The Rush Show (from Boston Diaries June 08)

The Rush Show
Sunday – Mansfield – ‘just outside Boston’ (NOT)

The tickets said doors open at 7.30 prompt. I had figured out (I should have a BSc in Public Transport – put me anywhere and I will sniff it out) that we could catch the commuter train, checked the times and from Boston South Station it would cost just $6.75 each, I assumed (wrongly) that we would be able to buy a return ticket and surely there would be a return train scheduled for after the concert finished, assuming made an ass out of me (that’s the way the saying goes I think) nope, the last commuter back from Mansfield was 10.25pm and as the concert went on till 11.00pm we were not going to manage to catch that one, I should have known it was going to be tricky when I asked about getting back and the teller at the train station said, you might be better off staying over at a b and b or something

When I bought the concert tickets on the internet I realised that there wasn’t really any public transport from Mansfield train station to the venue (4 miles) I had imagined it like any small town and that it must have a taxi rank.

I checked my map, it said to get out of the city onto the Providence line, two singles to Mansfield $6.75 cents, I asked if there would be any extra commuter train laid on due to the concert, the vendor said nope, the commuter stops at 10.30pm and the service doesn’t kick in again until 5.30am the following morning, when I asked about a shuttle bus to the venue he just said no, you may find a taxi but I doubt it in Mansfield” By now it was too late to do anything else but just go, so that’s what we did.


We had come this far so it was onwards and upwards, the train came and excitedly we sat upstairs (the American commuters are double decked, what a novelty ) as we left the city, we passed Back Bay, Ruggles, Forest Hills, Hyde Park, Readville, Route 128, Canton Junction, Sharon, Mansfield. Whilst I people watched the others on the train it seemed like everyone on nearing their station rang what sounded like a member of their family to come and collect them at the station. I pick my kids up at Stretford Met regularly, maybe it was pretty much the same.

We got off the train in Mansfield at 3.30pm, and others getting off the train were not concert goers, and all went to the dusty car park and had lifts waiting, there was a loner who set off up a dusty road as soon as we walked off the platform, he was on a mission and proceeded to walk off into the distance, without a backward glance for a taxi or bus, he knew the lay of the land and I was beginning to realise why, Mansfield station wasn’t even a station, there were no buildings, just a dusty car park, A couple of benches and that was it, there was a couple who also looked round for something more, on speaking to them (we never even got their names) they were from Peru, He worked on the Disney cruise ship out of Florida and sent money home for his wife and child, his wife was with him and spoke no English whatsoever, she looked rather frightened when I tried to break the ice so I stopped looking at her. We spotted one building over the way and went into A pizza parlour, on asking about a taxi we were told that Mansfield didn’t have a taxi service and there was no bus service either, and the best advice they could offer was a point in the direction the strange single man off our train went, we couldn’t even see him on this dusty road, so we set off, we walked for an hour, passing various clapperboard homes, schools and hamlets, we walked for another hour and I was thirsty, desp for the toilet and rather hungry. Mrs Peru looked as exhausted as me and rather frightened, several cars passed one way and seemed to come back to have a look at the strange four people walking on the dusty nothingness, that’s another thing, in America there are no pavements to walk on once you are away from house and neighbour hoods.

So we had been walking for two hours, and concerned we were going to get lost I knocked on a door, “Your nearly there, just over the bridge” I was told.

The Arena had recently changed its name from the Tweeter Centre to CHURNWOOD SO that’s why se saw no reassuring signs as my heart sunk thinking we had walked to the wrong venue.

I felt like we had been set a challenge before we truly deserved to watch Rush in the USA, we only have one more challenge and that was to run over (there was no traffic stop signs – they weren’t expecting pedestrians and it showed) (I now know its called a freeway and we werent supposed to be crossing it, it may even have been eligal, jaywalking I beleive) it was four lanes of traffic on each side and after a short gap, we ran across without getting hit, we could see the gates, the relief was short lived when we got in and realised we were only in the car park, which allowed for at least 8,000 vehicles. All I wanted was the toilet a cup of coffee and something to eat, Mr and Mrs Peru, wanted to be on their own, so we bid them farewell they were staying in a hostel in Boston and doing the whole trip on a shoestring fortunately for them they had a contact of someone who could get them back to their accommodation, we were not quite so lucky, a feeling of impending doom washed over me when Sean uttered the words “perhaps after the gig we could just thumb a lift back to Boston, to the right of me were two men who looked like extras from Deliverance, and to the right of me was a man on his own with a long black leather coat (so inappropriate for the warm weather) and I thought of The Hitcher with Rutgar Hauer ….. I was sure I could hear duelling banjos in the distance or was that the boys warming up??

