Rush

It takes a certain ‘something extra’ to be able to gently take the mickey out of yourself and the fans without pissing those same fans mightily off but if anyone can Rush have been the ones for years.
The pre-show videos are legendary but the real Rush fans have known for years that the band are serious about their music without getting po-faced about it and those same fans have been a core part of the Rush live experience for years.
At the same time, Cleveland has been the heartland for heavy music since the mid 70’s and Rush have been taken to the hearts of the Cleveland fans since 1974, so where else could this celebration have been filmed?

For this occasion Rush performed the whole of their album ‘Moving Pictures’ straight through in the second set and it was quite amazing to see how fresh it still sounds.
The first set was full of Rush favourites such as ‘The Spirit of Radio’ or ‘Workin’ Them Angels’ and they were played to perfection while ‘Faithless’ was the embodiment of late period Rush and simply peerless.
New numbers like ‘BU2B’ have a heavier sound than for a while but the cutaways to the crowd suggested that they ‘got’ the new material absolutely.

The fans are a huge part of any Rush show and over nearly 40 years they have garnered a fair share of completely committed. The DVD shows them in their finest light and also shows the breadth of Rush’s appeal: sure there are hundreds of fat, balding white males – many probably saw Rush the first time around in ’74 – but equally there are hundreds of teens and those in their twenties and the racial mix takes in just about every one on the planet. One abiding image is of a woman, late twenties/early thirties, with her young son on her shoulders and singing along to ‘Time Stands Still’ with the kid playing air drums over her head. Air drummers are in good evidence along with air guitarists all over the place and then there is the roar – the sound at the end o number and at the end of a complex passage is like the roar of water at the foot of Niagara Falls: a continuous assault on the ears of over thirty thousand voices calling their appreciation.

Musically, this is probably the best I have seen Rush. They have always been superb technical musicians but the playing here is brilliant. Geddy Lee’s basslines are fast and fluid, bordering on jazz and loaded with funk and rhythm while Alex Lifeson may be the only rock guitarist who can approach Al Di Meola for speed and precision but his power chords and riffs hit you straight under the heart. Neil Peart is almost entirely caged in by his drums but there aren’t any unnecessary items: his drumming is, and always has been, about far more than a simple backbeat and when you see him live you begin to understand how complex his patterns are and also how they are integral to Rush’ music – the air drummers are just in tune with the heart of Rush!

Most of the second set is taken up the ‘Moving Pictures’ album and this was the first time it had been played in its entirety, even though all the numbers – Tom Sawyer’, ‘Red Barchetta’, ‘Limelight’, have long been favourites of the fans. ‘Camera Eye’ hasn’t featured on a Rush setlist for a long while and it was great to see it played out in context.

The DVD is a great document of a massive event. The camera angles take in just about every element of the crowd and the band from angles that give you a great insight into their playing and their interaction with the fans. Lots of little glances between the band members but also between the band and the crowd and you have a great sense of the sheer size of the show but at the heart is always the music and the gig – no silly interviews in the middle of a number or cutaways to the streets outside the venue. This is a Rush show and the show and the music is what it is all about.
The sound quality is terrific as is the image quality and if you are a fan of the band this is a must but even if you don’t know Rush this is a great example of a show DVD done right.