RUSH

 

I recently finished listening to the more recent Rush albums, and also noticed that, aside from a brief paragraph about the band in my blog about rock trios, I haven’t done a full blog.  Drummer Neil Peart has written four books, and I blogged about him before (Neil Peart – Drummer & Author, March 15, 2007). 

Toronto, Canada.  The capital.  No, that’s Ottawa – I visited there in 1991, never been anywhere else in Canada.   Geddy and Alex are from there, Peart being from St. Catherine’s (on the southern shore of lake Ontario, due west of Buffalo), and considered it their home town. 

Geddy Lee.   Vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist.  His distinctive vocals took some time to get used to, but now I don’t mind them at all.  In some ways they remind me of Burke Shelley, bassist/vocalist for Budgie, another famous trio from the 70s.   Back in the day he favored Rickenbacker basses.  Nowadays he’s more into Fender Precisions running straight into the P.A.  He has washing machines on stage instead of amps. 

Alex Lifeson.   Guitar.  His Les Pauls and Gibson Doublenecks gave the earlier albums plenty of bite and crunch, but with the Light Meh albums was practically nonexistent.  His sense of humor is easily the strongest (“blah, blah, blah”) and he’s been on “Trailer Park Boys” three times.

Neil Peart.  Drummer and lyricist.  Generally the band’s drummer is the least intelligent and articulate, someone who “hits things with sticks” (Peart’s own words).  Peart was much more intelligent, even to the point of writing the band’s lyrics and coming up with their concept albums, most notably 2112, based on Ayn Rand’s story Anthem (albeit with a more tragic ending).  He’s written several books, mostly about his road trips.  I described these in far more detail in my prior blog, “Neil Peart – Drummer & Author”, dated 3/15/2007.  I have read them all and can heartily endorse them: Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa; Ghost Rider: Travels Along the Healing Road; Travelling Music: The Soundtrack of My Life And Times; and Roadshow: Landscape With Drums, A Concert Tour By Motorcycle.  In fact, having enjoyed Innocents Abroad (1869) and A Tramp Abroad (1880), Mark Twain’s travel diaries, I can tell you that Peart is in some ways a modern equivalent of Twain. 

He had the immense misfortune of losing his daughter Selena and first wife Jackie in short order.  His daughter was driving to start college in August 1997, had a car accident along the way, and died.  His wife never recovered from the intense shock, and was dead herself ten months later.   To avoid taking his own life, he went travelling across the US.  Peart himself died of brain cancer in January 2020, just over a year ago.

When I reached college, I took up Peart’s obsession with Ayn Rand myself, as a government & politics major.  I eagerly devoured The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, and her nonfiction, much to everyone else’s annoyance.   Certainly it’s there in “2112” (side-long title track), but also “Free Will” and other songs.  What’s funny is that Geddy actually sings these lyrics and isn’t always aware of what they mean (Tobes of Hades?  Let me get back to you on that).   

John Rutsey.  The original drummer, he’s only on the first, self-titled album.  He had health issues which prevented him from touring and quit the band early on, replaced by Peart.   Back then they were pretty much copying Led Zeppelin – so much so, that when their first single, “In The Mood”, hit the airwaves, fans called the radio station asking about the “new Led Zeppelin album”.   He died in May 2008.

Discography.   Actually, the band has, as I might describe it, four separate phases, into which I’ll divide the albums.

ROCK.  Rush (1974), Fly By Night (1975), Caress of Steel (1975).   Plus Feedback (2004) a collection of covers.    This is back when they were a classic rock band, with longer songs, blues solos, and truly kicked ass. 

PROG.  2112 (1976),  A Farewell to Kings (1977), Hemispheres (1978), Permanent Waves (1980), Moving Pictures (1980).   Now the songs get more complicated, multiple parts, somewhat more pretentious, though Moving Pictures songs are fairly short.  That album was my introduction to the band around 1982.

LIGHT MEH.   Signals (1982), Grace Under Pressure (1984), Power Windows (1985), Hold Your Fire (1987), Presto (1989), Roll The Bones (1991).  Although he’s nominally listed as a band member, Alex Lifeson’s guitar work here is practically nonexistent, buried deep in the music and his distortion pedal (or Marshall head) apparently mothballed.  To me this is one step removed from elevator music.  Mind you, my review of these albums was in the last few weeks, long after my teenage years where I thought Pink Floyd was too weird.  These days I can handle the Grateful Dead and Frank Zappa.  So even now, this material goes in one ear, out the other. 

HEAVY MEH.  Counterparts (1993), Test For Echo (1996), Vapor Trails (2002), Snakes & Arrows (2007), Clockwork Angels (2012).   Alex is back!  You can hear his guitar!  And there’s some distortion in there.  It doesn’t come backup to 70s standards, but it’s far more energetic and dynamic than last few albums.   Having said that, I have no idea how much time I have left on this planet, and I’m ill-inclined to waste any more of it listening to anything after Moving Pictures – except maybe Feedback.   

Live.  As my first ever concert was AC/DC in Paris in 1984, I obviously wasn’t able to see Rush during the 1970s, when they opened for Blue Oyster Cult or KISS.  The shows I have seen are:

1.         11/30/87 at the Capital Centre, Largo, Maryland, on the Hold Your Fire tour. 

Setlist: The Big Money; Subdivisions; Limelight; Marathon; Turn The Page; Prime Mover; Manhattan Project; Closer to the Heart; Red Sector A; Force Ten; Time Stand Still; Distant Early Warning; Lock and Key; Mission; Territories; YYZ; drum solo; Red Lenses; The Spirit of Radio; Tom Sawyer; encore: 2112: Part I: Overture; 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx; La Villa Strangiato; In The Mood

2.         6/20/97 at Nissan Pavilion, Bristow, VA on the Test For Echo tour.

Setlist:  Set 1: Dreamline; Limelight; Stick It Out; Driven; Half The World; Red Barchetta; Animate; Limbo; The Trees; Virtuality; Nobody’s Hero; Closer to the Heart; 2112 Part I: Overture; 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx; 2112 Part III: Discovery; 2112 Part IV: Presentation; 2112 Part V: Oracle – The Dream; 2112 Part VI: Soliloquy; 2112 Part VII: Grande Finale [full 2112 suite in its entirety]

Set 2: Test For Echo; Freewill; Red Sector A; Roll The Bones; Resist; Leave That Thing Alone; drum solo; Natural Science; Force Ten; The Spirit of Radio; Tom Sawyer; encore: YYZ

3.         8/3/04 at Nissan Pavilion on the Feedback tour.

Setlist: Set 1: Finding My Way/Anthem/Bastille Day/A Passage to Bangkok/Cygnus X-1/Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part I: Prelude (R30 Overture); The Spirit of Radio; Force Ten; Animate; Subdivisions; Earthshine; Red Barchetta; Roll The Bones; Bravado; YYZ; The Trees; The Seeker (The Who); One Little Victory

Set 2: Tom Sawyer; Dreamline; Secret Touch; Between the Wheels; Mystic Rhythms; Red Sector A; drum solo; Resist; Heart Full of Soul (Yardbirds cover); 2112 Part I: Overture; 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx;2112 Part VII: Grande Finale; La Villa Strangiato; By-Tor & The Snow Dog; Xanadu; Working Man;

Encore: Summertime Blues (The Who cover); Crossroads (Cream cover); Limelight

4.         9/18/10 at Jiffy Lube Live (= Nissan Pavilion renamed), on the Snakes & Arrows tour.

Set 1: The Spirit of Radio; Time Stand Still; Presto; Stick It Out; Workin’ Them Angels; Leave That Thing Alone; Faithless; BU2B; Freewill; Marathon; Subdivisions

Set 2: Tom Sawyer; Red Barchetta; YYZ; Limelight; The Camera Eye; Witch Hunt; Vital Signs [= Moving Pictures in its entirety]; Caravan; drum solo; Closer to the Heart; 2112 Part I: Overture; 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx; Far Cry; encore: La Villa Strangiato; Working Man

5.         5/30/15 at Jiffy Lube Live on the Clockwork Angels tour.

Set 1: The Anarchist; Clockwork Angels; Headlong Flight; Far Cry; The Main Monkey Business; One Little Victory; Animate; Roll The Bones; Distant Early Warning; Subdivisions

Set 2: Tom Sawyer; YYZ; The Spirit of Radio; Natural Science; Jacob’s Ladder; Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part I: Prelude; Cygnus X-1; Closer to the Heart; Xanadu; 2112 Part I: The Overture; 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx; 2112 Part IV: Presentation; 2112 Part VII: Grand Finale; encore Mel’s Rock Pile Featuring Eugene Levy; Lakeside Park; Anthem; What You’re Doing; Working Man; Exit Stage Left outro video

Unlike the Grateful Dead, with different setlists every night and extended jams, Rush give you what’s on the album, note-for-note, with no improvisation at all.  Listening to All The World’s A Stage (the live album recorded on the 2112 tour) I do hear some variation, but that was before they locked everything down.  However, they do have some interesting visuals, some even humorous:  South Park doing Lil’ Rush, and Cartman adlibbing “Tom Sawyer” but describing Huckleberry Finn (“going down the river on a raft with a black guy”).  So I can say I did enjoy all 5 concerts.  

With Neil’s death in January 2020, that puts an end to Rush as we know it.  Whether Geddy and Alex will do anything else remains to be seen.  Stay tuned….