Holy crap, Rush!
Kate and I went to a Rush concert on Saturday, as some of you may already know. We had some decent tickets, it was at Nissan Pavilion in Bristow Virginia, we were in the back of the pavilion section, Section 303, Row G (about 500 feet back). When we were outside waiting for the gates to open, we were getting thirsty, and there's this concessions stand off to the right, but we decided not to go, since it would get flooded with people right away, and went off to the left in search of greener pastures. We first went to get beer, myself a Blue Moon 22oz, and Kate a 24oz Heineken keg can, when I noticed a small plinko thing with free stuff at the Nikon tent nearby, where we got our picture taken, #10 in the gallery (you can even see the beer we got.) We also got some free stuff from Plinko, Kate a t-shirt, and myself some spf 4 lip balm (yipee.) Off to the right a few feet was a guy from one of the local radio stations, 94.7 The Globe There's probably going to be a picture of us up there some time soon, but I'll get to that in a minute.
While standing in the line for Plinko Ripofftm by Nikon, Dave, the guy at the radio tent, commented on how great their line was, and how sucky his was. I pointed out that he did not have free tee-shirts, where he replied that radio doesn't have the budget. We need sponsors to do take part in shirt making, and the marketing department is lazy as hell. I rebutted with the fact that he needs to suggest beer companies for shirt sponsors. Beer loves Free- Tees. We felt bad for him, with his shitty line, so we went over there to see what he wanted to entice us with after plinkoing, and found that there was something far more interesting than a free shirt. There was a chance to win a ticket upgrade for 22nd row in the Orchestra Pit. All we had to do was fill out an entry blank and have a cell phone ready. So we did, and we talked to him for a minute, found that the drawing was at 7:30, and went on our way, and found our seats. Around 7:00, I say to Kate that I don't trust the cell phone, and we should go hang out with Dave until the drawing, figuring maybe if we hang out and talk, and he draws a 2 person ballot (there are four upgrade tickets in all) maybe he'll just give us the other two. when we get there, I tell him if we get the first two, maybe we can sell them for more beer, and Dave chuckled a bit and said "No, I have to give them away." So we hung out there for a bit, and he gave away some stuff, and we talked to him between booth visitors, I drew a four out of some novelty playing cards he had, and won this Animation Show DVD box set, and we talked about the Jimmy Buffet tickets I had won from the station back in the day, like 4 years ago. Look up the entry if you want, it's in there somewhere.... And about how unprofitable radio really is, and by that time it was about 7:28ish, and the band would be on in 17 minutes. A final pair of entrants vying for the upgrades came along, an early twenties guy, and his brother of about 13, at his first rock concert, which he has no shame in telling Dave. They filled out the listener club form on the table, and Dave asked where they were sitting, and they were unsure, so I chimed in "You probably paid less than $200 for those tickets, right?" "Yeah," says the guy, and I add "Then you want what Dave has to offer!" Dave looks at me, gives me a smile, and hands them an entry blank, which the older brother fills out and puts in the box. By this time my heart is pounding with excitement, hoping I really was right to come out here and hang out with this radio guy. Two minutes later, "It's that time" says our radio promo friend, shakes the box, and says "I think I found my winners. You guys better get to know each other." "Why," I inquired knowingly "are we going to be sitting next to them?" Dave just nodded and pulled out four shiny, silver embossed VIP tickets to Orchestra 2, Row V, 1-4. He took our picture, we shook his hands and hugged him, and thanked him profusely, and rushed off to get a celebratory beer, and experience the show.
When we got to the seats, we still had about 10 minutes left till showtime, so we had a chance to sit down in the special seats, just for row V, 1-4, some nice little body hugging racing seats, like you'd find in an overtuned tuner car, or something more deserving of the G-force absorbing glory that is a good race seat. We sat and 'relaxed', our hearts trying to burst through breastplates, knowing we're so close we could actually see the details of the stage, the shine on Niel's drum kit, the texture of the skin on Geddy's rotisserie chickens (don't ask, we don't know) and the hair of the barbies in front of Alex's loudspeakers. And then it began. I'll go into detail on the show later if anyone wants, but for now, I'll just say that you can see a rush concert, and have a damn good time, or you can be where we were, and FEEL the concert. Fucking awesome.
Such a pretty ticket. I'll have more pictures when I get them from the camera phone later....
While standing in the line for Plinko Ripofftm by Nikon, Dave, the guy at the radio tent, commented on how great their line was, and how sucky his was. I pointed out that he did not have free tee-shirts, where he replied that radio doesn't have the budget. We need sponsors to do take part in shirt making, and the marketing department is lazy as hell. I rebutted with the fact that he needs to suggest beer companies for shirt sponsors. Beer loves Free- Tees. We felt bad for him, with his shitty line, so we went over there to see what he wanted to entice us with after plinkoing, and found that there was something far more interesting than a free shirt. There was a chance to win a ticket upgrade for 22nd row in the Orchestra Pit. All we had to do was fill out an entry blank and have a cell phone ready. So we did, and we talked to him for a minute, found that the drawing was at 7:30, and went on our way, and found our seats. Around 7:00, I say to Kate that I don't trust the cell phone, and we should go hang out with Dave until the drawing, figuring maybe if we hang out and talk, and he draws a 2 person ballot (there are four upgrade tickets in all) maybe he'll just give us the other two. when we get there, I tell him if we get the first two, maybe we can sell them for more beer, and Dave chuckled a bit and said "No, I have to give them away." So we hung out there for a bit, and he gave away some stuff, and we talked to him between booth visitors, I drew a four out of some novelty playing cards he had, and won this Animation Show DVD box set, and we talked about the Jimmy Buffet tickets I had won from the station back in the day, like 4 years ago. Look up the entry if you want, it's in there somewhere.... And about how unprofitable radio really is, and by that time it was about 7:28ish, and the band would be on in 17 minutes. A final pair of entrants vying for the upgrades came along, an early twenties guy, and his brother of about 13, at his first rock concert, which he has no shame in telling Dave. They filled out the listener club form on the table, and Dave asked where they were sitting, and they were unsure, so I chimed in "You probably paid less than $200 for those tickets, right?" "Yeah," says the guy, and I add "Then you want what Dave has to offer!" Dave looks at me, gives me a smile, and hands them an entry blank, which the older brother fills out and puts in the box. By this time my heart is pounding with excitement, hoping I really was right to come out here and hang out with this radio guy. Two minutes later, "It's that time" says our radio promo friend, shakes the box, and says "I think I found my winners. You guys better get to know each other." "Why," I inquired knowingly "are we going to be sitting next to them?" Dave just nodded and pulled out four shiny, silver embossed VIP tickets to Orchestra 2, Row V, 1-4. He took our picture, we shook his hands and hugged him, and thanked him profusely, and rushed off to get a celebratory beer, and experience the show.
When we got to the seats, we still had about 10 minutes left till showtime, so we had a chance to sit down in the special seats, just for row V, 1-4, some nice little body hugging racing seats, like you'd find in an overtuned tuner car, or something more deserving of the G-force absorbing glory that is a good race seat. We sat and 'relaxed', our hearts trying to burst through breastplates, knowing we're so close we could actually see the details of the stage, the shine on Niel's drum kit, the texture of the skin on Geddy's rotisserie chickens (don't ask, we don't know) and the hair of the barbies in front of Alex's loudspeakers. And then it began. I'll go into detail on the show later if anyone wants, but for now, I'll just say that you can see a rush concert, and have a damn good time, or you can be where we were, and FEEL the concert. Fucking awesome.
Such a pretty ticket. I'll have more pictures when I get them from the camera phone later....