Rush
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Ever since Austin built the Austin 360 Amphitheater, giving the capitol city a good mid-sized venue, our city got more and more of these great kinds of shows. This outdoor venue was made for an event like this – with a spacious stage that can house giant video screens and project to several thousand people with a good line of sight.
Rush took the stage for a single big event that lived up to the anticipation and expectation (of greatness). There was no opening band. No pretense or appetizers. Just a full course meal broken into two acts – set one, intermission and set two.
Utilizing the 3 large video screens on stage and the other two large ones on either side, Rush entertained the audience with an animated sonic and visual collage of sounds and sights from the band’s illustrious 41-year career. They’re celebrating their 40th year as a band, but the party has spilled over into 2015, just slightly past the anniversary date that marks their self-titled debut album from 1974.
The crowd roared when the band customized one of its cartoon images with an Austin city limits sign that said, “Keeping Austin Weird” and the crowd was in their back pocket the next three hours. This was no easy task, as the band played most of its post-Moving Pictures material in the first set (between an hour and 90 minutes long). The musicians in the crowd and those many fans who revel in the band’s skill and talent had a lot to appreciate. While songs like “Animate,” “Roll the Bones” and “Subdivisions” might classify as some semblance of a “hit,” tunes like opener “The Anarchist”, “The Main Monkey Business” and “Between the Wheels” are hardly widely-recognized titles. It was great, mind you, as riffing, great vocals, exciting visuals and rocking out was in abundance, but it was slightly taxing on the common “Working Man,” so to speak.
The futuristic and oddball surrealism that decorated the stage (and Neil Peart’s drumset itself) were all removed during the intermission and the band started in to its recent set dressing hooliganism. Gone are the washing machines and rotisserie chickens being tended to by busybody and costumed stagehands, replaced by movers that took apart the walls and stacks of guitar and bass amplifiers. It was as if they were making a visual statement that underscored the big sound just these three made on their own. Simplistic, yet complex. Rush rules.
“Tom Sawyer” took the crowd to nirvana and then song after song touched the hearts of longtime fans everywhere – “The Camera Eye,” “The Spirit of Radio,” the gentle nuances of “Jacob’s Ladder” and “Closer to the Heart” swept the audience away. Classic prog pieces like “Cygnus X-1” and “2112” were mesmerizing and long.
There wasn’t a lot of talking between songs, just the occasional Geddy-speak to make sure audience and artist remained connected. No one was going to wander away when the thoughtful, energetic and epic tunes filled the air at max volume. Nothing was wrong with this show. It easily could’ve stretched into six hours and I bet the rabid crowd would have screamed for one more. Sure, there was no “Red Berchetta” and no “Limelight,” which was slightly surprising, but the band would’ve had to delete some of the tasty morsels we feasted on to add those desserts.
The band was spoof-introduced by Eugene Levy for a quad-collection of encore tunes, which went way back to the All the World’s A Stage staples: “Lakeside Park,” “Anthem,” “What You’re Doing” and “Working Man.”
They delivered. They’ve still got it. Everyone was happy.
Photos and review by Doug Van Pelt. Photos edited by Teresa Turnage-Simon
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