This post is like… eight days late? We went to Cleveland for no reason other than a Rush show. We were traveling anyway so we detoured to the city that embraced Rush enough in 1974 that it lead to them signing a major label record contract in the US and sent the career on the path to greatness that would eventually include a 50 Something’th anniversary tour that stopped in Cleveland while we were traveling anyway.
It was my 27th Rush concert. If I can find the list I’ll tack it on to the end of this post. The show was fantastic. Our seats were… distant. The sound… well… it was a first for me… a Rush show with shitty sound. At least I think it was. A discussion on Threads gave the impression that the sound where we were was awful but down on the floor it was perfect. That, to me, implies that it was the room that sounded like shit, not the mix. It was 40% bass drum, 50% the rest of the drums, 6% vocals, 3% guitar, 1% keyboards, and 0% bass guitar. It did improve as the night went on but not a lot. I know a lot about bad sounding arenas. I have been to shows at the old Boston Garden. I believe it was Billy Joel who famously said that even hockey games sounded like shit at the old Boston Garden.
The set was fucking amazing. We got all of Moving Pictures at the start fo the second set. In the first set we got… and I still can’t believe it… we got A Farewell to Kings. They stopped playing that song in 1978 or ’79 and I had never heard them do it with my own ears. It was awesome. Awesome.
And now, pictures. Shitty pictures taken at a killer, great show.
Here is my list of past Rush shows:
1987–12–03 — Worcester Centrum — Worcester, MA
1990–05–10 — Worcester Centrum — Worcester, MA
1991–12–10 — Worcester Centrum — Worcester, MA
1994–03–11 — Worcester Centrum — Worcester, MA
1996–11–09 — Fleet Center — Boston, MA
1997–06–23 — Great Woods — Mansfield, MA
2002–07–12 — Tweeter Center — Mansfield, MA
2002–10–28 — Fleet Center — Boston, MA
2004–08–12 — Tweeter Center — Mansfield, MA
2007–06–27 — Tweeter Center — Mansfield, MA
2007–07–09 — Mohegan Sun Arena — Uncasville, CT
2007–09–06 — Marcus Amphitheater — Milwaukee, WI
2007–09–17 — Madison Square Garden — New York, NY
2008–06–15 — Comcast Center — Mansfield, MA
2008–07–05 — Saratoga Springs Performing Arts Center — Saratoga Springs, NY
2008–07–07 — Mohegan Sun Arena — Uncasville, CT
2008–07–11 — Verizon Arena — Manchester, NH
2010–09–14 — TD Garden — Boston, MA
2011–04–08 — Giant Center — Hershey, PA
2011–04–10 — Madison Square Garden — New York, NY
2012–09–07 — Verizon Wireless Arena — Manchester, NH
2013–05–09 — Mohegan Sun Arena — Uncasville, CT
2013–05–11 — Etess Arena — Atlantic City, NJ
2015–06–23 — TD Garden — Boston, MA
2015–06–29 — Madison Square Garden — New York, NY
2026–09–19 — Rocket Arena — Cleveland, OH
Next up is Mohegan Sun casino on November 1st.
