Tuesday 28 August 2007

Rush - Snakes & Arrows Tour

When I heard that Rush was going on tour and that they were stopping Detroit, I vowed to get tickets this time. The last time I saw Rush live was on the Hold Your Fire tour back at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

So I got two tickets at the DTE Energy Music Theatre (an outdoor ampitheatre) in Clarkston, Michigan - northwest of Detroit, just off I-75. The tickets had been sitting patiently on the shelf in the office. I would check almost every day to make sure they were still there.

The day of the concert had arrived.

I rushed home (pun intended) to change into comfortable clothes since mother nature decided that today would be a good day for hot and humid weather. Tina was ready. Fortunately, my mom was staying with us, so we did not have to worry about arranging babysitting.

We left at 5:15 pm and arrived at the tunnel at 5:30 pm. About 45 minutes later, we finally were cleared through US Customs. A few slow spots on I-75. Traffic slowed to a crawl at Sashabaw Road, the turn off to DTE, but we just followed the traffic and parked the van in the grass lot.

We walked through the parking lots, showed our tickets and proceeded to our seats. This was our first time seeing a concert at DTE Energy Music Theatre - and only our second concert in Detroit since moving to Windsor. The atmosphere was crackling.

The audience was a mix of old geezers, drunk guys (and gals) and families - yup, we saw plenty of kids rocking it out with mom and dad. There were more women at the concert compared to back in the 90s and 80s. The place was full though. Tina ventured out to seek some refreshments and snacks.

The concert started around 7:50 pm or so with Limelight - a great way to start the concert. They played some classics like Tom Sawyer, Spirit of Radio and Subdivisions, but they also played older tunes like Entre Nous, Passage to Bangkok and Natural Science. All three instrumentals from Snakes & Arrows were played. Neil's drum solo was outstanding. Seems he is improvising the first part of the solo, so it is subject to change if you see Rush several times on this tour. The concert ended with YYZ (so that would be five instrumentals).

Tina enjoyed the concert and commented on how good Rush sounds live. I told her that is one of their trademarks. I bought a tour book as a souvenir. We left the concert in a great mood with our ears ringing and arrived back in Canada just before midnight.

I was happy to see Rush and was even happier to see them with Tina.

Posted by Adam

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