Las Vegas, Nevada, Sep. 21, 2002

Ticket and photos provided by Eric Hansen; billboard photo provided by Monica Davidson

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Click to enlarge VT billboard, photo by Monica Davidson Click to enlarge Click to enlarge

We arrived in Las Vegas at 8 am the day before the show. It truly was a weekend of Rush, as Rush seemed to be everywhere. While riding in the shuttle from the airport (unit 2084), I coincidentally heard "unit 2112 to dispatch", not once, but twice (no kidding)! The synchonicity of such a call was laughable, but truly set the stage. Then, between the airport and the MGM Grand Hotel, we passed by a Vapor Trails billboard advertising the show.

At the hotel, behind the 100 foot long front desk is a continuous wall of flat screen monitors. Between videos for Howie Mandel, Paul Anka, Rick Springfield, and Enrique Eglesias, was a Rush video which was AMAZING to see for the first time. Just imagine, a crowded lobby, and in the background a 30 yard long Rush video of concert footage and album graphics, with the music above it all!

Over the course of two days in Vegas, we met fans who flew in from Britain, Australia, Sweden, and all around the United States. Even the waitresses in the hotel seemed to feel the buzz. After checking in, we went down to the MGM cafe for breakfast. The waitress asked "this 'Rush', they are a British band?". Later, the hostess at Wolfgang Puck's thought she might know "Tom Sawyer", and begged me to sing it (and she is still waiting)...

The same promotional video we first saw at the front desk played regularly on the huge marquee (the screen itself must be 50 feet tall) in front of the hotel, as well as on flat screen monitors in the casino, above slot machine kiosks, etc. For the two days we were there at the casino, every few minutes you could hear the video playing somewhere, and when you walked out of the casino, it was playing on the marquee above The Vegas Strip.

Throughout the casino, there were "backlit" posters, customized for the MGM Grand Garden Rush show, "first tour in 5 years, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart...Saturday, September 21st". I enquired with guest relations about getting one of these posters after the show, "ahem, yes, I'm a guest staying at your hotel..." and was told that the posters were the property of the band.

The show itself was fabulous. During "Dreamline", Geddy emphasized the word "Vegas" in the line "She's got a sister out in VEGAS" which received warm applause from the crowd. In addition, I was about to learn that this was to be only the second night that "The Trees" was played on this tour, in place of "Between The Sun and Moon". For the acoustic guitar intro to "The Trees", a roadie placed a guitar on one of Alex's patented Omega Concern guitar stands on stage, which he played while his electric hung around his neck.

For his rant during "La Villa", Alex began with a very long coughing spell, then attempting to clear his throat, said with a large grin on his face "Does anybody want to lick this mike?" After much applause and laughter, he said "My voice is changing. It sounds like Michael Jackson's voice. His voice now sounds like mine used to. Screw Michael Jackson anyway!" Then he paused and began whistling, likely as he tried to think of something to say. He then told the the crowd "Everybody whistle!", and then told Geddy and Neil to stop playing. Amazingly, the entire crowd began whistling quite loudly, to which Alex replied "you guys are pretty good! Actually I have some very important things to tell you" (as Ged and Neil started playing again) "but I'd rather hear what you guys have to say" and then motioned for Ged and Neil to stop playing. Again, the band was silent and the entire crowd started talking to Alex. Alex smiled incredulously and said "really? You don't say" and then they broke back in to "La Villa".

The Power Windows Webmaster, September 2002