RUSH Time Machine Tour

A week ago on July 23rd I attended the RUSH Time Machine Tour at Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) in Saratoga, NY. I saw RUSH at the same place 2 years ago for the Snakes and Arrows tour. These guys put on an amazing show. The lights, the large screens at SPAC to see close ups of the band playing if you are too far back to see them very well with the naked eye.

I had seats, if you want to call them seats, in the lawn section. Standing is what I prefer at a concert, I want to see the band, move to the music and enjoy it. If I wanted to sit down and watch the band I'd buy the Rush Live in Rio dvd and watch it in my living room from the comforts of my couch.

The sound at the show was simply amazing. Rush sounds even better live than they do on cd. Recording them playing live just doesn't do it justice. At the show they played 2 new songs that will be on their new album in 2011. They did the entire MOVING PICTURES album in it's entirety.

At SPAC they have a strict no alcohol rule in the parking lot to keep people from tailgating before the show. Of course if you play it safe you can still get a few beers in before the show. Prices on beer in the venue were really expensive, a cup of beer was $9-$12 depending on the size of the cup, or $11 for a tall boy can of beer (tall boy is 24oz. in case you were unaware.)

All week I was checking the weather for the show, it's 2.5 hours south of where I live so I had to keep checking, it kept saying rain and isolated thunder storms. I was getting scared that the lawn seats were going to be a wash out. I would have still enjoyed the show just as much I'm sure, but rain is never that fun to stand it for almost 3 hours, even if it is warm. I had brought a change of dry clothes to change into after the show. I even had an umbrella. The people I went to the show with brought ponchos and extra clothes to, just in case. We arrived in the parking lot 2 hours before the show started and from then until the end of the night we had avoided the rain all together. It was a dry show thankfully. Made the night with RUSH even more enjoyable.

Anyway, here are some pictures I got of the band, along with a video of them performing PRESTO and the famous drum solo that Neil Pert is known for at every live show they do. I'll say it again, it was AMAZING. Click thumbnails for a much larger image.






Getting the video was the hardest to do. I had to stand with the camera recording above my head for these videos, zoomed in optically and digitally up to I think it was 24x or 30x. So any shaking or moving was major. I had to release the camera with one hand to gain feeling back in one, then switch, then back to both hands. Sorry for any Blair Witch shakiness to the camera, but what else do you expect from amateur concert footage taken with arms straight up in the air.
To view these videos full screen or in HD, view them directly on youtube. ENJOY!


PRESTO:



The drum solo I let one of my friends, who was a bit drunk, hold the camera for a bit, you can tell where he held it, the video doesn't focus and he can't keep it still at all. Can't blame him, and I appreciate him giving my arms a break.

DRUM SOLO: