Okay, day five. The night of the second Rush concert, and unfortunately, the last for me and a whole lot of other people who came from Half the World to catch at least one or two of the TO shows.
NO THIS IS NOT A TICKETMASTER STORY!
But it is about tickets. Charles didn't have a ticket for the second night, and neither did Punani or Richard,
who was with Ms. P. I had an excellent seat in section 201 that Mark got for me, and I thought I was all
set. I like wheeling and dealing for tickets, and wanted to help Charles and Ms. P and Mr. R get some
good seats. So after the fireworks at Ontario Place, the subject of tickets came up. Well, in the U.S., most
box offices open at like 5 or 6 p.m. day of show, right? I noticed on Monday (the night of the first show)
that the Molson box office had hours posted of 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday thru Friday. And guess what? It
was Wednesday! So I told everyone this, which was a good thing. We all agreed to drag ourselves out of
bed and get there right at 11 a.m. Which is what happened.
The box office was open at exactaly 11 a.m., and they still had some section 300 seats available. Good, but not good enough for our dedicated crew. But a woman approached us and asked if we needed seats...blah- blah, sure, show us what you have...and she had some pretty good, if not excellent seats in the 200s for about face value. I got Punani and Richard a good deal...I think it was like $55ca for each of their tickets...about $5ca over face. They were happy.
Ever the inquisitors, however, Charles and I asked her if she had any better seats. No answer for a little bit. Well, do you have any better seats? She was looking through her tickets, and said that she thought she had some third row seats, but no on her. How much, how much, how MUCH, was Charles' and my reaction. We had a vehicle. We had a little bit of money. We had all day to drive anywhere and get these seats. She quoted us a really good price, actually, an unbelievable price. Then she called her boss/contact on the phone. Yup, he had em. Price? Yup, same as she said. Charles and I looked at each other...yup, just give us directions and we'll come and get em. Got directions, yup, we got the tickets. Third row, DEAD center right in front of the bass drum cabinets in front of the stage. Couldn't have been better. We were soooooo stoked. I have to hand it to Charles, though, I wouldn't have been able to do it without his help or motivation. Charles knows what I mean. Gracias, compadre!
The rest of the day was a blur...imagine walking around with third row tickets to the Rush show in Toronto. Unbelievable.
THE ATM FIASCO
Man, good ole' Charles. First it's great tickets, then it's the great ATM chase of the century. Now we're out
of money. Trying to use an ATM card to get money. Only one problem. His bank is a credit union, a small
one. You know the back of the cards and all those symbols, Plus, Cirrus, Star, MAC..whatever. Well, his
said Cirrus. I think maybe there's one ATM in the entire province of Ontario with that logo that works.
Man, we must have hit 20 banks looking to replenish his cash supply. Like miles of walking and driving
and searching...the energy from the tickets helped out, I guess. Plenty frustrating, but what the hell.
Finally, we found one at the Bank of Montreal. We'll remember that for next tour, eh?
RUSH, JULY 2, 1997, Molsen Amphitheatre, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA!
YEAH!
OOOOOH---YEAHHHH!
So the tickets really WERE third row. Gosh almighty, they were great seats. I was sooo looking forward to sitting there. This tour has just been so facinating...for the fact that I've lucked into so many different but quality seats for all the shows I've seen. I hear about people spending like $250US to $500US per show on just a single sit in the first five rows. I'm so lucky to have got at least three seats in the first three rows (Phoenix, Star Lake, Toronto) for virtually cost. The ticket gods were with me for about 9 months. I'm a very lucky person indeed.
So the show starts. As I said in Diary Three, the sound at Molson was unbelievable, both so clear and loud...and was it ever LOUD up front like that. But it was a different loud than it was on Monday back in 201. It was very, very crisp and clean up front, but still loud. I thought about ear plugs. I'm a supporter of them. Used em lots of times. But I just can't put them in up that close. It's the type of loud music I really like...forget cranking the home stereo. Forget the car stereo, the portable CD players with extra bass and good headphones. I live for loud music that clear and clean. YEAH! Hmmm? Did you say something?
One thing in particular stays with me this tour, and was confirmed in the third row the last night of the show. It's a single word that you'll all recognize. That would would be Geddy.
The first time I was up close was the two shows In Los Angeles in November. Made a very nice friend there, a fellow San Diegan, and she let me stand with her in the second row (first night) and the third row (second night). Back in those November nights, Geddy and I really built something up. I have no idea of what it was or why it happened, but I have a theory. I really like to feel the music, and I think I feel it well, and I think that Geddy picked up on that in LA. I don't freak out and have a panic attack or head bang, but I do move around quite a bit, moreso than most other guys. Not air drumming, but more like facial gestures, hand movements the way I nod my head or move my shoulders. I kind of move my head like the Ged, I guess, like a walking pidgeon or something! Like a lot of others, I know almost all the words to the setlist songs...and he saw this too. I wasn't singing, just mouthing along. He saw this in LA and liked it, I guess, and recognized that a fan was really tuning into him instead of Neil or Alex. I think the Gedmeister is the most neglected guy up there during shows, partly because he's so damn busy working he has precious few moments to get up close and personal with the fans up front. So he appreciates someone who shows interest in him through the whole show.
We had great contact in LA. Also happened a little bit in Phoenix, but I was on Alex' side that night. Then this last show in Toronto. Wow. He was looking at me from the moment he first saw me down there during Dreamline. You may think I'm kidding, but it's true. It's easy to remember the vest that I wear, and I'm sure that was a key to all this too. Every song our eyes met...I rarely watched Neil (who is the one I usually DO watch) and Alex. I made sure everytime he looked at me, I was looking at him. It was a trip. We were nodding our heads the same way all the time. I know I saw him smile a BUNCH of times when he caught me looking at him after he had turned and looked at me! It was so funny!
A couple of times, he busted ME! Yeah, I'm guilty. During some of Alex' solos I did watch him...like during Red Sector A, Roll the Bones, Natural Science..mostly in the second half. I'd say to myself, oooops, I'm not watching Geddy, I better look back there, and sure as shinola, I'd look over, he'd be looking at me with almost a hurt look, then he'd kinda act like he was pissed because I was paying attention to Alex! Man, that was soooooooo funny when it happened!
I have a witness to this. It's Punani. Charles switched tickets with Punani for the second half, and she was down with me in the third row (we were actually both in the first row for a couple of songs until security got uptight), and we ended up right smack dab next to each other for the whole second set. I've always wanted to be right up there with Punani (another HUGE fan) during a show, so that was also a really good part about the second show. Anyway, it was almost a silent re-affirmation of what I just described. After the show Punani said to me something like, "Man, what was Geddy looking at over here? That was wierd." I just started to chuckle a little bit, and told her that he was looking at me I guess, because it's happened a couple of other times....it was radically cool to know that Punani actually saw this goin' on. See, Punani and Alex have this thing after getting together in San Diego. So I know the Gedmeister pretty well, at least telepathically, and Punani said now all we need is someone to make contact with Neil...but we both agreed that would be impossible!
So three things I'll always remember. The sound quality/loudness, Punani and I sharing the third row and the contact with Geddy. Man, I sure wish I could have been at Ottawa to say goodbye. That would have been asking for way too much.
I know I had some strong feelings during the concert the first night in TO and wrote about them. The second night was really different. After the show, watching them tear down the set was almost torture, because I knew the whole gig, from November to July, was being packed up for the last time before my eyes. After shows, no matter where I'm sitting, I just really like to stay until security starts kicking you out to relax, calm down, let everyone else hassle for the exits and cars and bathrooms and stuff, and enjoy a little of the euphoria from the music and experience before leaving. Our crew was down front just hanging out watching. It was indeed a sad sight to behold...and I think I was trying to hum Cut to the Chase...packing up all those boxes, wires, lights, drum kit...gotta keep movin', gotta keeeeep mooooovin....yeah...can't stop....that's what this whole tour has been for me. Cut to the chase.
