Rush live!

Rush
United Center, Chicago
Monday, June 9, 2008

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Thousands of gray-haired metalheads and middle-aged rockers (some with their kids en tow) descended upon the United Center Monday night to catch Rush. Now in their fourth decade, the question was whether the Canadian trio still had anything left in them. Amazingly, their age showed only in their faces, potentially outlasting many current bands by playing a marathon three-hour-plus show (with a 15-minute intermission). Of course, it helps having such an expansive catalog.

After opening with early hit “Limelight,” Rush proved they were planning to play plenty of their classics throughout the night, including “Subdivisions,” “Freewill,” and “Ghost Of A Chance,” among others. They also weaved in quite a few songs off their latest, Snakes And Arrows, including all three instrumental jams. In fact, after rocking through so many of their instrumental hits, it didn’t seem to matter to the crowd whether Geddy Lee was singing.

Amazingly, the band didn’t look like they were tired of playing these same songs after 30 years. Neil Peart’s face sat stoicly under a skull cap while his arms flailed around the near 360-degree drum kit with incredible precision. Alex Lifeson churned out riff after riff on his array of guitars, and Lee thumped away at the bass like he was still 20-years-old, belting out each song in his trademark wail. The toughest job for the audience was deciding which of the three to watch.

Rush have stayed almost as relevant technologically as musically in their shows, as they were bathed throughout the night in impressive light and laser displays along with the occasional oddly placed pyrotechnics. Three giant screens at the back of the stage were used mostly to show close-ups of each musician at work, but occasionally showed artsy jump-backs and random animations. On just a couple songs, “The Larger Bowl” in particular, powerful images actually added to the message of the song, as Lee sang out the chorus “Some are blessed, and some are cursed.”

The band did show their quirky sense of humor throughout the night with some interesting intro videos starring the band, including Lee himself as a recurring Mike Myers-esque Scottish character. And gracing the stage behind Lee all night were three large lit-up ovens cooking rotisserie chickens. (Maybe it’s a Canadian thing.)

Rush have had years to perfect the art of the live show, and it showed. The audience couldn’t have asked for a better closing set than Peart’s eight-minute drum solo (still not long enough), followed by classics “Spirit Of Radio” and “Tom Sawyer,” complete with a video introduction of the South Park kids playing their own version of it. The encore was aimed at the hardcore fans, foregoing bigger hits for the lesser-known “One Little Victory” and “A Passage To Bangkok,” and concluding with the instrumental prog-rock jam, “YYZ.”

Despite their plethora of live-CD releases over the years, it’s hard to truly experience the musical force that is Rush without actually being there. So by the end of the show, all questions about Rush were answered. All except one — whatever happened to all those rotisserie chickens?

— Carter Moss

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly