Rush!

The Triumvirate

It's 12:45 a.m., and I'm on a plane. I've got Stan Getz playing in my ear buds, because what else do you listen to at 12:45 a.m. while sitting on a plane, trying to calm down and get a little sleep as you fly across the country?

Liam and I JUST finished rocking out for over three hours with about 15,000 other dudes, and about six of their girlfriends. Rush, the Toronto Triumvirate, the gods of prog rock, THE definition of the power trio, played tonight in Portland as the band nears the finish of its R40 tour, celebrating over 40 years playing together.

My apologies to those in the adjacent seats if I smell like I've been doing what I've been doing; I'll change and clean up a bit when I layover in Minneapolis in a few hours-- got to smell good for the week-long Microsoft Global Exchange conference in Orlando! But I digress... Where was I?

Rush was amazing! It is quite a feat to play for three hours and proverbially leave the crowd wanting more, but that's what they did-- they absolutely killed it! They sounded just as sharp as ever, really tight musicianship, with Geddy Lee's occasional vocal strain on the high notes the only sign they might be tiring after over four decades of recording and touring.

Poutine!

Before the show, Liam and I hit a hipster diner to enjoy some poutine, one of our favorite Canadian exports (besides my wife, and of course the band we were gearing up to see). French fries, gravy, and cheese curds-- just the thing to give us the energy we needed to air-drum, air-guitar, and of course slappa da bass for three hours. We were thinking of getting cruellers at Voodoo Doughnuts, but the line was too long, and we wanted to get to the show.

The gist of these shows is they work backwards, from recent to the very beginning, touching on the high points, hits, and some deeper tracks, while the stage set, lighting, lasers and pyrotechnics all follow along with the themes of the songs they played. I'll spare the details, but it was an incredibly dynamic, fast moving, multi-faceted show that kept me guessing, even though I had done way too much nerding out over set lists and online highlights from other shows in other cities on this tour.

The show took me right back to what, 1982 maybe? My buddies Chris and Aaron Brady got me hooked on Rush after letting me borrow 'Exit Stage Left,' the killer live album released by the band that year. That started me on a journey of picking up ALL of their albums, reading all I could about them, and devouring their lyrics, poring over them to get the different meanings and grasp the stories told by Neil Peart, their lyricist and phenomenal, totally unique drummer.

Rush has had an incredible career. They pushed themselves and each other, as musicians and performers. They wrote stuff they couldn't even play yet. They worked out arrangements that sounded awesome, and beyond their reach, then went into the studio and pounded and practiced away until they could play at the level they needed to get the stuff recorded. Maybe that's why every album was a leap from the last, stylistically, musically, and often lyrically. They were perfectionists, always challenging each other, themselves, and their listeners. And the results were almost always good, often great, and sometimes just magical.


Decent seats!

 I was a Dungeons and Dragons playing kid from the Bay Area suburbs, and Rush was the soundtrack of my junior high and high school years. Even as I got into other genres of music, and moved on from fantasy games to other pursuits, I never lost my love of Rush, the first band I ever really fell in love with.

To have my fifteen year old son with me tonight, actually putting this show on his bucket list and really WANTING to see Rush play has been awesome, and the best excuse I've had to go to a concert, maybe ever! He knew almost all of the songs, impressive considering 90% of them were recorded before he was born. Liam loved the show too, which made it all the more special to me.

So now it's 1:30 a.m., and I should REALLY be sleeping. But my ears are still ringing a bit, the plane cabin lights keep distracting me, and I'm reminiscing about thirty-four years of hardcore Rush obsession, and making a mental list of the few albums of theirs I either never bought or misplaced, and the stuff I haven't listened to either closely enough, often enough, or recently enough. The list is lengthening by the minute...



Obligatory concert T-shirt

Over 40 years ago, when Geddy Lee first sang the words, "It seems to me I could live my life/Much better than I think I am/Guess that's why they call me the working man," the guys were just that, an unknown working band grinding it out on the local Toronto music scene, probably not even daring to dream they could ever sell tens of millions of albums and play sold out arenas and stadiums all over the world.
As they wound down tonight's show, those were the last words Geddy sang, on what may be the last big tour they play. The success they've had couldn't happen to a better bunch of guys, who take music and musicianship very seriously, but don't take themselves too seriously at all. It was surreal, serendipitous and just a total delight. And it makes me wonder where I'll be, and what I might be singing, playing, and thinking about 40 years from now.

I wonder if I'll still be listening to Rush?