As anyone who knows me well enough can see, I am a huge RUSH fan. Last night was my 5th show: I've seen the Vapor Trails, R30, Snakes and Arrows, Time Machine, and Clockwork Angels Tours (and as a child/teen begged to go to every show that ever came to D/FW - I'm still jealous of Brannon Pate for getting to go to the Roll the Bones Tour show when we were seniors). I've recently read a book called "CHEMISTRY" about the making of the majority of their studio albums that frames a sort of biography about them, and seen their most recent rockumentary, "Beyond the Lighted Stage (uh-mazing)." In high school I was given a VHS copy of "Show of Hands" (which I watched many times back in the VCR days) and have seen both the RUSH in Rio and Time Machine: 2011 - Live in Cleveland concerts on cable. I'm halfway through Neil's second book and plan to read his other two. Basically, anything that crosses my vision that I can read about them I try to get ahold of and devour it. At one point, I owned all of their studio albums on cassette and/or CD (through the "Counterparts" album), and I currently possess three music books of theirs (two standard types and one for bass). Neil Peart was the reason I had to play the drums and eventually own a kit, which I was allowed to buy myself for my 14th birthday with my Christmas money. OK, OK, you get it.
First, a bit on last night's (at the time I originally started this post) show. The Barclay's Center is a very beautiful structure inside and out. It melds this sort of rusted iron industrial encasement around the outside with sleek, ultra-modernism in the way of wood and concrete inside. An amazing, dazzling marquee that encircles the front entrance keeps the bills paid with mostly ads, but it's pretty impressive nonetheless. The food vending choices were pretty varied and many places kept everything all about Brooklyn. Thanks to Bloomie and his will to make sure no one else gets fat on his watch, we got our 16-ounce Coke ZERO for $4 and went on our merry way, gazing wistfully at the glistening new arena and verbally high-fiving Jay-Z for his awesomeness.
We finally arrived at section 217 only to find that that entire area was not going to be used and that we would get to move to section 112. Bonus! Party! We navigated our way back downstairs and to our new seats. I have to say, the seats themselves are kind of minimalist but the way the seating is set up, it's stadium seating on a whole new level. When people in front of you stand up, you can still see! However, the thinking behind creating max capacity was to simply narrow all the seats so more asses could fit in the arena. I'm by no means large, but I could not dig my phone out of my pocket without a contortionist act if I wanted to avoid leaning halfway over the guy next to me. The front legroom was pretty nice, though. Our view of the stage was excellent so all in all, I can't complain too much about the physical space itself.
It was hard to determine if it was the venue's sound system or some technical glitches with RUSH's team, but in all honesty this was technically the worst show I've heard. There were a few kinks they ironed out to a certain extent, but the sound was never balanced well. Sometimes Geddy's vocals were warbled, or Neil's drums were turned down too much and his amazing fills were drowned out by Alex's guitar. One time a mic trigger wouldn't shut off correctly, and during the show-concluding "2112" Alex's guitar just stopped working. For an awkward minute Neil and Geddy soldiered on while Alex danced a funny jig to try his best to make light of the fact that he was about to need to shred on a solo in "2112" and he had no guitar. The tech delivered a working guitar in the nick of time and off Alex went into solo land. Despite these issues, RUSH themselves kicked major ass, of course, and they even had a string ensemble play during the second half of their show (encore excluded). The visual technology was incredible as their video displays were the usual array of stunning, comic, and symbolic while their light show was the consummate rock show lighting. I have to say, RUSH always bring everything but the kitchen sink when it comes to their lighting. They even had smaller video screens connected to some of the lighting rigs and those were especially amazing on the song "Clockwork Angels." To ensure that this was the arena rock show that people thought died in the 80's (or maybe even early 90's a la James Hetfield catching on fire during a Metallica show) RUSH even blew out some pyrotechnics for good measure.
Overall, it was every cent's worth of the ticket price. RUSH are 59, 59, and 60 years of age, and their energy level is still turn it up to 11, high voltage rock caliber. Neil is 60 and basically did 3 different drum solos. There are punk-asses half their age who wish they knew how to rock like these guys. This was one of the most interesting set lists I've seen them put together, as they played a large bulk of tunes from "Signals," "Grace Under Pressure," "Power Windows," and "Hold Your Fire." It was also the most chill show of theirs I've ever been to, and I think it's because some of their hardcore fans are actually NOT fans of those aforementioned albums. Many "true" RUSH fans believe they fell off with GUP and PW (too "electronic") but I have a certain fondness for this particular string of albums, and here's why.
