Monday, 15 October 2007
A Spectacular Rock N' Roll Marathon three hours long ... what more could you ask for?
Three hours and thirty songs long, they play a set that's certainly filled with spectacular spot on perfectionism, from lasers to walls of flame and video screens - but if you've come to expect most of their major hits, you may well go home feeling a little disappointed. Like any band with such a spectacularly broad catalog - some 19 albums of original material and six live albums - they could play all night and still not play someones favourite songs.
In only their second UK tour in 15 years - the last time was 2004's 30th Anniversary tour - Rush were welcomed like the prog rock gods they are. However unlike the 2004 Tour, this time the set eschewed many of their more loved and familiar numbers for the more estoeric parts of their back catalog (such as "Entre Nous" and "Circumstances" ) many not played in over 20 years in the first set; which is rather like going to see the Oasis and hearing "She's Electric" rather than "Wonderwall" .
Vast portions of the night dedicated to new, and more unfamiliar material in the second half of the evening, and much like the 2004 tour, the newer and more unfamiliar material often falls flat on an audience who were animated during the older material, and static during the new stuff. Rare was the fan singing along to the newer material but more with arms folded with disinterest, but come material like "Subdivisions", the obviously much missed "Distant Early Warning" which got a best reaction of the night, or "Natural Science" which saw the entire crowd singing along to keyboard parts, its clear that the majority here wanted the hits served up with a strong and simple beat, one that you can dance to.
With the majority of the set culled from three albums - 17 of tonights almost thirty songs come from 1980's "Permanent Waves", 1981's "Moving Pictures" and this years new album "Snakes and Arrows" - and with only one song between 1987 and 2001 - the set definitley concentrated on the material that more reflected their power trio origins. The more textured and subtle keyboard orientated of the 80's ; to myself their creative high point rather than the straight ahead rock ; has been left by the wayside, almost excised out of history in favour of the bludgeoning power of classic power rock metal.
Far from being perfect gods, tonight also show Rush have a very human side. From the lighthearted pre-gig video films where the band dress up as strange characters and with even one song introduced by South Park Characters doing a Rush tribute song, these are not mere staid replications of the studio material. The rarely played "Digital Man" has been revamped, "Secret Touch" sees Geddy Lee fluffing the lyrics, "Dreamline" now comes complete with a new guitar solo, "Subdivsions" has new words in the chorus, "Witchhunt" sees a new keyboard section that vastly improves the original, and "Tom Sawyer" sees a rearranged doubletime ending that catched the spit and harked back to their 1980's versions of sadly missed "In the Mood". All this, and I still haven't mentioned the dazzling drum solo....
What you got here tonight was a real live rock band doing what they do best - playing live, fine tuned and not a note out of place. So much so, the band rarely seemed to come alive as they have in the past tours - the band seemed much more static than usual, but this is quite possibly due to the dependence on three video screens with one focused on each member throughout the night. And for a band that is well known for side long multipart prog rock epics such as "2112" or "Xanadu" , to not hear them is certainly an unusual move. The fact that 2112 was only represented by "A Passage to Bangkok", which got a spectacular and deserved reaction, shows how much some of the material left out was missed.
You'd be well reminded to think about many of their contemporaries, and see just how many of them are still treading the boards and making new material. Cream? Kiss? ELO? Zeppelin? Pink Floyd? Pretty much all of them have split, and then allowed the revisionist nostalgia for glory days to go full circle, only to come back on the reformation trail to vast press interest and fans clamouring to see them. Instead, Rush never had the decency to split and wallow in the nostalgia trail, and have just quietly got on with the business of rockin' with little or no fuss, playing to spectacular shows to sell out crowds in stadiums and arenas.
Almost perfect, obviously human, and reaching a height that most bands can only begin to dream of, Rush quietly became overlooked, became the best band you've probably never heard of. Rush are nothing short of legends, and if you want proof why, see them live. Spectacular and Brilliant, Rush might just be the best band you see all year.
Set one:-
LIMELIGHT / DIGITAL MAN / ENTRE NOUS / THE MISSION / FREEWILL / MAIN MONKEY BUSINESS / THE LARGER BOWL / SECRET TOUCH / CIRCUMSTANCES / BETWEEN THE WHEELS / DREAMLINE
Set Two:-
FAR CRY / WORKIN' THEM ANGELS / ARMOR AND SWORD / SPINDRIFT / THE WAY THE WIND BLOWS / SUBDIVISIONS / NATURAL SCIENCE / WITCH HUNT / MALIGNANT NARCISSIM / DRUM SOLO / HOPE / DISTANT EARLY WARNING / SPIRIT OF RADIO / TOM SAWYER
Encore:-
ONE LITTLE VICTORY / A PASSAGE TO BANGKOK / YYZOnly registered users can write comments.
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