September 07, 2002 - Pittsburgh, PA - Dream Theater, King's X

Vanue:  AJ Palumbo Center

Four days after seeing Dream Theater in Cleveland, and five months after seeing them in Philadelphia, my friend Nick and I saw them once again in Pittsburgh.

The concert was in the gymnasium of a downtown Pittsburgh college.  I remember a basketball hoop 'cranked' up and hovering above the band during the show.  King's X and Dream Theater put on a good, although much shorter show than their 'Evening with' show in Philly.

On the way there, Nick drove up to an intersection in downtown Pittsburgh that made absolutely no sense.  There were 4 or 5 different lights and and roads converging, and I clearly recall him just winging it and driving through.  I told people about that intersection for year later, and everyone always added that Pittsburgh was shitty place to drive.

I witnessed one of my favorite tour shirts at this show as well.  An older dude with a pony tail was wearing a beat up old 'Moving Pictures' Rush tour shirt from 1981.  It had holes all over it and was faded with twenty years of washing and wear, but it was the real deal.  I was blown away.

Something tells me that that shirt still hasn't been retired, and in the next couple of decades, a long haired prog metal fan might be buried in a very worn old Rush shirt.

I fully support his final wishes.