Re: Neil Peart announces his retirement
By: Digital Man to Josh Ramsey on Tue Dec 08 2015 03:25 pm
I went over-budget on Rush tickets for R40 so I could see them "one last time" up close and personal and it was awesome (brought my oldest 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." ;-)
I read the article (it's "gone viral" as they say) and it doesn't seem to amount to an official announcment of retirement. I know Geddy and Alex seem still up for doing more stuff and I think there's the definite possiblity that Neil will feel the need to do some drumming again in the future, though, possibly not at the same scale (e.g. world-touring) or possibly not with Rush (?!?) - but I remain hopeful there will be at least one more album from the 3 of them and perhaps a chance to see them play 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.
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