See how many shows I could catch in different towns, states and countries..chasing. I guess it makes the painful parting even worse if you've seen a lot of shows...San Diego, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Hospitality Point, Devore, Star Lake, and Toronto. Nine shows in two states and two countries. I know plenty of people out there have that beat...but I'm not in it for a pissing contest, rather, reflection. It's just an amazing feeling of fulfillment that as I fan I spent as much time as possible, as much money as I could maximumly afford, traveled as many miles by plane, train and automobile as I could. Other people said I was crazy, nuts, stupid, wasting my money. I always thought that's what being a fan was personally to me, like being as dedicated as you could be, so they can see and feel the appreciation, profit from everyone's support, and in return hopefully they keep making new records and touring every so often.
All I know is that the people I met on this tour, probably about 200 or so new faces off the Internet, in person at shows, a few get-togethers and stuff, and esp. off this list, were some of the most hardcore dedicated fans I've ever seen follow a band or even just catch one show. And you know what? I really like to think that the impact we all have as fans was definitely what the band was looking for, from the first row all the way back to the lawn seats, standing or sitting, earplugs or no earplugs, air drumming and singing or not, smoking pot or cigs or drinking beer or whatever it is that each of us may do and like to do at shows, I think it was all pretty hard to miss most of the time. I think that will mean more music (not as much, but definitely more) and more tours (with way fewer dates, probably).
THE THREE CONNECTION??? Kinda scary.
I never really bought into the last tour thing and that wasn't the motivation behind my seeing the number
of shows that I did (which was three times higher for me than any previous tour). A lot of things just
worked in three's for me over nine months (divided by three equals three), and that's what the lucky
number has been when it comes to most things Rush, which I find to be interesting.
Especially since its a three piece band and a lot of their music is set in 3/4 time. I saw six shows with Charles (divided by two equals three), I got three drum sticks from the first Toronto show, I had third row seats three times specifically, and check out my ticket stubs, keeping in mind that the letter designation "C" equals THREE (either by row or section):
1. C, 16, 12
2. C, 20, 3
3. C, 23, 1
4. XA, 3, 42
5.C, 20, 13
6. 2, Y, 31
7. P, 43, AA
8. 201, M, 37
9. 102, C, 26
FAR OUT!
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CAN I TAKE YOUR PICTURE? SURE!
I did take my little camera in with me for all nine shows, and managed to shoot 30 rolls of film, averaging
about 70 shots per show, meaning that's over 500 images. Most came out fair. A bunch came out good,
and the rest came out very good. I think out of the whole deal, I probably got about 10 really "Awesome"
shots given the equipment, which was a simple 35mm point and shoot using 400 and 800 speed film with
no flash. Of course, the best images came when I was up close. It was really fun taking the pictures. The
best part was learning which scenes and songs would come out well and taking pictures of particular
moments. My photo scrapbook that I made from Toronto has a picture of each song in it, from Dreamline
to YYZ, which is a pretty cool, progressive type of organization. That way, 30 years from now, open up
that book, and there's the concert just like it was....
I never really got hassled hard by security. The basic rule was that if you had a regular camera with a 50mm lens or less, or a point and shoot, or a disposable camera or something, then they left you alone. I wanted to bring my good camera in with me, but didn't want to bother if I could get the little 35mm in hassle free. I was never questioned at the gate (most of the time then it was, ah, hidden!), and got "busted" twice with it, when they got on their squawkie walkies and asked their bossy wossy's if it was cool. The answer always came back as a yes, as long as I didn't have a long, telephoto or zoom lens on it, which I never did. So that was nice. I think the band gave instructions to be pretty liberal about cameras, actually. They didn't seem to mind either. Alex must have seen me take well over 100 photos of him alone. He never flinched, and looked into the camera for me for several shots. Thanks for listening tonight.
