Thoughts About Last Night

It's Sunday afternoon on the 2 of August and I can't help but be thinking about what I missed out on last night.

Last night, at the Forum in Inglewood, Rush completed their R40 tour. I considered the show as a possible high school graduation gift. That is, until I saw the ticket prices. Before I knew it, all the tickets had been sold at face value, leaving us only with the option of purchasing resale tickets, which more often than not, far exceed the original price. The highest price I found was well over $10,000! A friend of mine joked that, for that kind of money, the buyer should be treated to dinner with the band and sound check access AT LEAST. Now that would make for an unforgettable graduation gift.

Watching a live streaming of the show was not possible, as the band had stated earlier in April that they did not wish to stream any of their shows during this tour. I was really hoping they would do something like that, so I wouldn't have to completely miss out on the whole experience. Of course it wouldn't be the same as being there in person, but I could still watch it live from the comfort of my own bedroom.

The last time I saw Rush was on 17 November, 2012, during their Clockwork Angels tour, featuring a string ensemble. The musicianship was, as expected, excellent, but there was one major problem my dad and I both noticed: the vocals. Mr. Geddy Lee seemed to be having a hard time reaching those high notes, especially when they would play older songs. I really noticed it during "The Big Money," which was about a couple of songs into the show. We couldn't help but wonder: Would it kill them to at least change the key of the song if it's too hard to sing? Or, if not, maybe change the melody line slightly? It started to really bother me. I felt that he shouldn't be putting that much strain on his voice if he wanted to take care of it.

With that in mind, we were already hesitant to rush out, so to speak, and buy the best tickets we could find, so the high prices on top of that forced us to completely rule out any chance of seeing them this time around.

They say that this could very well be their final tour, or at least their final BIG tour. Even if that is the case, I'm not entirely worried about not getting a chance to see them again. We figured that if they do tour at all again, however small it may be, they will most certainly make a stop in Los Angeles, or any other big city.

So will they return? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Who knows? I certainly don't and I don't know anyone who does. We'll just have to wait and see, I suppose...