I was correcting the date I saw Rush from above which was actually January 20, 1979. Thought I’d convey this story of my first concert and one heck of an event that had flavors of the last couple days involved.
The date is important because the show was at the Baltimore Civic Center and I lived about 45 minutes north in PA. That day a NorEaster rolled in and we got about a foot of snow, but as we headed south the temps rose enough that it was an ice event. We were in this little POS 1973 Dodge Colt with hardly any heat and the highway had just two tracks for the wheels that the Tractor Trailer made. If we got out of the tracks it was snow and a crust of ice that would throw the car all over the place. Meanwhile the trucks were cruising and these huge sheets of snow and ice would fly off the trailer and catch the wind and go flying 30 feet in the air and smash down on our little rust bucket. It was scary, but we were laughing the whole time.
By the time we got in Baltimore city there was no snow, but at least an inch of ice on everything including the sidewalks. As you can imagine there were a long trek of stoned and drunk people sliding and falling all over the place. It was a huge crazy party. Everyone was so hyped from the drive that inside it was complete over the top partying. Geddy actually stopped for a second between songs (right before Passage to Bangkok) to tell everyone to settle down a bit. There were a bunch of people with M80’s and fireworks shooting them off. Then he goes and says “the next song is about something you guys seem to know about) and everyone went crazy and the band just jammed and jammed. I guess the people with the fireworks ran out or took it serious and that stopped. From 2112 on (did all, but The Oracle) everyone was on their seats going wild and the isles had people skipping up and down dancing. This was when security was only there for the most serious of things and in this case they were totally out numbered and out crazed!!! They did all of Hemispheres and I was not as familiar with La Villa Strangiato. When Alex started into that I was forever mesmerized. It was the most memorable show of my life.
Then to top it off as we drove north at 1am all the power lines were arcing and the sky was lighting up with crazy colors. As we got closer to home we could tell there was no electricity. I lived with my parents and my older brother was the one who drove and more or less was “responsible” for me…LOL! My parents were up with candles lit and finally stopped worrying if we were alive or not. This was before cell phones and was a different time in many ways. The concert was the best!!!
Sorry for the long post. But this was a memory that I’ll never forget.
