Rush at Copps – 2013

It was another no rest for the wicked weekend. Phew. The plan was to head down to Niagara in the early afternoon and hook up with Captain, then off to see Rush at Copps. But first the Sword of Damocles was hanging over our tile decision and that had to be dealt with. So, that meant another trip to Toronto and Stone Tile… and after comparing the dye lots of the new shipment of tile, ta-da!, our tile has been selected. Soooo…. next Saturday we decided to try and save some money by picking up our tile and hardwood. I’m pretty sure my arms and back will think this was a shitty idea Saturday night however. But I digress. After dealing with the tile we looked at more lights. We have found another tentative option for the foyer light. Not wanting ‘the nickle look’ has turned light shopping into a circus. Ugh. After the ‘reno’ run around in the morning I was finally on my way to Niagara by mid-afternoon. The drive on the drive down sucked. I was caught in bumper to bumper for about 40m on both sides of Hamilton. No accidents that I could see, just volume and humans unable to cooperate and merge in traffic. Sigh.

After a short visit with Captain’s wife and inquisitive daughter we were off to see Rush! *grin* Event Parking was $9 compared to $25 in Toronto. Joy. We were a little tight on time once we got into Copps so I went to the swag table immediately. It was, of course, swamped with people… then I heard the crowd roar and music start… so I abandoned getting a shirt; they were playing Subdivisions! I looked for the table immediately after the show but it was completely gone. WTF? Is it ridiculous to expect swag to be available after a show? How disappointing. There were a few cool Ts too. Anyway, arriving when we did, in the dark, made finding the seats a bit of a pain… Yes Copps staff directed us to the general area of the seats but the upper level of Copps, in the dark, is brutal to navigate. Eventually after several wrong turns Captain found our seats and we settled in for the show.

Well Rush played for most of 3hrs, no opener… It was clear that the show was broken up into chunks so presumably, the band could rest. The guys are in their 50s… you wouldn’t know it however as they were spot on the entire night bringing the Rock. They opened and closed the night with older material. The new Clockwork Angels stuff was sandwiched in the middle. So much material! The setlist was awesome catering to the many decades of Rush fans. It was interesting to see the range of ages of fans in the crowd. My guess from 13 to 73… Pretty remarkable. The stage setup, theatrics and presentation of the show was impressive. There was a massive screen behind the band (you can see Neil in it in the photo above), a string ensemble, incredible lighting and yes kids pyro at a Rush show. Alex had a few guitar solos and Neil ‘never changing expression’ Peart had three shorter drum solos. Geddy bounced around a fair bit during the night addressing the crowd to express his happiness to be home in Canada eh. Funny. There was also a rather long, odd video after one of the sets with gnomes and an auditor of some sort. I still don’t know what to make of it. If you stuck around at the end of the show they played more of it. I’m very happy I went to see them… I’m not sure how many more years they’ll tour with this level of production.

Unfortunately we didn’t eat before the show. Which in retrospect was pretty dumb… I guess we figured we’d be able to grab a bite at, or after the show. Nope! Downtown Hamilton on a Saturday night and we couldn’t find a place to eat. Chris, a buddy from way back was also at the show so we arranged to meet him for a beer and hopefully food. It seemed to take forever to get together as Chris was given bad direction by a ‘so-called’ Hamiltonian. *eyeroll* We ended up at the charming little pub The Stowaway… It was nerdvana. Pinball machines, retro table top videogames, board games along the wall and a decent selection* of craft beers on tap. Sadly by the time we finally got to the pub the kitchen was closed. So we had a good convo and enjoyed a dangerous empty stomach pint. It was good catching up with Chris, I rarely see him and he is a good guy.

The drive out of Hamilton was a bit crazy… We were caught in a massive downpour and apparently Hamilton streets don’t drain well… there was pooling water everywhere. Fortunately there wasn’t any problems. We settled on drive-thru fast-food in Grimsby which disappeared into our bellies almost instantly.

After crashing on Captain’s couch we grabbed some delicious breakfast at Heritage restaurant in St.Catharines in the morning. Shortly afterwards I said my goodbyes and headed over to my parents. Thanks again to Captain for the company, hospitality and a great night in the Hammer. I had a nice visit with my parents highlighted by meeting their new cats Zigmund (Ziggy) and Hooper (from the movie Jaws). I had nothing to do with their names. They are great cats! Very personable, love people, friendly… I had one of them alseep on my lab within one hour of meeting them. I can’t tell them apart however. Then it was back to Bolton. It sure felt like I spent most of the weekend in a car.

It was awesome to come home to a clean house Sunday night. Thanks bdot. We had an incredible dinner and chilled out to the brainless but amusing Expendables 2. Now to sleep.

* I went through three choices before the friendly waitress found a beer that was listed and actually available…she recommended the Nickel Brook Naughty Neighbor A.P.A. and it was quite good.