Having one of the world’s great arena rock bands visit your city after ten months on the road comes with pros and cons. On one hand, it’s only fair to expect a little jadedness from musicians who’ve been playing (in Rush’s case) the same set night after night after night after night.
On the other hand, you can also hear and see the benefit a band locked into their craft.
The latter was the hand unveiled last night, when Rush’s Clockwork Angels Tour finally arrived in Vancouver at Rogers Arena.
IN PICTURES: Rush draws closer to Vancouver's heart at Rogers Arena
The blistering one-two opening punches of “Subdivisions” and “The Big Money” were clear demonstrations of a band coming into end of season playoff form, the latter delivered with a ferocity missing from its original recording; an astonishing noise coming from just three musicians.
“So nice to be back in B.C.,” smiled bassist and nominal front man Geddy Lee after “Force Ten.” “We’ve got about six or seven hundred songs we’d like to play.”
Lee’s jokes, tried and tested in auditoriums around the world, were still warm enough to generate laughs and cheers.
“Let’s go back 30 years,” he announced by way of introducing “The Analog Kid”, “When I was 12. Really!”
30 years ago Geddy Lee was 29, but who’s counting? He still has the energy of a kindergarten escapee, bouncing around the stage with his legs somehow flailing in every direction simultaneously. He still plays bass like a magician, still yelps like a shocked puppy and still pulls faces like he’s having pineapples inserted while he’s singing. But then, nothing really ever changes with Rush. That’s part of the charm.
Last night that meant three monumental drum solos from Neil Peart (all masterpieces of dexterity), ultra-slick video interludes (starring Jay Baruchal as a bewildered tax inspector and the band as charmingly antisocial gnomes), countless guitar shreds from the vastly underrated Alex Lifeson and a string of tongue-in-cheek asides from Lee.
“We’re going to play some songs from ‘Clockwork Angels’,” he announced after a welcome 20-minute interval, “before we go back in time to play some of our earlier, finer work.”
It’s hard to imagine how fans could possibly be disappointed with the band’s most recent album, as it delivers the exact same brand of left-field prog Rush has specialised in for their entire career. On last night’s form, “Carnies,” “The Wreckers” and “Halo Effect” were powerful enough to stand confidently alongside their weightiest tracks.
Even so, the moment Rush actually turned back the clock and started digging around their back catalogue, the atmosphere changed from recital to party. “Red Sector A” led into “YYZ” which erupted into “The Spirit of Radio,” springing a relaxed crowd onto their feet armed with air guitars, drums and basses.
An encore of “Tom Sawyer” and “2112” was a predictable but welcome choice of bona fide Rush classics, Lifeson grabbing the limelight by puffing his cheeks and miming how the smoke drifting onto stage was effecting him.
Integrity isn’t an illusion with Rush. It’s at the core of who they are as people and as a band. Perhaps this wasn’t quite as searing a concert as the one they unleashed on Vancouver two years ago. It was still spectacular on every conceivable level.
