RUSH LIVE in LOS ANGELES - RUSH SLINGS THIRTY YEARS OF ARROWS
By Scott Essman
As
a preface to this review, I have a confession to make – I have not seen
Rush, once my favorite band on the planet, in 18 years, since the
played the Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa, California just after I
had moved back to my adopted home in Southern California. What’s
worse, I had not purchased a complete new Rush recording since “Presto”
in 1989. Whether I had moved on or whether the band had done so was
unclear. But time did not stand still for either of us, and Rush’s
efforts in the near two decades since my last show had slipped under my
radar. Surely, I was aware of their new work but felt it was but a
shadow of their previous efforts, especially their ultimate creative
peak of 1976-1981. But for one night, all of that changed.
On
May 8, 2008 at the new Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles, on a spot
I formerly used for parking at Staples Center, I had a chance to relive
some of my missed past if only for one last time. My first Rush
records were purchased in the unthinkably distant past of the early
1980s and my first Rush show was on September 19, 1983 at Radio City
Music Hall in New York City, on the occasion of my 17th birthday. That
show was part of a stint of multiple nights in New York in which the
band was testing out songs from their unreleased “Grace Under Pressure”
album.
Coming
at a time where other celebrated 80s acts such as The Police and Van
Halen have reunited and toured, the current concert juggernaut of Rush,
who began headlining hockey/basketball arenas by the late 1970s, has
really never stopped, but for a six-year hiatus in the late 1990s/early
2000s for personal reasons. As such, they are a well-oiled machine,
newly breaking their set up into two parts without any supporting act.
With two nights at the 7100-seat Nokia followed by a night in Orange
County, in the Irvine/Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Rush is playing to
well more than 25,000 people in the great LA area for this tour, an
extension of last year’s Snakes and Arrows shows.
By
the new millennium, Rush’s commercial recording peak had likely passed,
in part certainly due to the band’s absence at the time. Not including
live albums and repackaged hits albums, the last Rush studio album to
go gold according to the Recording Industry Association of America was
1996’s “Test for Echo,” while their last platinum studio album upon its
release was 1985’s “Power Windows.” Nonetheless, they have maintained
their status as arena kings, and the May 8 show proved why.
For
nearly three hours of stage time (the band, “no longer spring chickens”
according to singer Geddy Lee, takes a 20-minute intermission), Rush
plays the new and the old, satisfying both themselves and their newer
fans, while finding room for the diehards who might have seen them back
in 1976, the date of their oldest songs on this part of the tour. That
year featured the groundbreaking album “2112” a futuristic concept
album whose first entire side was one song broken into several
movements. Though the followup, “A Farewell to Kings,” which might
have even surpassed “2112,” was not covered in the show, the next
record, perhaps Rush’s pinnacle creatively, “Hemispheres” was
acknowledged with a stirring rendition of “The Trees,” the band’s
treatise on sociology.
Much
of the rest of the catalogue was given at least one memorable tune in
the show, especially two brilliant songs from 1980s “Permanent Waves”
which saw the band departing from conceptual albums with lengthy
numbers to shorter more taught songs. Most thrillingly, the band
played the entire first side (though not in sequence) of “Moving
Pictures” their 1981 album which probably presented Rush at their
commercial peak. Some inclusions were questionable, such as ”Between
The Wheels” from 1984’s “Grace Under Pressure” when several other songs
– a few of which I saw live at the aforementioned 1983 concert – are
musically superior, especially in a live setting. But such complaints
are mere quibbles when the band does the honor to their longtime fans
by spreading hidden gems amongst the newer material. Though some
albums such as “Power Windows” were ignored entirely, it hardly made a
difference to the adoring crowd, who often featured an older fan with a
child or younger spouse.
Certainly,
aside from being a working band with a new album to promote, one
advantage that Rush has over other live acts, is that all three players
are virtuosos at their instruments. Lee has always been a capable lead
man, especially buried behind his ever- present bass and bank of
keyboards. His playing on instruments and to the crowd has always been
spot on even if his vocals are a bit more strained than decades ago.
Guitarist Alex Lifeson might get less attention than his bandmates, but
his inventive riffs and array of styles have perennially been among the
best in this type of music. Which leaves Neil Peart, the band’s
primary lyricist and drummer/percussionist. Always a fan and lay
musician’s favorite, Peart’s drumming and soloing remain as
awe-inspiring as ever and scarily might have improved over time. His
reflexes might not be as fast as the man they called “the professor of
the drum kit” in 1976, but he has integrated new styles and dimensions
to his lengthy but fully stirring solo spot. Simply, the man is a
marvel and is certainly the most unique drummer in any major rock act
of the past 30 years.
When
the band finally closed with mainstay instrumental “YYZ” even a fallen
Rush fan has enjoyed a hearty meal of playing and material. Too few
acts, especially those on the nostalgia circuit seem to have that
respect for their audience. Rush might be a dinosaur in the view of
cynics, but the band still produces and pleases, and that they continue
to do so after more than 30 years might be their most impressive feat
of all. |
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