My ticket for the 1993 tour of North America had me sitting above Neil at the Phoenix state fair Arena, and I was wise enough to bring binoculars to a concert for the first time! Despite the best seat in the house to watch Neil, the binoculars brought me into a much closer, private world with Neil. I could see his sweat fly, I could read his facial expressions, I could see the spittle building up on his lips. I had seen Rush a dozen times prior to that night, but watching Neil from such a personal POV that night provided me with an experience that I didn’t know I craved! My eyes were glued on Neil for an entire show. It was akin to witnessing (insert “greatest ever” here) to seeing Mozart or Beethoven perform. It will be generations before another Neil Peart arrives. So grateful that we got to enjoy him while he was human.
And just like that, for the first time in history, a bunch of inanimate objects, I.e. (Neil's drum kits throughout his career) all actually mourned at his loss and refused to be played by anyone else.....
Neil Peart, the best there.was ...the best there is .. the best there will ever be!! Thank you for the countless hours of beautiful music. RIP 🙏 Neil!!
I know I'll get a bunch of crap for this ,BUT, Neil was very impressed by Perter Criss when they toured with KISS in the 70s when ALIVE ! was hitting . I have talked with Peter ,Moose ,who was the head tech for KISS until the Destroyer tour. Anyway Neil got that Peter Criss was actually a jazz drummer trying to play hard rock ,and took lessons from Gene Krupa, one of the best drummers ever. Peter was good when he was just s tarting ,and before too meant drugs . Anyway ,Neil noticed that Peter would take the bottom drum head off ,and Mic them like that and a few other things . Of course, there is no comparing the 2 ,but, itsvan interesting thing to know. You can look up old interviews ,he does talk about him and Peter while they toured together and what He picked up .
I sold my Ludwig set and Zildjian. Can't top this I quit and still. It was right rhe worlds utmost percussionist. The sense or incense intensity of timing. Ya. Awesome.
What I like is: his solo's unpredictable. Like listening to Simon Phillips, you know that it's not going to be just another 'start slow, build, go faster and faster till someone in the crowd goes 'Whoo', then stop' performance. Peart's saying something different. He's mixing things up so that you're not sure what's coming up next, and (to me) that's far more involving than a typical volcanic barrage of snare rudiments followed by lots of cymbals. We've heard that kind of thing before. I know Neil suffered from crippling joint and tendon pain in the latter part of his career and adapted his style accordingly, but I don't think his playing here reflects any deficiencies. He's musical and inventive. And sadly missed.
