The June 5th Chicago Show (semi-spoiler)

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Railtrail Rider
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Location: FRV R.R. McHenry County, IL

The June 5th Chicago Show (semi-spoiler)

Post by Railtrail Rider »

Well I just saw the Chicago show last night (June 5th) at the Tweeter Center and it was GREAT!! The stars must have become aligned for me, because by a great stroke of luck I was able to obtain a 4th row ticket on the day of the show at face value. I was able to sell my original 29th row ticket to another fan so I wasn't out too much money. Some of the front row seats at the Tweeter Center are pretty bad if they are in the side sections, but luckily the seat I got was in the center section right beneath Alex! I have been to many Rush shows over the years and was never able to get a very good seat (I was very familiar with balcony seats, or seats behind a pole, or way up in the rafters so the performers look like ants) so this was a very special treat for me to sit this close. It turned out to be an awesome unbelievable performance that I will never forget. Every time Alex would look into the crowd everyone would raise their hands to try to get his attention, and he kept throwing picks out to people in the front rows. Geddy even ran over to our side of the stage a few times, gotta like those wireless guitars!

The setlist pretty much stayed the same as posted in other threads, with my favorites being Earthshine, Subdivisions, Red Barchetta, and of course By-Tor. Still didn't get the By-Tor middle part though, only the short version. Alex broke a string in the middle of a song on a les paul and ran to the side of the stage to switch guitars, surprising the roadie there who wasn't expecting a guitar switch just yet. They found him a red PRS in a hurry and he rejoined the song to cheers and applause. Geddy remarked that he was suffering from a cold and to bear with him, and if any frogs jump out of his throat to get out of the way (that was hilarious). Have to give credit to Geddy for an excellent performance singing with a sore throat. Hope you get better soon Geddy! Neil also gave a great performance and the drum solo was a high point of the show. He was wearing a black T-shirt and his usual black hat had little gold sparkles on it to match the gold trim of the drum kit. He missed catching his first drum stick toss up, but another one magically appeared in his hand instantly, and this with no sleeves. He hardly looked up at the crowd at all, his face in expressionless concentration of playing. He did crack up during Alex's rant though, his time to take a little break. The Alex rant consisted of something about seeing the movie "Titanic" and him being disappointed their were no ninja's in the movie. It was hard for me to hear because of all the people around me yelling. Maybe someone else can elaborate on this for me?

Towards the end of the show they threw the t-shirts from the dryers, and Alex threw one RIGHT INTO MY HAND! Unfortunately it also went into six other hands around me and these hands pulled it away in a mad frenzy. A guy in the row behind me ended up with the shirt, but hey, it was awful close, fair is fair and I wasn't fast enough. After the last song I sprinted to the parking lot to beat the massive traffic jam, and was soon doing 80 MPH on I-80 west and was promptly passed be a red BMW motorcycle, I thought could it be? But no it was not him, false alarm!

If you have a chance to see them on this tour you must try to do so. It is possible to get those great up front seats, because I was able to do it. I don't know if it always works but I figured out a way to get them. I know people here were frustrated with not being able to get good seats. I will not post it here but if you are a Rush fan needing a seat PM me and I will tell you how I did it. Now I have to see if I can afford a ticket to the Milwaukee show on Monday!

-RTR
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Kares4Rush
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Post by Kares4Rush »

AWESOME re-cap RailTrail!!! Thank you! I just re-lived Nashville. :D

Poor Ged! I hope he is feeling better! :( 8)
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schuette
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Location: Grangemouth, Scotland

Post by schuette »

I agree with Kares ......cheers for that :D .
but what a shame that you didn't get the t-shirt though :(
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