PHOTOS: Aladdin Theater, 03/09/24
First off, many thanks to Paul Lesinski for the great video montage (below) and for being such a special friend to The RUSH Collective since the beginning (2018!)
It beautifully captures some sweet moments from last night's show at Aladdin Theater - and there were A LOT! One of the amazing moments had to do with rockstar Ben Landsverk playing violin on Losing It with us. R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S. And he's such a lovely soul. But I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.
The laser light show by LASER GATOR was spectacular, as always - a feast for the eyes! If you haven't yet met them - Milo and Paul Mehner are great people, amazing at what they do, and they've got #RUSH music in their bones! Most of the phenomenal photos you're seeing (or going to see) were taken by Brenda Adams. On the topic of what you get to see - major shout out to Daniel Bozyk for his amazing video/promo and other content to get you excited about us and our shows.
Many thanks to Paul, Erica and the rest of the team at Aladdin Theater, and Ben Engen, my amazing drum tech. If you like how my drums sound - that's all Ben. He also keeps everything working, coordinated and executed (and therefore keeps me from having a nervous breakdown before/during a gig).
Also, we couldn't do this without Jason Fellman and team J-Fell Presents, who've been partners with us from the very beginning. Jason has been a true co-conspirator on the vision for the Annual Rush Party - and he's also been a great coach to me on physically (and mentally!) surviving playing 2 sets of Rush music at our shows. (Note: I also have a physical therapist for my 'tennis elbow'! "How much tennis do you play?" -asks the Physical Therapist. "Uhhh...None! I play drums in a Rush tribute band!!!!")
I can't say enough about my bandmates Steve Adams Jeff Langston Kevin Burkhart and Rich Ray. They're amazing musicians, lovely guys and they take their crafts really really seriously. To this day, they pull amazingness out of their respective hats at each of our shows. And they're just really sweet and fun. We have a lot of joy in our The RUSH Collective Cave.
Playing RUSH music is like driving a racecar. There are a lot of turns, you're taking them really fast, and there's not a lot of room for error. And if you screw up, depending upon where you are in a song, it's quite hard to recover. Everyone sort of looks at each other like, "uhh...I have no idea where/how my complicated part meshes with whatever the hell you're playing...so hopefully, at some point REALLY SOON, you'll play something I recognize so we can zip this back together!!!!" (Thankfully, that only happened to us a couple of times last night ). But these guys are true champs. I realize my racecar analogy doesn't perfectly fit (i.e. are we all in one racecar together, or each driving our own???)...but you get the point. It's intense. And there's no other group of folks I'd want to be doing this with
(Forgive me, quick pet peeve. Once in awhile someone random on FB will comment on how we're "5 guys playing the music of 3 guys! WTF.... 3 guys can't get the job done????" To that I say, "Seriously?" Alex, Neil and Geddy are each lightning in a bottle. No one is them - or ever will be...nor should try to be. Want to honor them and their sound? Then try and get as close as you possibly can to it, and if that takes 7 people...so be it!!! I happen to think our sound is pretty full, and each of our respective parts is really powerful (not taking anything away from other Rush tributes)...and I think that's only possible because we divide the work up. Hence the "collective"). Ok...rant over.
....
You'll notice above that I refer to Neil in the present. That's how I feel about him. He's still very much with me and in my mind and heart. And I know that's the same for many of you as well. It's hard to put it into words - the impact of him on my life - so I won't even try. Just know this: when a number of you approached me last night after the show to tell me what Rush (in general) and Neil (in particular) mean to you, and you searched for the right words to convey the power and depth of it all...I was right there with you. I GET IT. He's just a titan. On so many levels. In fact, sometimes when I'm listening to Rush and I focus on one of his ridiculous fills or grooves (or lyrics!) I'll just randomly yell out, "thank G-D!!!!!", as in, "thank G-D for putting Neil Peart on this earth and allowing us to overlap in this lifetime with him!"
And that brings me to my final, and most important, thanks - to all of you, for coming to our shows - or just connecting with us online - and sharing your deep (and quite longstanding) love of RUSH - the music, the guys, the message, etc. They clearly mean so much to you - and the fact that we can help put you in touch with some of that...and you can share that with us and others....well...that's gasoline in our engines. And we're just getting cranking.
Can't wait to spend more time with you all celebrating RUSH - whenever that might be! Until then, be well and thanks again.
very very humbly,
Andrew (drums)
