RIP Neil Peart

[thatguy]

I don't know if any of you are Rush fans, but Neil Peart's death is in the news today, but it appears that he died 3 days ago, on 1/7 at age 67 from brain cancer. 

He was one of the best rock drummers. Sad day...

--tg

[Greg]

I am not a Rush fan, but I do respect the impact they had. The always seemed to fill an odd niche in rock history. I did enjoy their documentary 'Across the Lighted Stage'

[Drunk Monk]

Rush was the 2nd concert I ever attended. At the palacio de bovino. I’m NOT a fan. I went with a group of people from the quad (mq6 the theater ed, lb & I worked at). I remember enjoying the light show. After that I lost track of why was my 3rd show.

[cranefly]

Rush was the first concert I ever went to.
Afterwards, I met Neil backstage.

Should probably end with just that, but then you might think I'm joshing.

LCF and I were in a writers workshop with Kevin J. Anderson back in the day, before he got big.  He's written lots of DUNE sequels with Frank Herbert's son.  And lots of other stuff.
Anyway, Kevin became good friends with Neil and got some free tickets to a Rush concert and invited LCF and me.  Afterwards, he took us backstage to meet Neil.

It felt a little awkward, because I don't know him, don't follow their music; and he was sick, had performed sick -- which made me wonder what kind of wonderful he is when he's well.  It wasn't a long visit, maybe five or ten minutes, but he was very gracious giving us the time.

Kevin has based at least one book on a Rush album, and I think he and Neil have even co-wrote some stuff together.

Here's the book:

https://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/0...eil-peart/

Kevin had a bad 2019 with the deaths of several close friends (not that he's alone in that regard).  This will be devastating.

[Drunk Monk]

Rush was the first concert I ever went to.
Afterwards, I met Neil backstage.

Should probably end with just that, but then you might think I'm joshing.

ftw?

[Greg]

Totally. I think my first concert was Journey with Loverboy as the opening act.

[Drunk Monk]

My first was - appropriately - Genesis @ the Greek. It was post-Gabriel tho. I saw Gabriel solo soon after. I was a huge fan of his and even have his German versions... in vinyl

[Greg]

I watched a lot of Sportsball this weekend. For quite a few musical segments going into commercial breaks (bumpers, if you will) they did Rush songs. It had to be an homage since that's not the usual bumper music.

[King Bob]

I was never that into Rush, but they did some good songs, and used to really like the live album they did in the mid 80s, I think called Show of Hands. Apparently Peart was into Ayn Rand, but I never got that from the music. Just as well, she and her "philosophy" make me angry.

And my first concert was The Police at the Cow Palace. I think still one of the best shows I've seen.

[Greg]

I saw the Police at the US Festival. They put on an awesome show.

[Drunk Monk]

I saw the Police a dozen years ago. Told ya about that: http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...92#pid5092

Here's another Rush tale (although it pales in comparison to cf's).  One of the RMers was a huge Rush fan.  Many years ago, they played Oakland and they asked DM to get hooked up with Alice Dee.  Those were the Dead years, so DM knew Alice well and had many tabs of paper with various contacts.  But he didn't know which was which.  It was the Dead years - those were hazy.  So she picked a bunk tab.  Always felt badly about that but Alice can be that way.