Rush Snakes and Arrows Tour

Bob Wanat is responsible for my addiction. Dave Serhan had to endure it at Penn State. Joe Petrasek shares it.

I'm talking about the legendary rock group Rush. It's a curious addiction because when I first heard them, I didn't really think too much of their music, but as is often the case with spaced repetition, it grew on me and has been my favorite rock group for the past 31 years. Last night Terri and I saw them perform (from ROW 8!) at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre near Denver. It was an outstanding show with lots of enthusiastic fans. I sometimes worry that I'll be the oldest person at a rock concert, the consummate geezer, but was gratified to see grandparents bringing their grandchildren to share in a timeless form of music that effortlessly spans generations.

A few years ago I was at my nephew's graduation party and one of his friends was doing the honors of acting as a DJ. He found my brother-in-law's Rush CD, Moving Pictures, and began playing it. I went up and complimented him on his excellent taste in music and he looked at me with astonishment and asked, 'Would you adopt me?!'. Obviously a kindred spirit, he was a committed Rush fan and was playing a CD that was released before he was even born, and he was as enthused about it 22 years later as I had been when I had first heard it when I was around his age.

This Canadian trio has been selling out all their concerts across the U.S. and Europe and they do it with virtually no radio airplay. They've only had two modest 'hits', if you can call them that, which you can hear on classic rock FM stations on occasion. The little snippet video above is a South Park intro to 'Tom Sawyer', their most recognizable song (and my cell phone's ringtone).

Sometimes people erroneously lump Rush into head-banging hedonistic heavy metal, but that's a gross mischaracterization.

Yes, I know I post too much about Rush, I just can't help myself...