r/rush

Gen X here. No one told us. I’ve been to hundreds of shows and up until seeing Rush last week, have not worn ear protection. My tinnitus has grown to very high levels, along with some pressure in my ear and discomfort with loud noises, that I went for a hearing test. My results show moderate to severe hearing loss.

Get yourself the best quality you can afford and wear them. Even if you’re mowing the lawn or in a loud crowded place. I’m looking at between 3-7k for hearing aids and I’m “only” 57.

I realize how ridiculous that title sounds, but hear me out.

I’m currently working a job that I’m already pretty unhappy with. The pay isn’t great, there are no benefits, and we run on such a skeleton crew that getting coverage or taking time off is always a headache. It’s not really a career I see myself staying in long term anyway.
Rush is playing this weekend, and part of me is seriously considering just saying screw it, quitting, and going.

Financially, I’m not completely backed into a corner. I have a pretty substantial amount of resale inventory. Even if I had to liquidate some of it quickly at around 50% of market value, it wouldn’t be catastrophic. Realistically, selling maybe 1/20th of what I have at that kind of discount could probably cover 2–3 months of my rent, food, and basic expenses while I found another job.

Obviously the responsible answer is probably “don’t quit a job over a concert.” But I also keep thinking about how many times you get the chance to see a band like Rush, versus how replaceable this particular job feels.
I’m already leaning toward finding something better regardless, so the concert would almost just be the thing that forces me to finally make the move.

Would you:
A) Keep the job and miss the show
B) Try everything possible to get the shift covered first (My boss shut down and won’t let me even reach out for coverage)
C) Call out and deal with the consequences
D) Quit, go see Rush, and immediately start job hunting afterward

Curious what people would actually do in this situation, especially anyone who has left a mediocre job for a once-in-a-lifetime experience and either regretted it or was glad they did.

I saw Rush in Fort Worth and Houston, and it was awesome. I loved it. But sometimes I wish I was more engaged or focused on certain aspects, and payed more attention. It just felt like it went by so fast and now they’re gone and I won’t ever see them again. If I had the money I would’ve gone to every Fort Worth and San Antonio show. Guess it shows how obsessed with Rush I am 😂

Say something happened and Neil fell off his bike, had an accident, got stuck in traffic etc. Would they cancel the show or did they have a backup drummer?

Saw the boys in Houston last night and was maybe the best show I’ve ever seen them play. Met many fans in bars, aisles and in my seats. Everyone was unique and the banter awesome. We joked about the prostate vs ovarian mass at the show and when we first saw the band. The only thing that was a disconnect was my seats were front 10 rows center. Surrounded by fans who had seen multiple shows previously. Yet during the show 50% of those guys had their phone up vertical 90% of the time held up totally in everyone’s view. I was dead center on Anika. Almost never saw her.

Dudes. Take a quick pic or video if you must. Film horizontal for Christ’s sake. Then put it away and be in the fucking moment with the band AND those around you. You will never even look at those videos and yet you may have spoiled the show for those around you that are passionate about this band. Like you.

It looks like they have just two set lists now? And they alternate them? Basically for one set list they play all of Moving Pictures and the other one they play all of 2112? Someone mentioned there are four set lists but for their most recent concerts I only see two.

Went to the show in Houston last night with my girlfriend and had the most incredible, mind blowing experience. It was really more for me than her, I'm the biggest Rush fan and I've been yappin to her about the songs, what the setlist might be, and just bursting with excitement in preparation for last night. We started the night wayyyyyy up in the nosebleeds, off to the right of the stage. We were just happy to be there, it’s something I’d been looking forward to ever since they announced the Houston show. Xanadu went so hard, I was air drumming the whole way through… and someone must have seen it (or maybe they just wanted cute chicks up front :3), because towards the beginning of Analog Kid, someone came up to us and offered us tickets to the front row! I didn’t believe it at first, but we were led to an elevator and every guard just pointed us in towards our seats. It didn’t feel real. I was stunned, overwhelmed, confused, and the teeeeensiest bit blitzed, but we made it to our seats by the start of Freewill. I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be there, like it was some insane dream but I was able to relax enough to jam out to La Villa and just, enjoy it. Stars, I still can’t believe that happened. 

