Re: Neil Peart announces his retirement
By: Digital Man to Josh Ramsey on Tue Dec 08 2015 03:25 pm
DM> I went over-budget on Rush tickets for R40 so I could see them "one last
DM> time" up close and personal and it was awesome (brought my oldest
DM> daughter, for her first concert). I'm prepared for the possibility that
Ah, man! That would be a killer first concert to see! The last few times I saw
them, I was happy to see lots of younger people (teens and twenties) there. Of
course, it probably wasn't all a matter of lots of new fans. I'm sure noticing
the "difference" also had something to do with me finally being in my
mid-thirties myself, and feeling older. But, even so, it did seem that a larger
proportion of the crowds were newer fans than when I'd started going to see
them as a younger fan 10 years before.
Another thing I noticed about the younger fans was that there were a lot more
female fans in that group than you'd normally associate with Rush or prog-rock
bands. I also noticed that with Yes, another group I used to go see quite
often. (Sadly, with them screwing over Jon Anderson and now Chris Squire's
death, I'm not holding out hope for seeing anything that I will consider "Yes,"
regardless of the name on the ticket.)
As I get older, it's easier for me to slip into the trap of "oh, these younger
kids don't know music," but all the evidence points to larger numbers of that
demographic getting into classic artists than there ever have been. (Well,
aside from those who got into the bands when they were in their primes.)
For that matter, almost all the music I listen to now, including Rush, I
started with in my teens and twenties. That was at least twenty years after
most of the artists had started themselves. So, I've no room to go all elitist
on "these kids today." ;-)
DM> I read the article (it's "gone viral" as they say) and it doesn't seem to
DM> amount to an official announcment of retirement. I know Geddy and Alex
DM> seem still up for doing more stuff and I think there's the definite
DM> possiblity that Neil will feel the need to do some drumming again in the
DM> future, though, possibly not at the same scale (e.g. world-touring) or
DM> possibly not with Rush (?!?) - but I remain hopeful there will be at least
DM> one more album from the 3 of them and perhaps a chance to see them play
DM> together live again.
I've got to admit that I took the sensationalist headline and sharers' comments
at face value, not bothering to click through, so it's good to hear it's not
quite what it seemed to imply. I think one thing I'd love to see is Peart doing
something small, based around his love of jazz/swing. I've always loved the
bits and pieces out there, like the Burnin' for Buddy (Rich) projects. To see
him throw down a Rich-esque solo on a standard jazz kit would be so cool!
Whatever the case, I'm going to make sure I stop taking these bands for
granted. Retirements (or worse) are really diminishing the shows-per-year I
want to see.
---
■ Synchronet ■ Basement Theory BBS ■ basement.synchro.net
|
