It is with great sadness that I honor the passing of Neil Peart this past week. After the Beatles, Rush is the reason I wanted to play guitar. I had the opportunity to see them several times over the years, but the most memorable shows were at the Akron Civic Theater after the Fly By Night, Caress of Steel, and 2112 records were released. This was before TicketMaster and other ticket sellers existed - once we heard the show was coming, we would skip school to go to Mayflower travel in downtown Akron on the day the tickets went on sale - Mayflower always had the tickets for the balcony.
I saw many shows from center balcony in the first or second row. Rush was the warm-up band for Kiss for the first time I saw them - but I went to see Rush and got to experience the talent of these three master musicians first hand. Any other time I saw Rush - they were the headliner. Little compares to hearing this three-piece band performing any of the songs in their voluminous catalog.
I spent many hours learning the guitar parts for these songs. I am proud to say I have all the Rush studio releases on vinyl and have updated my collection to have all the studio releases on CD. Prayers and condolences to the Peart family on the loss of this great drummer.