For the Rush show on Wednesday, 16 October 2002, Les & I had front-row tickets. (Paul had graciously bowed out of this one.) And that meant one thing: dryer shirts. For those of you Rush fans who attended the “Vapor Trails” tour, you know what the dryer shirts are. What you may not know is how I was able to snag one, pitched right to me by Mr. Alex Lifeson himself.

What follows are e-mails exchanged after the concert.

Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 13:13:31 -0400
To: Benjamin Radford
From: "Michelle K. MacEnroe"
Subject: Re: 10/16 show in Rochester
Cc: Les Dodson

Hello Benjamin -

Oh my oh my … you had to be there! Let me give you the setup: we had front-row seats, stage Alex. Because of this, I decided I was going to be *seen*. Red jeans, leather vest, white tank top, lacquer red nails & lipstick to match. Oh yeah, VT colors, don’t you think?

The first set starts with the Three Stooges video - Neil, Geddy & Brad Pitt. It’s a slow start, the audience isn’t all into it yet. By the 3rd song, all is going well. Our security guy won’t let us approach the barricades, but the guy on Geddy’s side doesn’t have that problem. I figure, during the 2nd set all bets are off anyway. We also notice Geddy is a little chatty tonight, not at all like Darien Lake, where it was more the “let’s go out and crank it up, no wasted words” approach.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t near a sellout. Stage center, bleachers had tons of seats available.

Did I mention the mammoth subwoofers right in front of us? (Thank goodness for earplugs!) My *scalp* was moving, I swear it! Les claimed he couldn’t tell that b/c (like you) there’s no hair…

You remember how the 2nd set starts. Let me tell you, you can really feel the heat & start sweating when you’re in the front row!!

After the 2nd song of the second set, all of us in the front row are up against the barricade. In fact, the nice guys around me let me squeeze into this little spot a little closer to center. (You know they’re not going to have a problem seeing over me!)

Amazingly enough, there were a lot of bimbos - er, I mean other women - there. They were 2nd/3rd row jump ups, not like we original front row folks. Luckily, they left their spots after the 2nd set. The LVS Lerxst rant was funnier last night, and there was the cartoon video that we didn’t have in Darien Lake. (You can catch this on http://www.2112.net/powerwindows.)

I tell Les, “get up here!!” and he does, plus, he knows what’s coming. As the band goes to the dryers, everyone - including the kid slouching to the right of me (closer to center stage) - stands up and starts reaching out for the shirts. Now I realize this “kid” is 6′2″ at the least, so I have no chance of anything from that side. (Although I do have bouquet-catching experience, and until you’re trampled a 12-year-old in quest for the bridal flowers, you haven’t lived.) As Alex passes in front of us, to our left (with a couple of shirts), almost at the end of the stage, I decide to do something completely different. Remember that lacquer red lipstick I had on? I blew him a kiss! I kid you not! Alex must’ve thought, “right back at you” because before I knew it - and much less believe it - I had a shirt from dryer #2 pitched to me right in the midsection. (Strike!) There was no doubt - I’m talking *right* to me. Luckily my hands worked on reflex as my eyes were still stuck! In thanks, I blew him another kiss on the way back to his mic, where he grinned wider and kept on going.

So Les can’t believe this, I’m wrapping this around my arm as many times as I can b/c no one is getting this away from me! Holy cow. Paul (my old man) was wowed too. Yeah, I’m psyched. Even the migraine I have lurking (kept away only with drugs) can’t bring me down.

I’d say it was a good show.

And your evening was… ?

Michelle

P.S. “I love it when a plan comes together.” - The A-Team (Hannibal)

At 04:31 PM 9/10/02 -0400, you wrote:

Wow, fuckin’ right on! Front row AND a shirt!

Way to go, using your womanly charms on Alex. If you’d flashed him you’d probably have gotten the whole dryer!

Very cool, thanks for the update. I wish I’d been able to go… well, if they do another tour and I’m around, I’ll definitely hit that one!

Ben

You are KILLING me here!!

On 10/17/02 1:55 PM, “Michelle K. MacEnroe” wrote:

From our friend Ben … in reply to my missive. Les … we should’ve brought the pickup.