RUSH Glasgow SECC 3rd October 2007

Despite the efforts of Endlessly Rocking (see the Eventful Tag to the right), "The World's Greatest Band" declined to include Belfast on their Snakes and Arrows Tour itinerary and I was forced to make my way to Bonnie Scotland to fulfil a lifelong ambition to see Canada's finest in the flesh.

Having stayed close to the venue on a trip to Glasgow earlier in the year, Hall 4 of Glasgow's SECC was ideal for the travelling headbanger with the Campanile Hotel just a stone's throw away. As a venue for a major rock concert though it left a lot to be desired. A rectangular shaped arena with the stage placed off-centre on one of the long sides, the orientation of what is basically a huge warehouse meant that anyone not seated directly front-of-stage had a oblique view of events with stage gear obscuring at least one three giant screens behind the band. The sound also was muddy at times and not quite loud enough. None of this was the fault of the band though and for almost three solid hours they enthralled the near sell-out crowd with a powerful performance.

The introductory video, with Geddy Lee masquerading as lunatic Scotsman Harry Satchel and Neil Peart sporting a rare public grin, went well down particularly well with the Scottish audience before the band took the stage with a relatively low-key version of Limelight - Alex Lifeson letting the opening chord ring while the rest of the band took up position. I was immediately consumed with an overwhelming feeling of pure joy - I had finally made it to a Rush show! This euphoria hardly faded during the rest of the evening as the band ran treated us to several rarely aired songs (including old chestnuts Circumstances and Entre Nous) and 9 songs from latest album Snakes and Arrows. Among my personal highlights were a thundering Subdivisions (not one of my favourite Rush compositions but superbly menacing live) and a spine-tingling Natural Science - selections that quickly picked up the pace after the band opened the second part of the show (following a 20 minute interval) with no less than five new tracks. Of these it was Armor & Sword that impressed most - despite it not being amongst my favourites off the album.

The lighting arrangement was spectacular with the 'Close Encounters' type flying lighting rigs and the judicial use of lasers drawing gasps of appreciation. The videos displayed on the giant backing screens at various stages were an entertainment in themselves with highlights including the fire-breathing dragon during Vapor Trails and the boy-on-the-missile graphics from the Distant Early Warning promo.

At times the musicianship on show was awe-inspiring, never more so than Neil Peart's drum-solo. Now.....I am not a drum-solo fan. Even 'The Professors' efforts generally fall victim of the 'skip' and 'fast-forward' buttons. This solo however was simply incredible - as a display of sheer skill I have never seen anything like it. He may be a cantankerous old git (it takes one to know one!) but if there is a better percussionist out there I would love to see them. The band rounded off the show with Spirit of Radio and Tom Sawyer before ending with an encore of One Little Victory, A Passage to Bangkok and YYZ. By that stage I had reached emotional and sensory overload and was incapable of truly taking in the performance of some of my all-time favourite tracks - something I regret as there may well not be an other opportunity to see the band on these shores. Still, as achieving lifelong ambitions go it did not disappoint - I have seen the greatest rock band in the world live and in the flesh, everything else pales in comparison.