Thursday, July 1, 2004
When Rush hits Coors Amphitheater july 7, you can bet local superfan Jordan Finkelstein will be front-row center. At his
fansite, www.echoesofoldapplause.com, the self-described Rushoholic posts "Pictures of me and other
Rush Fans at Rush Concerts," including shots from the Sports Arena parking lot with Finkelstein standing next to a
silver 1989 Ford Ranger covered with hand-painted Rush graffiti, er, artwork.
"I shoe-polished it with the titles of all of Rush's albums, including the live ones, during the Counterparts Tour
and drove around like this for a month," he admits.
Other website photos include Finkelstein wearing his "Beloved Rush Vest," its denim fabric obscured by
hundreds of sewn-on patches, metal and enamel pins, buttons, hand drawn artwork, embroidery, iron-ons, vinyl prints and other Rushological rarities.
"I can't really put a value on the vest. Someone offered me a front row seat for the Test for Echo show
in Devore, California...I just laughed."
"Scanned Images Of All My Rush Concert Tickets" includes a spread of Sports Arena passes ("a lot of TicketBastard
service charges, eh!"), and well-worn stubs from other San Diego dates. Adding up the face prices on 28 visible stubs, I count
over $1,100. Finkelstein says this is only a fraction of what he's spent attending Rush concerts. In 1996, he followed the band on their Test for Echo
tour.
"I probably paid an average of $50 U.S. per ticket and spent $3,000 for nine months of shows," he says (the whole
sojourn is documented under ("Tour Diaries"). He's attended Rush concerts in three countries, six states and 13 cities.
"People often question my sanity and locical reasoning abilities! "Why are you spending so much money
on a bunch of concerts" people say. "I simply answer these people by saying that everyone has a passion...there's no difference
in someone who likes to Jet Ski every weekend and me."
ED NOT: I granted this interview to the Reader in 1997 (and it was published then), so it is a bit out-dated, but it made me think a little bit about
a few things. As of this writing July 10, 2004:
1. I have taken a trip on an airplane for the last three consecutive tours to see shows.
2. The average price for a ticket that I get now is $100-$120 inc. fees, and I've never bought from brokers or scalpers.
3. I have seen the band in three countries (U.S., England, Canada), and in NY, CT, TX, MO, KS, CA, AZ, NV. (not enough).
U.S. cities: Rochester, NY., Houston, TX., San Diego, CA., Oakland, CA., Los Angeles, CA., Irvine, CA., Phoenix, AZ.,
St. Louis, MO., Bonner Springs, KS., Hartford, CT., Las Vegas.
4. Have attended 34 shows and average about seven shows a tour since TFE.
5. My first show was Signals, Wembly Arena, London, England, May, 1983.
6. The "Beloved Rush Vest" holds over 200 items, mostly hand collected, not bought from Ebay, and it has been in
production for 22 years. I wear it to every concert I go to - Rush or otherwise.
7. The San Diego Reader is the only publication to do an article on me, although I've been interviewed briefly on two
different local radio stations a couple days before the Counterparts and TFE tours for spoilers
and pre-views.
8. The website - I could talk about that forever. But briefly:
There are over 100 rolls of film scattered around all the pages, and as far as I have seen,
there is nothing quite like it anywhere else in the world. Echoes of Old Applause contains the most "amateur" or "audience"
photographs available in one place in the world and the site has been getting more than 1 million hits
annually for about the last five years, and in June, 2004 alone it received 198,042 hits.
As of July 10th, the hit count since August 2003 is 978,874. It contains over 2,100 unique files and amazingly I've been able
to keep the size down to about 200mb of server space. It has never been "shut down" or offline since 1996.
I would say that the entire website is irreplaceable - and if someone asked me to put a value on it or
if I would sell the URL and the contents - I'd start "entertaining" offers from interested parties at $500,000.00.
I don't know if I could ever sell it. There's almost 10 years of labor
and materials alone invested in it, and by far, I put in well over market value labor, materials, hosting
fees, software, computer upgrades, business cards, film and cameras, tickets, souvineers, etc. of $50,000 per year
on the site (not all SPENT money, but investment of time plus materials). The majority of that number comes from hundreds and hundreds of hours annually spent updating the site
on nearly a daily basis. Visitors from over 40 countries per month come here, with the following in order for this
month, listed in order of number of visitors: U.S., U.K, Canada, Netherlands, Brazil, Sweden, Argentina, Norway, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Mexico, Chech Republic,
Israel, Poland, Japan, Australia, France, Finland, Indonesia, Romania, Switzerland, Denmark, Chile, Portugal,
Phillipines, Singapore and Iceland. Obviously, it's easy to see the huge international audience, and this is
one of the things that makes me the happiest and keeps me constantly providing new content. Thanks to all
my international visitors!!!
9. I've never had a meet and greet, never met the band, never had a photo pass, never won tickets on the radio, never
been contacted by higher-ups in the industry or with the band, etc. And no, I'm not affiliated with the
band, and I'm not from Canada. Those are the two most-made erroneous statements about me! But maybe I should be!
10. It's all worth it, and the experiences, the places, the people I meet and the music I hear makes it so justifiable.
By Jay Allen Sanford