Thursday, June 26, 2008

RUSH !!!!

Okay ... this posting is a little late in the offing, I admit. Should be a good read in any case.

During Christmas, Jim and Jess came over from Pittsburgh to stay with us for the holiday. We were discussing when next we would be getting together. Rachel and I decided to spend the Fourth of July with them this year. I've only had that holiday off once since we moved up here, and I wanted to take it off. Jim called me back in March to ask if there was any way for us to come out a few days early, since RUSH was coming in concert to Pittsburgh. Since my co-worker was already off that week, there really was no way I could take that extra time off. I felt bad, since RUSH is one of my favorite bands, and it was Jim that introduced me to them. The first RUSH song I remember hearing was "Roll the Bones" although I didn't know it was them when I heard it. They were on the Tonight Show (Leno, BLECHHH) promoting their album and I liked the song. It wasn't until years later, that Katie and Jim informed me that RUSH sang that song. The album "Counterparts" came out, and that started Jim and I going to see them in concert. We saw them on the Counterparts tour, Test for Echo, and I think one other time ... not sure on that one, Jim will have to let me know, but I think it was one other time. Well, I saw from looking at the concert schedule that RUSH was coming to Philly. I told Jim he could always come out here to see them, and he said he would talk to Jess. Well, Lo and Behold, Jim and Jess made a weekend out of it and came out two weeks ago. Jim bought my ticket as a birthday present, and also drove down to the stadium.

Whomever schedules events for the Sports Complex should be drawn and quartered for the fiasco of that Saturday. Either that, or raffle off a chance to take a ballpeen hammer to his "nether" region by five lucky fans. Get this: RUSH was in concert at the Wachovia Center, the Soul (arena football) were playing a home game at the Spectrum, and Jimmy EFFING Buffet was playing at Citizens Bank Park and sold the stadium out. I was shocked, all we needed was Manchester United playing an exhibition at Lincoln Financial Field to complete the total cluster screw that was going on in the shared parking lots of all these sports buildings. We left the house at 5:10 PM and parked at 7 PM - and passed the following sign:


We found out that the Citizens Bank parking lot was a "No Tailgating" zone, these signs were posted and Jim was given a flyer when we paid and went in (20 bucks ... OUCH). I had parked in this same lot earlier this year when I went to a Soul game, and paid 12 bucks. I guess I didn't account for the Jimmy Buffet inflation variable when choosing a lot. So, Jim and I started walking to the venue, passing these people along the way:

I guess these good people didn't get the flyer on the way in. This was nothing compared to the debauchery that was seen in the "tailgating allowed" parking. Let's just say beer pong tables, inverted beer keg hits, tops optional and a moon bounce were all spotted. We got to our seats at 7:20, Jim scored some great seats for us. Thank you so much, Jim. Like you said, RUSH isn't the same without you. The only hiccup? I finally know what weed smells like, thanks to the dipweeds that were sharing the row with us. They lit like 4 doobies during the concert, much to the chagrin of the family of four in front of us, with their two sons. The older of which sang along to every song in both sets of the concert. I leave you with some really bad cell phone pictures from the concert:

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