song is accompanied by footage from previous video concert clips.

Freewill: Always a crowd pleaser!

Natural Science: New digital screen effects fill the background. Lot's of protein strains. Cool!

NOTE: Near the end of Natural Science I'm pointing up at Geddy yelling "You're number one!" Spotting me in the third row, Geddy points right back at me and mouths the words "you're number one". I freeze. Seats up close to the stage can be s-o-o-o cool sometimes.

Geddy: :"Thank you very much! We'll be back after a quick break" or something or other I didn't write this part down fast enough I'm afraid... The trio wave to the roaring audience and exit stage left...

The first set comes to a close and the lights go up. Behind the stage a video can be seen of a pre-dawn landscape with a sun rising on the horizon... Crickets can be heard in the background.

Our group makes a bee line for the beer stands...

Rush performs One Little Victory.

RUSH Concert Accounts & Set List Details Part II:

Returning to our seats - we catch a glimpse of the pre-dawn screen now lit up with morning light. Red dragons can be seen roosting in a rocky canyon puffing out gouts of flame. One in particular is drawn to the opening rifts of One Little Victory. The dragon advances looking angered by the sound of the music. It shows it's appreciation by shooting flame onto the stage. Pyrotechnic explosions fill the audience's view. We feel the heat on our faces. The band appears completely unaffected by the heat. In actuality the band is protected by a powerful curtain of cold air that shoots up from behind the stage during the explosions. (I once worked for Universal Studios Hollywood. I know a little bit about special effects eh?) Next - the dragon whips out a cigar and lights it with his breath then later roasts a coveted Rush backstage pass right before our watering eyes.

One Little Victory: Unable to stop the music the defeated dragon smacks his head on a canyon rock and falls back with his feet in the air, then as if placating to the band, produces a white flag in surrender. The dragon flies away - similar to the Phoenix in flight detailed in the first part of this set list account. Very nice!

Pyrotechnics galore this time around.

Ghost Rider: Aside from the music itself the next best part of experiencing this song live is Neil's cross country photo montage featuring shots of his rider-less motorcycle in addition to video clips of traveling on twisting & turning city streets. Judy comments on the similarities we shared of the video to our very own road trip experiences. Funny she should mention that as I was thinking the exact same thing.

Ghost Rider.

Secret Touch: Spinning digital screens fill the backdrop on this song.

Dreamline: Green lasers fill the air in addition to more video screens.

Red Sector A: A brand new digital video accompanies this song featuring twenty-five petulant yet curiously androgynous blue figures doing a rumba on their knees with a field of black barbed wire and flames spinning around them. Real cool yet Kinda' freaky.

Leave That Thing Alone: Sea horses? At least that's what I think they are swimming across the screen for this song. Hmmm...

The Rhythm Method: What else is there to say about Neil's ultimate drum solo that hasn't already been said. It was truly COSMIC brother! The end of The Rhythm Method is accented with a swing dance jazzy sound in addition to new black & white video clips featuring jazz performers of old along with swing-like cartoons. Nice!

Neil belts out yet another fabulous drum solo.

Resist: For the first time at a Rush concert tour we are treated to something just a little bit different. At the end of Neil's solo act, Geddy and Alex come out and perform an "unplugged" version of Resist much to the delight of us all. MINOR DETAIL ALERT: Geddy is playing a six string guitar for this one. Out of all the songs performed on this tour I kinda' sorta' half expected this one to replace Closer to the Heart with regards to the cigarette lighter sea of lights held aloft by the audience. Maybe we were just too stunned to think about that just then. I know I was. I'll remember next time... Yeah... I like the sound of that... Next time...

Resist unplugged.

2112 Overture & The Temples of Syrinx: Star man logo lights up the screen. Space effects follow. Very hot! Due to time constraints Discovery through Grand Finale are omitted from the set list. Damn!

Limelight: Once again no video but nice band shots.

La Villa Strangiato: More of the same with the exception of the now legendary "Alex rant" performed near the end of the song with a close-up screen shot of Alex with Geddy and Neil smiling, laughing and reacting to Alex's rant in the background. Great visual for the audience.

Alex's Rant!

CONCERT NOTE: To those of you not in the know about the "Alex rant" you should be aware that for each night on this concert tour Alex brings the show to a halt during La Villa Strangiato and proceeds to rant about off the wall subjects including Meat Bees, Turkey Sandwiches and Whistling. It's never the same rant twice. As a rule the rants appear completely unrehearsed which adds to the element of surprise each time around. Lot's of fun for the band I'm sure!

Oh boy... Here goes nothing... Please keep in mind I was writing this at about a million miles a minute that night so if I got a few syllables wrong don't sue me eh? Thanks...

Playing his guitar Alex begins to whistle - while whistling he opens with: "Come-on everybody! Whistle!"

Following his lead the crowd begins to whistle in earnest.

"Good whistling! Okay! Alright now... Let's see what we can do while everybody's whistling... I have a story to terrify you... Instead of a story about Meat Bees... this is a story about the Zoo!"

"I got the Zoo-zoo-zoo blues... Ohhh... and no meat for the lions!"

"One of these days I'm going to run away!"

"...And one day when the Zoo keeper wasn't looking all the animals ran away. He wasn't prepared for the blues."

"The moral of the story is - never turn your back on an animal that likes the blues..."

La Villa Strangiato: End.

The Spirit Of Radio: More band shots fill the screen 'til the end of the song. The lights go up and the band waves thanks and exits the stage. The crowd goes wild.

Encore

Returning to the stage the band is backlit with the flaming Vapor Trails logo animated with additional flaming sound effects on screen. The music of By-Tor & the Snow Dog fills the air...

By-Tor & the Snow Dog: This song is accompanied by a brand new animated cartoon video featuring Alex, Geddy and Neil as cartoon characters. We see a muscle-bound Alex and Geddy explode after a flex-off who then return to the screen as cartoon dogs that race around a room while Neil (as himself) sits casually in a lounge chair in the background. Neil shrugs. As the cartoon progresses the scene turns to a futuristic landscape with a pair of armored robotic characters - presumably By-Tor and Snow Dog squaring for a battle of sorts. Instead of the typical hack & slash we are treated to a dancing stand off. By-Tor does the Macarena while Snow Dog performs a Lord of the Dance number (we see a breakaway breast plate fly from Snow Dog during his dance). Suddenly giant robot Neil sweeps in with a mighty blow that takes the pair's heads clean off! Neil shrugs again. The battle is over... Oh, and so is the song and video...

Cygnus X-1: More animation. This time a colorful black hole fills the screen behind the band sucking in everything that crosses it's path. Lightning bolts accent this visual greatly. At times, icons from previous albums fall into the void during the music. Nice effects eh?

Rush encore featuring the song Cygnus X-1.

Working Man: No video however cool band shots all the way through to the end of the song.

Geddy: "Thank you very much! Good night!" - And so another concert for the history books...

"Goodnight San Diego!"

Afterward we made our way back to our limo but not before making one last rest room pit stop. It's funny how the lines for the men's is like ten times longer than the women's at a Rush concert. Just one of those funny little observations again...

The Limo crew after the show.

During the course of the day I had been fighting off a cold, which would eventually catch up with me on the road home from San Diego that night. Luckily it was relatively mild and would only last a day or so as I recall. Later I would find that Judy had caught a cold too (sorry 'bout that Judy!). It was a mild case as well fortunately. We didn't let that stop us!

Click the Ghost Rider links below to send you on your way...

* * *