A night with 10,000 RUSHians!

Recently I went to Atlanta to see RUSH again with my friend Mike on the 2008 Snakes & Arrows Tour. It was one of the last shows of the 2008 leg, and ironically, it was the same town that I saw the 2007 leg of the same tour, last summer, though at a different amphitheater and it was the first show of that tour. This was my 8th time seeing Rush, with the first time being in 1981 on the Moving Pictures tour, just before the “Exit Stage Left” record came out, which was a live album of that tour.

I started listening to Rush for the same reason I listened to a lot of music when I was young—my brother listened to them, and for the most part, a lot of my early musical influences stem from his album collection, and most of those bands I still enjoy listening to today, with Rush being at the top of the list. This is about where the positive influence of my brother ends.

Rush is a “musician’s” band. Seeing them live is where you go to get schooled on a night of amazing and complex music, as these guys have never been a “3 chords in 4/4” kind of band. Their shows are always great because they are always ON when they play, and with excellence. The visuals on the screens behind them are always entertaining and this show was certainly that. Most of the visuals and set list carried over from last summer, but they did swap out 4 songs and change a lot of video out, which was fun to see as a repeat customer.

They played a lot of my faves during the night, and even brought out some of the old guitars and basses from back in the day on the old tours, which was a treat to see. If you want to see photos of the show, go to Rush.com and click on “multimedia.” Then go to “Rush on the Road” and scroll down to almost the end where it says “Another Load In” and start there, then when done, go to the next set titled “Atlanta.” If I was able to give you a link to it I would, but the way the website is set up, I can’t do it, so just follow the instructions here and you will see some great photos.

I have the setlist if you want to know what they played. It was a great show and a blast seeing it with Mike, who is a big fan of them as well. Hopefully, there will be another record and tour sometime in the future, and I will go. Until then, I can enjoy the new Snakes & Arrows LIVE CD and wait for the accompanying DVD coming out this fall!