Neil Peart Memory.
The date was January 27, 1992. I lived in Antioch, Ca and worked in Oakland, Ca on 98th Ave. My good friend Chris Keller worked 2 blocks away from where I worked, so we both carpooled together from Antioch to Oakland and back every day. I was endorsed by ADA Amplification at the time, and was blessed to occasionally beta test gear in development prior to release to market. Chris was a sales associate there, so I owe my endorsement to his avocations.
After dropping Chris off at home, I went home & my ex-wife told me that Chris had called me a moment a go and wanted me to call him back right away. I remember telling her that I had just dropped him off, a bit puzzled as to why he had just called. I called him back and he tells me that RUSH is playing at the Arco Arena in Sacramento and asked if I would like to go. I inquired as to how much tickets were, and he explained that they were free, we just have to pick them up at “Will Call” when we get there. I agreed very much that I would love to go, so he picked me up in about 30 minutes and we were on our way.
On the way, I inquired how he got free RUSH tickets, and he explained that Primus was the opening act for RUSH’s “Roll The Bones” tour and that Les Claypool, (Primus’ Bass Player/Vocalist) also used to work for ADA Amplification in Oakland, Ca (Les is originally from El Sobrante), and Les had called Chris earlier in the day to offer these comped tickets to him and some guests. So, with Chris & Mary Beth Keller, myself, and my new friend Todd Bagnaschi, we embarked on a musical experience that would forever solidify some of my musical convictions and aspirations, while providing me with a new friend/musician to explore these musings. Todd is a drummer, actually one of the finest I’ve ever worked with, and we’ve done a couple of small projects together that didn’t really go anywhere, but our musical adventures together, and friendship of these 28+ years have been priceless.
We arrived shortly after Primus’ set had ended, as we just traveled 90 minutes from Antioch to Sacramento, after already enduring a similar time of commuter traffic from Oakland to Antioch. RUSH hit the stage opening with the song “Force Ten”, and I stood in awe as I watched in person one of the most influential bands of my experience display in practicality and in technicality how the sounded like the world’s smallest orchestra. Between Geddy & Alex triggering drones, samples, backing vocals and other special effects with the midi equipped Taurus pedals, to Neil being classic Neil and doing the same with drum pads that were specifically setup to do similar supplementary sounds. Placing all the technical stuff aside, just on acoustic instruments, these guys were at the top of the echelon and unmatchable.
As I was venturing further into keyboards in addition to being primarily a guitar player, I was inspired at how much music one person could perform if one really set their mind to it. I was largely impressed with how Neil was not just a rock & roll drummer, not just a percussionist, but ultimately a composer of drums. One not to recapitulate, he rarely “copied & pasted” in the form of repeating a pattern performed in verse one to identically performing it in verse two, but was always building upon himself in order to refrain from complacency, and constantly push himself. This is, of course, is the very epitome of progressive music, and they are some of the genre’s godfathers.
Over the years, I’ve gather a great deal of useful material to inspire and educate myself on a variety of musical and engineering talents, but one in particular that I’ve spent more time on recently has been that of drum programming, and doing so by breaking down the fundamentals of drumming, and sectional material, i.e. patterns and fills. Neils instructional DVD “Taking Center Stage: Lifetime of Live Performances” was a textbook for learning this craft with a value that cannot be overstated. The interviews, and the overhead cam performances ( end even Slo-Motion) give such great isolation and breakdown of these parts so that one can really learn the nuances. Why this is important to a guitar player such as me is so that I can learn even more how to live out my instrumental role in the context of a full band mix by really listening to the other instruments. Ideally though, I am not just a guitar player, I am a recording engineer, a mix engineer, a producer, a keyboardist, and ultimately a composer, and much of these traits I learned from bands like RUSH in order to be a better musician.
Losing Neil as we have, is a hard hit to the musical community in general, but Neil is ideally the drummer of my generation, and his departure puts my own mortality into view a bit more vividly as he was only 13 years older than me, and I have had other friends my own age pass from natural causes over the past couple of years.
Fortunately, I have the benefit of my faith to provide me with hope when the day of my final breath comes and my days here on Earth have ended.
Thank you Neil for the music, poetry, and vulnerability as you shared your experiences of loss and grief through your book Ghost Rider. Your music lives on and inspires still!
