A Weekend With RUSH

The Canadian rock band, that is - NOT Mr. Right of the Atilla-the-Hun man.
As stated earlier, we tore out of Anchorage soon after school let out so we could travel 2400 miles (and change) to see RUSH at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington. We were about 29 rows back - not too bad considering this is the 10th RUSH show I've attended (I think...) Wade is still waiting to be in the front row.

We arrived in Washington on Friday, May 30th with hopes of meeting Wade's brother Ryan (far right) and Ryan's best bud, Doug (2nd from right) at SeaTac from their flight from San Diego. Of course, traffic entering Seattle from the north was insane, so they met us downtown at Pike's market.
Since George is about a 2.5 hour drive from Wendi's place in Bonney Lake, we opted for the "premiere" camping at the Gorge. Don't let the name fool you. Premiere really means an enclosed grassy area - no designated camping spots. Now, in all fairness the portapotties ("Honey Buckets") did have running water. :0) So - before the 8:00 show time you can set up camp & enjoy a cool, refreshing beverage. No time to knit, however....
Here is Neil Peart's drum set he uses for the Snakes and Arrows tour. Pretty cool. Near the end of the 2nd set he launches into an 8 minute drum solo. He's a pretty amazing drummer. According to my good pal, Winston's Mom - we should really refer to him as Dr. Peart as he holds a PhD in percussion. Wowza!
The show was fantastic. It was different from the two shows we saw last summer. They still opened with Limelight (a personal fave) but added a few more tunes such as Ghost of a Chance, Red Barchetta, and the Trees. My only wish was that Geddy Lee & Co. would be more spontaneous. Doug & Ryan said most of their pre-song comments, etc were very similar to the shows they had seen in Hollywood & Irvine. But - great, rockin' sound!
The venue is great, but I do laugh at their seated area. You would think that at such a gorgeous venue the seated area would be more posh. The seats consisted of 55 rows of metal folding chairs!! The seats were numbered w/what looked like numbers written with a sharpie on athletic tape. So high tech....
Okay - I think I'll have to edit this post later - I know we have more photos. Winston's Mom'd DH almost was escorted out of concert #2 for taking too many photos with a high tech digital camera. I'll have to get a hold of a couple of those.

Knitting connection: Geddy Lee was wearing a knit scarf (that I knit for him & threw up on stage. JK!!) during the "Portland" show. (Portland is in quotes as the show was across the river in Vancouver, Washington.)