Yes ladies and gentleman there were a few hours on Sunday 15th June 2008 when I thought that this may be the one story I never relate unless It was to relive it to a state police officer whilst he dictated it and I wept quietly with a blanket wrapped round me.

We see signs stating that tailgating is permitted, as I start to wonder what that means I have vivid images from deliverance running through my mind. Tail sounds awfully close to tailbone which is fairly close to your goddammn butt!, actually it was all very innocent, as we entered the centre (or should I say the centres car parking) everyone with a car had the trunk open and were setting up bbqs no not the disposable ones you would imagine, but huge things that needed legs attaching, then the deck chairs came out then the picnic tables then the gazeboes went up and the party began, various different era’s of rush was being played from car cd players and we were finally at the venue. We split with Mr and Mrs Peru and said we would meet up later if they saw us they could share our cab. A local rock radio station arrived and set up a stall giving away t shirts and stickers, dunk in donuts arrived giving out samples of their new drinks, and we began to chill out…… the venue opened its doors at 6.30 on the dot and we walked in, it was all outside and was like walking into Gulliver’s world, the merchandise was being sold out of many different log cabins, we bought three t shirts (one for Sean, one for a cousin and another for a friend who we knew would appreciate it) the temperature dropped slightly and I decided the best way to carry all this stuff was to put it on, I was secretly trying to make myself as unattractive as possible I had on a t shirt, blouse, and two xl rush t shirts and a stripy cardigan surely if push came to shove (and I sincerely hoped it wouldn’t) I would not be seen as a play thing for any slack jawed yokel.


As it happened, the rush show was excellent they started with Limelight,
the only changes the set list on the uk tour was, and they played Red Barchetta and The Trees, which whilst I sang along, I could actually see there were trees on each side of the auditorium (come rain or shine), I have read in the rock press that Geddy has said they particularly enjoy playing to European Audiences as they are more attentive. And I can get this now, at the Manchester Arena, people don’t hear the intro to the trees, first time they have heard it live, their favourite rush song that evokes many different thoughts of their younger days and come to the conclusion, that they need a burger and a giant coke and must go and get one, alternatively make sure they get seats where you can have waitress service, I get it now. Its not like they don’t have a break in the middle so you have bags of time to do it then, but hey this is America when the only time you don’t eat is when your asleep apparently. Yes I did want to shout “for the love of god surely you cant still be hungry”! but I didn’t I just enjoyed the show and people watched, I do remember halfway through Red Barchetta a man who had eaten too much hurled (Red Barfetta more like) and it wasnt due to anything other than pure gread, very strange.

Coming out of the Arena at the end of the show, we were on the look out for a Taxi, our night in Shining Armour came in the form of Kevin Cotter, one time limousine driver, one time security driver, now our semi retired cab driver, he already had two people in his cab and you would think we would all get in and split the fare, but this being America things are done differently and we were welcome to join them and haggled a price of $75 dollars back to Boston.
The other couple in the cab were a Russian man and his son who looked about 10, he promptly fell asleep and the Russian barely uttered a word until we got to Boston almost 25 mins later.

Kevin Cotter on the other hand was great company, we dropped off the Russians at their hotel in Copley Square and Kevin showed us around Boston, we would have loved to see much more but it was close to midnight by now and we were exhausted, as we paid up with a generous tip he said “don’t go…..” I think he had enjoyed our company just as much.


We called in at the 24 hour store on the corner and bought yogurts, bananas, cereal and milk, went back to room 712 in the Harbour Side Inn refuelled and then slept safe in our beds without any unwelcome violations whatso ever!

As we settled down to sleep after a long, eventful, exciting, exhausting and most of all memorable experience , sean relayed to me the time when Sean nearly beat up a fellow rock fan on the 67 all night bus, after a heated discussion this rocker said that rush had sold out, in releasing a farewell to kings album, such passion “ you don’t know what your talking about, you better shut it or I willkick your teeth down your throat etc”......