Yeah, yeah, I know. I haven't done updates in "x" days, weeks, etc. But you know, after running this site since December of 1996, I have kind of slowed down on the interest factor a little bit. Plus, there's guys at other sites that are doing a fantastic job of reporting all the pre-tour news and blues and info and fights on bulletin boards about what the set list is going to be and whether or not it's ethical or not to download the album when it leaked last week, etc. etc.

I've lost my pallate for such things and want to enjoy the tour more this year by actually spending more time possibly traveling, listening to the new CD and...trying to get tickets to the shows. See, there's a direct correlation between the time spent looking for tickets and trying to buy them through regular means and the time I spend working on this site, per se. So all my anxiety and hangups are wrapped up into ticket sales dates and stuff, leaving very little time to update this site. Plus, I'm a little bit peeved that everyone has seemingly "donated money" to other sites and not this one. The donation total for 12 years worth of work has been $20 bucks, and you can't get much for that these days, let me tell you. Including here.

With the exception of course, of my FAVORITE subject. Tickets and procurement of said.

We Rush fans here in Southern California are a cursed lot to begin with. Some of the highest costs of living, lowest wages, the highest gas prices at the pump for the last century, and, as it turns out based on extensive research performed by my right hand man, the Website Rushian Ticket Statistician, the most expensive concert tickets on the planet as well. We got so upset with all the grabbing and pushing and shoving by corporations, corporate agreements, pre-sales passwords, pre-sales websites and radio station ripoffs and credit card registrations just to get a password or access to the tickets, we almost ended up in therapy. So instead we calmed the hell down and took a deeper look, and this is what we found out about the Rush Ticket Prices in Southern California.

You would think that the opener in Atlanta, a major U.S. city, would garner the Big Money. But tix prices there for that night are $46 to $86. I'd say that's highly affordable. I would have bought like six of them. Pittsburgh, no small city in itself, boasts ticket prices of $26 to $81 George Washingtons. In trendy Saratoga Springs, NY, the price goes up a bit in range from $33 to $90. Dallas, a major city fer sure, clocks in at a paltry $35.50 to $75 for a major market, and Ohio has those same prices. St. Louis, $26 to $81. Red Rocks, one of the top three places to see a show in the country, as far as I'm concerned, rates from $48 to $95.50.

Even in Canada, the band's soup de jour country where you'd figure the shows are precious nuggets of 49er gold ready to be mined for all they are worth, no ticket is above $80, and that's $80 Canandian. Either the band gives the home fans a break or doesn't take advantage. Wait a minute. They DO take advantage! of US!

But see, here's what gets me about that stuff above about the Canadian dates. Mr. Peart now LIVES in the Southern California market now. So wait, one third of the band lives in Hell-A and yet...this is what happens, as noted below by our Website Rushian Ticket Statistician. The prices below are for the first level of pricing, obviously, since we dont settle for anything less. Either that, or we seem to have always gotten lucky in one way or another. Read it and compare to the prices I just listed above:

San Diego:
R30 - $75.50
S&A - $92.00
22% increase

Irvine Meadows:
R30 - $65.00
S&A - $127
95% increase

Hollywood Bowl:
R30 - $99.50
S&A - $177
78% increase

Las Vegas:
R30 - $100
S&A - $127.50
28% increase

Phoenix:
R30 - $71.50
S&A - $69.50
-%2.80 decrease

???

So, as a fan living and breathing Rush in Southern California since 1985, the first Rush show I saw here in San Diego was on Feb. 3, 1986 and that ticket was $14.50. Ha. At Irvine Meadows in 1990, the ticket was $23. In 1996, a front row seat in Phoenix was $40. At Molson Amphitheater in Toronto, a third row ticket also in 1996 was CA $47.00. Enter the Vapor Trails Tour and I didn't pay less than $85 for any show on that or the R30 Tour. There was over a 50 percent increase in tickets after 1996 that has been in place ever since, and now the increases are represented from R30 to Snakes and Arrows as above listed on TOP of that. The first show I ever saw, Wembley Arena, Signals, May of 1983, was a mere $6 Pounds, or at the time, roughly $9 at about a 1.5 currency exchange rate. Actually, I think it might have even been something like 1.15.

Please also note that this does not take into consideration facility fees, parking fees (which in the early days was automatically included in the price of a ticket even if you took a bus or a train or parked away from the facilities which we did every time). Most added charges have been steady at 10 percent to over 25 percent per cost of each ticket through the course of time. For the most part, add $20 per ticket in fees and you have the cost of the ticket in hand.

So can someone honestly tell me WHY are we being GOUGED here in Southern California on Rush tickets like it's sweet crude? It's not gas. It's not food. It's not anything consumable or life-sustaining, right? The price doesn't come with earthquake insurance. The crop losses from the frosts and freezes this winter didn't affect ticket prices along with the cost of vegatables and avacados and lettuce, right? So what gives? What's the difference between Los Angeles and San Diego and Dallas and Pittsburgh? As a matter of fact, we're in a real estate DOWNTURN.

I know, Roger Waters and the Police are at $277 face value, and Genesis, an outlandish $357. By chance, I also happened to pull up a third row seat to see The Who last year, and it was $500 at Hollywood Bowl. I just couldn't justify it and someone else got lucky, or went broke, cause I released it on Ticketmaster. $500?

One plausible explanation besides "market value" (read: stupidity) is real estate. Which is included in the cost of living out here, correct. The ONLY way I can explain or try to understand or explain away the price increases is that the venues themselves charge much more in costs to rent for the evening than in other markets, therefore, the ticket price must pass on this cost to the consumers so the band can make the same amount of money in a more expensive rental market in one night as, say, in Kansas with Toto and Dorathy in attendance. This would be the ONLY rational explanation this Lion Without a Heart of Gold can fathom. And add in the fact that it also costs more to feed the crew rotten and frozen avocados and pay nearly $4 a gallon for gas for Neil's motorcycle and the tour busses and rigs.

So, how about topping off the tank in say, NV or AZ, and then come to Cali? I mean, that's what they are doing, right? That's what the schedule says. So actually the tour caravan will be burning AZ and NV cheap gas in CA. So us Cali-fornians will be paying for the band to actually LEAVE the state and not come in. Right??? This doesn't make much sense. None of it does.

I mean, a guy can take a chick on a date with dinner and a limo to see Rush in, say, Houston, and I go alone up to Hollywood and I pay $200 bucks and pay the same thing with no dinner and ride? Say it 'aint so!

After running the numbers, the resident Website Rushian Ticket Statistician sez:

"It 'aint the Snakes and Arrows tour, it's the Smoke and Mirrors tour and we're getting blown while the band and crew look out the rear view mirrors and head out of state with our cash!"

I say, my fellow Rush Fans, "Dude, what gives? Chill out on the gouging, bros!"

Of course, there's a counterpart to the argument, one that can not be ignored lightly. No one is forcing anyone to go to a Rush show. But I say this, and I say it as loud as the amps on stage from the first row. You people there in Ohio, Virginia, Florida, you fans in Pennsylvania, Canada, Texas and Illinois, you fans in Arizona, New York and New Jersey. How'd you like to be a fan and pull up two tickets online, buy them, then look at a receipt that says $410 dollars for a single show with your honey or your best buddy instead of $150? And if you want to see, say, three shows, how much would you be spending to both enjoy and support your favorite band then?

- jman2112