My one story from this period pretty much centers on the ingestion of non-tobacco and I know that direct references are frowned upon here at DTF, but this is the story. Mods can delete it if they feel it's inappropriate. Also, it's pretty long. You have been warned.
I was a Music major at Michigan State University, as was my roommate. The two of us, plus another of my good friends, had scored tickets see to Rush on March 15 in Detroit. Elsewhere on these boards, I've shared the tragic story of why I did not graduate with a degree in Music, but the events of this story factor into it. Basically, I had an audition the following morning at 8:00, before the panel who would decide whether or not I would continue as a Music Education major. They would not allow me to reschedule the audition, and I wasn't going to miss seeing Rush, so I just faced the fact that I would be seeing a concert in Detroit, driving home whenever, and attempting to audition the following morning. I had already become quite disenchanted with the College of Music at Michigan State. I wanted to be a band director. I can play every instrument, winds, brass, even percussion, and my favorite teacher from high school was our band director. Anyway, "to express yourself through an ensemble, you must first be able to express yourself as a virtuoso upon your chosen instrument" was what they told me, and I had to choose a major and minor instrument. I liked saxophone, but there was only one sax professor, Dr. Forger, and he was so busy that he only had time for four students. So basically, in a school of 45,000 students, there could be only four saxophone majors, and I had to audition to be one of them. I had to beat at least one of his current students.
We were college freshmen, had all been to Detroit before, but never on our own like this, always with our families on trips and stuff. So a road trip to Detroit to see Rush, the three of us, was a major event. The afternoon of the show, we got ahold of some non-tobacco. We weren't sure how long it would take us to get there, but we were going into the heart of Detroit, and also knew that by then we'd all be pretty stoned and might get lost, so we allowed three or four hours. We figured if we got there early, fine, we could check out the town a bit, get something to eat, whatever.
We rolled several before leaving the dorm. Many, many. It was a weekday, so traffic on the highway to Detroit was light and we did in fact get there hours before the show was to start. For those who are unfamiliar with the geography, Detroit is basically on the Canadian border; Michigan and Ontario are separated by the Detroit River. You can cross over the river via The Ambassador Bridge, or drive under it via The Windsor Tunnel. As we were driving around downtown Detroit, wasted, checking out the scenery, we'd pass signs saying "Tunnel to Canada" or "Bridge to Canada" with an arrow telling you which way to turn at the next intersection. With two hours to kill, "Let's go to Canada!" Over and back, just to do it. Sure, why not? What could go wrong?
We decided on the tunnel, because the bridge might be too freaky because we were so high. In the tunnel, one of us (I honestly don't remember who) said "Let's burn one in the tunnel!" Yeah! This is so cool, we're smoking one in the tunnel!
The sign up ahead said "All Vehicles Must Stop For Customs". OH SHIT! Yeah, we hadn't thought about that. We rolled all the windows down (like that would help at this point) and quickly got a story put together. We're going to Toronto, I had friends there (which was true) and we were on Spring Break from MSU (which was close enough). Okay. We get to the gate, the man in the uniform leans in and asks where we're headed. Chris the driver says "Toronto" at the same time my buddy Mitch in the back seat says "Toledo". He puts a red card on the windshield and asks us to pull over for "further inspection".
They searched us, and didn't like what they found. They searched the car, and found even more, and didn't like that, either. They separated us and strip-searched us. All we had was the non-tobacco. We were all 18, but were still basically "stupid kids" and they threatened to call our parents and it worked, and we were scared. We were in Canada, had crossed an international border with contraband, and among other things, could be charged with smuggling. I personally came clean and told them the truth, that we were killing some time before a concert, but I really did have friends in Toronto, my dad was born there, and that we just wanted to visit Canada while we were so close. I had no idea whether my friends would stick to the story or not, but at this point it didn't really matter.
Basically, they knew we were just stupid kids and not a threat to national security or anything, so they kept us long enough to scare the shit out of us, then sent us back to the United States. They told us that we were welcome to visit Canada in the future, but please leave the illegal stuff at home.
We got to Cobo Hall and found our seats literally seconds before Max Webster came out. We hadn't missed anything! Max Webster were great, and of course Rush was amazing, as they always are. The one thing I remembered was that there was a song on the radio at the time, "Battlescar" which was the two bands together, all seven of them (Webster had a keyboard player), and since they were touring together, it would make perfect sense for them to play that one song together. But they didn't. It was a Max Webster song, from their current album Universal Juveniles, and Webster played it by themselves. They wasn't just disappointing, but seemed kinda dumb, a missed opportunity. Rush was there, backstage, and could have joined them for the one song. It would have been so cool. But no. Anyway, it was still a great concert. Both bands were great.
We got back to East Lansing around 2:00 in the morning, so wired up that I couldn't sleep for a while, and it didn't help that I knew I had to get some sleep before my audition. Didn't matter. I sucked at the audition. I was not going to beat out any of Dr. Forger's four current students, and thus ended my career as a Music Major at Michigan State University.
But it was a great concert. Worth getting kicked out of the College of Music? I wasn't gonna pass the audition anyway, so yeah. Definitely worth it. This is Rush we're talking about!
Topic: The History of Rush v. Discography Thread: Epilogue (Read 85667 times)
