Concert-induced G.A.S. - courtesy of Rush

Got an opportunity to catch Rush in concert last night at Riverbend (in Cincinnati). All in all, I'd say it was a great show... they did about half a dozen tracks from Snakes & Arrows (which, although I own the CD, I haven't spent a lot of time listening to it), quite a few "mandatory" Rush classics (e.g., "Tom Sawyer" "Limelight" "Freewill" "Subdivisions"), and even dusted off a couple of songs that I've never seen 'em do in concert (e.g., "Digital Man" "Passage to Bangkok"). Top-notch musicianship all night, though there were definitely a couple songs where it sounded like Geddy was struggling to get the high notes out.

Anyway, there's nothing like a concert to bring on a bad case of G.A.S. Alex was playing a set of pimped-out Les Pauls (one of which had a Floyd Rose trem) all night and pulled out an ES335 for the encore--no longer the mix of Gibsons, PRSi, and Fenders from past tours. From an amp perspective, he was still using a pair of signature H&K Triamp II's, but had replaced the H&K Zenteras from the last tour with a pair of H&K Switchblades. Seeing all that H&K gear on stage got me reminiscing about when I tried to create my own little Lifeson rig last year...



It was short-lived (as many G.A.S.-related efforts are), mostly because I was bandless at the time, and a rig of that size needs to be on a stage (not in my basement). So ultimately it was split up & sold off to fund the latest amp purchase (Egnater M4 rig), but seeing all the H&K gear on stage last night gave me just a touch of seller's remorse (though not so much that I'd consider selling the Egnater to get the H&K gear back!).

--B