During intermission, I took some time to breathe and take it all in and convince myself that this really is happening. And for act II I just lived it, I air drummed along and sang my heart out and had a blast. All of 2112, all of Moving Pictures, it was the perfect setlist, everything I ever could have asked for. But never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be that close. Shoot, a year ago I thought I’d never even get the chance to see Rush in person! I’m still in awe. What an incredible performance. I’m the luckiest girl ever. 

To Rush, the crew, and everyone who made this possible, THANK YOU!!! For the upgraded seats, for putting this show on in the first place, for bringing it down to H-town, and for 50 glorious years of music. Y’all made my dream come true, and I’ll be talking about last night for the rest of my life. 

So, if you saw a girl air drummin like a maniac, wearing a tail, a CoS shirt, and the biggest smile that simply never left my face, yea that was me. I love this community so much.

All that to say: Blah. Blah blahblah blah. Blah blah. Blah blah. Blah blah! <3 <3 <3

I saw a link to a post that DJ Premier (who is a famous DJ / producer for GangStarr, Notorious BIG, Rakim, and many many more) was backstage at a recent Rush gig and he was so happy.

It reminds me of an episode of B-Real TV (B-Real is one of the MCs from Cypress Hill) and he was talking about seeing Rush on the Snakes and Arrows tour and how funny the chickens were but how he was bummed that they didn’t play more hits.

Also makes me think about the rock and roll HOF induction. Can’t remember Chuck D’s comments and whether or not he was a Rush fan, but it was great watching them all perform together.

Do you know of any other examples of well known hip-hop / rap artists having a known interest / connection to Rush?

And yes I have memorized the whole roll the bones rap and I like it.

Thought I’d share an overview of the making of Moving Pictures... Keeping it as minimally technical as I could.

August 1980: Initial writing and rehearsals at Stony Lake, Ontario, assembling lyrical and musical ideas... The Camera Eye was the first song to emerge, with Tom Sawyer and other songs to follow.

31 August: The band record demo versions of six songs (sans Vital Signs, as that was not written yet) with Terry Brown at Phase One Studios, Toronto as a quick sketch of the arrangements. A demo of "Witch Hunt" was recorded in raw and basic form, which they intended as their production number.

11 September - 1 October: Rush perform a warm-up North American concert tour, where they debut early versions of “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight” and play the other songs in soundcheck

Early October - mid-November 1980 (estimate): Main recording took place at Le Studio in Morin Heights, QC, Canada. Like the previous album, Terry Brown was co-producer and Paul Northfield engineered. A lot of the songs were well in shape by then, with minor arrangement changes to be done.

First to be done were the basic tracks, where all three members play together as they would in a live/rehearsal situation... They’d do multiple takes, or sometimes sections of songs (like Camera Eye), and the rest would be edited together. The drums would be kept, and the other parts (guitars, bass, synths) were usually replaced and re-done... They also worked with 48-track recording for the first time: the basic rhythm tracks were on the original 24-track reel and the rest (vocals, guitar solos, and various overdubs) on the other 24-track reel, to reduce wear and tear on the original reel.

Tracks like “Tom Sawyer”, "Limelight" and “The Camera Eye” took a lot of time to nail in the studio. Especially on "Tom Sawyer" where the tempo had to sit in the right groove. While others like “Red Barchetta” and the newly-written “Vital Signs” were a relative breeze to get down on tape… They worked a lot to click tracks. "YYZ", as Neil said, required a lot of focus for each individual part, so Neil just played by himself to a click and everyone else layered their parts on top.

November/December 1980: Technical issues were encountered, which delayed the mixing process by about two weeks… This included the two 24-track tape machines not syncing properly, tapes shedding oxide, errors in the newly-installed SSL console’s computer automation plus glitches with the digital Sony 2-track processor... The Sony unit’s owner Peter Jensen had to come in and troubleshoot it, hence the inspiration for Digital Man... In the meantime, the band shoot videos for Tom Sawyer, Limelight and Vital Signs... As Terry Brown noted, these tech issues were to be expected from pushing the limits of what the recording technology could do at the time.

Early-mid December 1980: Mixing continues as usual, wrapping up after 10 weeks. Possibly with additional recordings for Witch Hunt around the time of John Lennon’s passing.