RUSH - FORD AMPHITHEATRE - TAMPA, FLORIDA JUNE 16, 2007

Set List: Limelight; Digital Man;Entre Nous; Mission; Freewill; The Main Monkey Business; The Larger Bowl; Secret Touch; Circumstances; Between The Wheels; Dreamline; Far Cry;Workin' Them Angels;Armor And Sword; Spindrift; The Way The Wind Blows; Subdivisions;Natural Science; Witch Hunt;MalNar;Drum Solo; Hope; Summertime Blues; The Spirit Of Radio; Tom Sawyer; One Little Victory; A Passage To Bangkok; YYZ
What a fast moving weekend! Brandon flew into town for the RUSH concert on Saturday night and me and Michael went and picked him up and we all had dinner at Olive Garden. On Saturday we spent the afternoon at the mall before heading to Tampa for the show.
We arrived and bought some swag and headed for the seats. Really good seats. 7nth row seats on Alex's side of the stage. It was HOT and crowded that close so that was a drawback - but we were close. Decent trade off I suppose.
From the very start of the show (a rather punctual 7:45, with the sun still shining), the band assumed those classic positions: bassist-keyboardist-vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and the most worshipped drummer of all time, Neil Peart. Each musician is distinctive, bombastic, an aggressive master of his art. This was only the band's third show on a tour backing new album "Snakes & Arrows," but their playing is already flawless. Opening with "Limelight," the band sounded superior throughout. Lifeson's guitar has plenty of flash but a goodly portion of soul as well. His riffs are tough, macho, and strong. On the raucous new instrumental jam "The Main Monkey Business," he pounded out wicked licks as footage of lumbering men in gorilla suits flashed behind him. Weird? Yes. Awesome? Heck yes. Lee's voice has mellowed over the years to become a versatile and expressive instrument. He sings some seriously heavy stuff, but he's not without humor. He thumped his bass not in front of a stack of amps but a row of rotisserie chicken ovens. (In previous tours, Lee has bopped in front of washing machines.) Peart's drumming is busy but never distractingly so. The kit is mind-boggling. During "Freewill," a video screen showed an aerial shot of Peart's domain, and his drum setup had more parts than the space shuttle. And then there was that long, sexy drum solo, which touched on tribal beats, bebop jazz and straight-ahead heavy metal. At one point, he stood up, and the entire drum kit rotated, giving him fresh skins to pound on. That said - his solo was genuinely entertaining, employing tuned and electronic percussion as well as his main kit, and ending with him swinging over a big band recording, a tip of the hat to one of his heroes, jazz drummer Buddy Rich. With 30-plus years of music to draw from, it was a brave move on the band's part to feature so many cuts from its most recent album, this year's "Snakes and Arrows." It's a strong album, arguably Rush's strongest in some time, and numbers such as "Far Cry" and "Workin' Them Angels" should be well on their way to becoming fan favorites. But once the second half of the show opened with no fewer than five new tunes, there was a palpable sense of relief - more like an explosion of joy - when Rush launched into '80s favorite "Subdivisions."But patience was rewarded. A smashing "Summertime Blues," a la Blue Cheer, was followed by "Spirit of Radio" and "Tom Sawyer," the latter song introduced by a clip of the "South Park" kids mangling the lyrics.
Three-plus hours is a lotta of Rush for a casual fan, especially since the boys loaded their 27-song setlist with deep album cuts and 9 new songs.
Rush is a thing of beauty, or headaches. Me? I dig three dudes who make the noise of 30.