Tuesday 23 October 2012

Turn around and walk away

Neil

In the realm of everything in the world can be related to a RUSH lyric meme, I offer up what will be the last such posting to contain any on purpose. Photos from the first show in Toronto on Sunday, October 14: my first, and likely penultimate, live concert of theirs.

Video from "Far Cry"

When last year's horribleness struck my life, and I couldn't listen to any music, I rediscovered the boys through Beyond The Lighted Stage. At the time, I had no ideas about my future: if someone had told me then what the next eighteen months were going to be like because I used the band as a crutch to get me through many of those days, I would have accused them of smoking contaminated drugs.

Ged

First, the good. I can listen to music again, of all styles and genres, and the majority of it without getting hysterical. I have made new friends around the world who also like the boys, and who are smart, funny, and like a good nip of single-malt from time to time. I found that returning to the land of the living was extremely possible, and that grief is something you just have to let run its course.

The fact that I'm sitting here and writing these words is proof of all that.

More of Howard's Handiwork

Now the not-so-good. I also met some seriously weird people, who have sacrificed themselves to a cult and would kill anyone who disagreed with them. Ones who thought that without direction in my life, I would take some from them, without complaint. (As a family member said about these folks they sure don't know you very well, do they?) Several who complained endlessly about being broke, but who managed to go to multiple concerts, rent limos, and claimed that they were "with the band" but who still had to buy tickets.

Alex

Going to the concert would, as I've known for awhile, mark the end of this chapter of my life: a time to reflect, move on, and resolve, if not chase, bad memories away. At one level, I hoped the show would have let everyone do that on a high point and with their respective dignities intact, but, as I've discovered from reading about escaping from cults, it, ah, didn't quite end up working out so nicely. Oh well.

On top of everything else, or perhaps because of all of this silliness, I didn't think it was all that great a concert either.

By pointing out all of this, I guess this means I'm handing back my magic decoder ring and secret password. And I can live with that....

The boys

It was, if not fun, a learning experience, and one that I'll remember, for good and bad, for a very long time.

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