Aftermath

When the first whispers of a new Rush tour reached my eager ears in 2014, I was perhaps more excited than I should have been but this was due primarily to the fact that I had been forced to miss the Clockwork Angels tour owing to my constant moving and traveling for work. The cruel hand of fate had set their tour in Georgia for after I was scheduled to move to Arizona for work and then again, the tour in Arizona was set for after I had moved to Seattle for the same reason. As my own bad luck would have it, I was unable to see the tour at all and I was disappointed and angry with myself for missing it. I really loved that album and was still inwardly seething about it when I heard about the R40 tour that was to come through Seattle in 2015. "Not again.", I told myself. I would see this tour come hell or high water because like most of the rest of the Rush faithful, I too, had heard the rumors that it was to be their last tour and that the possibility of the band retiring loomed large in the future. To be honest, it felt like the end of the road to me and I knew that missing the final tour would shatter me. The band had been recording and touring for 40 years and you didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to see which way the wind was blowing.
The tour came and my wife and I wound up going to see the show in Portland because the Seattle date had sold out within minutes of going live. Portland was only a short drive down the road and it was Rush after all so it was no burden at all to make the drive south.
It was everything I had hoped it would be and more. The set changes through the course of the show added a nice touch as they cycled backwards through their catalog to the very beginning. A few personal high points for me were when the band busted into 'Animate', one of my all time favorites and when they played 'Jacob's Ladder' another of my holiest of holy's. The pinnacle, however, was when the double necks came out and they played Xanadu. I began screaming incoherently and so loudly that I frightened the woman to my right with my caterwauling. She just stared at me with a look of growing terror as I screamed and swayed to the music, gesticulating wildly and every drum break and fill.
The show ended and my wife and I filed out to find our car and make the 3 hour drive home. We talked excitedly about how good the show was and how many of our favorite songs they played.
What we didn't talk about because it was taboo, was the fact that this was the last time we would ever be able to see them live.
As the tour neared the end of it's run, I began to see items float across my Facebook feed that hinted that the band would retire when the tour ended. My suspicions had been verified and I began to steel myself for the official announcement which would come just a few scant weeks after the tour ended.
It was over. There would be no more new music or tours from the band that had become the beacon in my life from a very early age. Never again would I have the excitement and anticipation of a new album to fall in love with and spend hours learning on guitar.
The news processed quickly for me and while I did feel a sense of sadness at the passing of a legendary band who had filled my life with the most incredible music I had ever heard, I also felt a profound sense of gratitude for all they had given me.
The rigors of touring and meeting their own personal expectations as musicians had taken their toll and they were simply tired and ready to go back to being normal after spending so many years trapped in the unreal word of a touring act of their magnitude. They were also a good deal older than when I had first discovered them and age was beginning to takes it's toll as well.
Being the type of drummer that he was, Neil Peart's body began to vehemently reject the constant abuse he was putting it through every night to entertain the millions of people who came to see them. He was suffering physically and mentally and he was done. Imagine the realization he must have come to as he began to accept that the thing that had made him famous and universally accepted as one of the greatest living drummers of all time was also destroying him both body and mind.
Alex too, was suffering but from arthritis and the pain was starting to be more of a burden than he could bear.
They had all given so much to the medium they had wanted to conquer as teenagers and it was finally time to say goodbye after 40 long, grueling years.
Their final album, "Clockwork Angels", had proven to be both a critical and commercial success. They were going out on top and after so many years of being ignored, they had also finally made it into the Rock&Roll Hall of Fame, an honor that was way too many years in the making.
It had been a phenomenal run when you look back at the totality of it all. I still have all the music and the memories associated with it so in the end, it's not all bad. I suppose I will still miss the excitement of hearing a new album but in those instances I will just lean on my memory to remind me of all they've given me over the years. In my own way, I will hold the red star proudly, high in hand.