RUSH
Festhalle - Frankfurt, Germany
May 29, 2011

To be honest, I didn't plan to attend this concert. It was total improvisation.

I travelled to Frankfurt to see the Iron Maiden concert, and I was supposed to see Maiden again in Oberhausen the following day.

But I found out that Rush was playing in Frankurt the next day... so I thought that I could miss a Maiden gig for that!

Iron Maiden started their European Tour in Frankfurt the previous day... and tonight this was the last date of Rush's European Tour.
Two special nights in a row... I couldn't have dreamt of a better weekend!

Only 3 guys play in Rush, but that's enough to make the whole place rock!
Woah, the sound was amazing! Very clear and just loud enough. Particularly impressive were the sound of the drum and the acoustic guitar.
It was also impressive that there was no bass when Geddy Lee played keyboards, but it still sounded great.
These guys have a unique secret for their music.

The lightshow was majestic too. There was a huge structure, that had more or less the shape of a spider, coming up and down during the songs.

On the back, there was a giant screen projecting the show, but also different animations and short movies to match the atmosphere or the lyrics of the songs.

Some surprising fireworks from time to time completed the lightshow.

The audience response was huge.
There was people coming from all over Europe: France, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Italy, England... and even further away, from Chile!

Rush's European tour was very short so this concert was a chance that fans didn't want to miss.

The setlist was divided in two sets.
It was some kind of a best of, including songs from the forthcoming album, Clockwork Angels, which is still in the making.
The second part started with the classic Moving Pictures album played entirely!

This tour was called the Time Machine Tour and... indeed everything was made to get the audience into the Time Machine.
Of course there was the music, with all these classic songs, but the stage was totally customized too.

There was a gramophone and other objects turning in circles during the whole show.
The amps looked like a machine too, and they had inscriptions in their lower part: "Real Time", "Half time" ,"Bass Time" and "Sausage Time".

Also, the screens showed a clock with the year which sometimes got crazy...
at the begining of the second part of the set, a short movie was shown.

The band was in the studio and the "manager" messes with the Time Machine... turning the band into babies, old men, Gandalf/Merlin-like wizards, prehistoric men and monkeys!

This was hilarious! Maybe part of the key to the success of this band is that they finally don't take themselves too seriously.
This touch of fun is really appreciable.

After almost 3 hours of rock, sweat (it was so hot inside the Festhalle) and virtuosity, the band went out and the show ended with a short movie, subtitled in German.

On the movie there were two guys backstage wating for the band and excited about meeting them. It was one of the guy's birthday so the other gave him a ticket plus backstage passes for a Rush gig.
One of the guys eats one of Rush's sandwiches and that's when the band gets into the room... both of them are impressed and don't know what to say appart that they're the banst band in the world.

The Rush guys find that they had fake backstage passes, as they wrote All Acccess with tree C and they kick them out of the room.

The guy that presented the fake passes was apologizing... when Geddy Lee comes out of the room and gives him a double neck bass autographed by the band... so he can continue to do "slap slap"!

To conclude, his friend points out that the Rush guys, are just regular guys, like anybody else.

That was for sure an original way to end a gig!

After about 40 years of musical carrer Rush is a band that has nothing else to prove. But they continue to do their best their gigs!
I hope they'll do a more extensive Euopean Tour for their next album. Moreover, they have an album called 2112, so they really have to come back in 2012!

Anyway, I was really happy to see them tonight, it was an amazing experience, and a great surprise as I haven't planned this show!

The moring after I got back home, and another great concert was waiting for me... Roger Waters was performing Pink Floyd's The Wall Live!
I just couldn't dream of a better way to end the week with Iron Maiden and Rush, and to start another one with Roger Waters!

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Setlist Rush – Festhalle – Frankfurt, Germany – May 29, 2011

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