I recall really getting into "Grace Under Pressure" when it came out during my 5th grade year. Its biggest hit and most well-known song is "Distant Early Warning" and every time I hear it, I instantly go back to this time and place in the 80's when the fear of nuclear war still hung over our heads in America. I actually enjoyed this futuristic sound the album brought and despite only being a 5th grader, I felt and thought deeply about my life and times then. I spent my whole life always feeling just off, just out of place, due to my gender identity issues. Listening to Neil's lyrics about trying to survive, the continual development of technology, and this idea of some sort of apocalypse looming was really the underpinning of my life then. It's not to say I was this deranged fatalistic child, but I do remember this invisible weight that pressed down on America in those days, especially as it pertained to the threat of nuclear attacks.
"Power Windows" came out when I was in the 6th grade and I remember really loving the drumming on that album. Neil brought so much dynamism to drumming any way, but it seemed to go to another level here. I continued my tradition of sitting on the edge of my bed air drumming everything to the exact note; here I divulge the true level of my geekdom. The song "Middletown Dreams" resonated with me because its discussion of people longing to move on with their lives, to truly find a way to "get out of town" and self-actualize, was so appealing to me. It didn't mean my own life sucked or that I was not happy, but I knew even then that I had something that had to be done someday in order to really thrive as a human being. It wasn't just dreams of making it in a career or what have you, but of finally being and feeling whole. The song's suggestion that people try to find ways to break free of whatever constraints they allow to hold them down struck a cord in me. "Manhattan Project" again conveyed the theme of the fear of nuclear war by poetically running down the history of the making and usage of the first atomic bomb. I could never be unhappy with incredibly geeky, poetic lyrics coupled with amazing rock music.
As I proceeded into my pubescent years and the fright of going to a new middle school, "Hold Your Fire" provided a much-needed refuge from the real dawning of a painful confusion for me. I spent many evenings of my 8th grade year air drumming on the edge of the bed (this was a major habit when it came to listening to my RUSH tapes) again, learning the album front and back. I felt like "Force Ten" again brought this amazing futuristic sound and it just took me away so easily. "Time Stand Still" became a pretty big hit for them; it was such a cool song about trying to stop and really take in life, to live in the now, a theme that RUSH clearly beat Eckhart Tolle to. Aimee Mann's guest vocals on this song were a big departure for RUSH, too, and may have actually helped up their "cool factor" even more at the time. It's a song that only means more to the aging listener. As I watched my body betray me and grappled with the feelings and thoughts I knew did not match what developed on the outside, RUSH's continual themes of feeling like an outsider, trying to deal with life, and wondering exactly how one fit into society's stranglehold meant more and more to me.
During this time I had also become very fond of "Signals," which had actually come out in 1982. "The Analog Kid" was my favorite song on that album, though "Subdivisions" and "New World Man" were their more radio-friendly hits. (Surprisingly, they played "The Analog Kid" at this show, and I don't know that I had heard it live at previous shows I attended.) Every time I hear that song, I can appreciate how it so perfectly captures the way a kid dreams and longs to go out and find his way in the world. Another song that hits home is "Losing It" because even though I understood the song's message then, it's a song that resonates even more as I get older. It's not easy to accept that we will grow older, and with age comes the gradual loss of all that we could once do so well, and probably so easily. It's these universal, human, and personal themes that make RUSH's music resonate with such a broad audience, as well as why their music continues to both reach new people as well as retain their hardest core fans from way back. Keep it real, and keep it honest. Everything else will fall into place (especially when the music is virtuosity personified).
Stopping to discuss in detail not only this particular show but my own personal connection with RUSH helps to remind me of my true self, the person I have always been. As I recount all the ways RUSH has meant so much to me, I realize that as I struggled to figure out how to live in the skin I was given, I was that individual they often sang about who was seeking truth, clarity, and purity in a society full of gray areas, rules, and constraints that can often kill one's sense of identity and individuality. Living inside a female costume made it difficult to express the male at my core. There was a lot of pain trying to make these two things align when clearly they just didn't. My male heart, soul, and mind just didn't jive at all with the female body I'd been born with, let alone in a place full of gender expectations, and my whole life until the past few months has been the agony of trying to make a square peg fit in a round hole so to speak. Thanks to RUSH, though, I was given a way to process these feelings, to think about them and to know that somewhere out there, someone else felt something along the same lines I did: outcast, non-conforming, vilified for being different, longing to be free, cynical yet clinging to hope. All I can say is thank you to these guys and it's about damn time they received a Hall of Fame nomination. Vote for RUSH for 2013 Hall of Fame inductees!! Who knows how many lives and souls they saved!?!?
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