RUSH Drummer Is Entertained By His Audience

RUSH drummer Neil Peart has issued the following update:

"Standing backstage while the opening movie played the other night, poised to run on, sticks in hand, ear-monitors in, I found myself excited by two thoughts. I was idly pondering how I might start my solo that night (since I have been improvising the first part of it this tour, I always try to open with a different figure straight off),and I also felt an unaccustomed eagerness — a curiosity to get out there to see the audience.

"Not to hear the audience, note — not to bask in their cheers and appreciation — but just to look at them. Their numbers, their faces, their reactions, their dances, their T-shirts, the signs they hold up. Even while I'm supposed to be up there entertaining people, they can be so entertaining for me.

"Occasionally signs are scattered among the crowd, like two I saw in the audience at Red Rocks: One quite far back on the stage-right side read, 'If I Loved a Woman Like I Love This Band, I'd Still Be Married!' Near the front, on the stage-left side, was another, 'I Support My Husband's Rush Addiction!' Two very different stories there, obviously.

"One night in Texas I saw a truly great sign from far back in the house, 'VBS Field Trip.' It was a sly reference to a joke in my previous story on this site (glad to know some people get my lame jokes!). At intermission, Michael and I laughed about that one, and its maker was unanimously declared the night's lucky winner of a pair of drumsticks. That doesn't happen every night, you understand — let's not make this some kind of competition — but some nights, a sign or a T-shirt slogan makes me smile, or I see a cute little kid, or sometimes recognize a familiar face from many shows, and send them out a pair of sticks."

Read the rest of Neil's message at this location.