More Relaxed Rush In No Hurry To Duplicate Studio Sound On Stage

By Mark Lepage, Montreal Gazette, November 28, 1991, transcribed by pwrwindows

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For Rush, the bunnies were only the beginning.

They rose one night in May 1990, while the power trio laid down a typically stentorian number: inflatable white rabbits seven metres tall, towering over the crowd from either side of the stage.

Then while drummer Neil Peart pounded his kit dexterously, roadies shook the guidewires and made the rabbits dance along to the band's Tom Sawyer, a feat no human has yet attempted without serious reconstructive back surgery.

Rush was shaking up its image. After two decades as the most disciplined, dependable, progressive, pensive, gusts-to-portentous band in Canadian rock history, Rush made a joke.

The loosening-up attitude has carried over to the band's new album, Roll the Bones, and the tour bringing the band to the Forum tonight.

"One thing we found in rehearsals this time is that we were really determined to try to break out of our usual rigidity of arrangements," Peart said from Toronto last week.

"For years our ultimate value was to try to play the song as well as it sounded on the record."

And for years, those records pondered big themes in a big way. From the early Tolkien/bodkin phase through the '80s era, when Rush embraced the new vistas opened by technology, Rush rarely cracked a smile.

Now, the band concentrates on liberating some of its arrangements enough to introduce "spontaneous bits that could happen differently every night."

One change could shock Rush fans right out of their lumberjackets and Kodiak boots. There is an actual rap break, albeit a robotic one, in Roll the Bones. LL Cool J it ain't, but it does point out the band's insistence on remaining connected to the moment, as well as lyricist Peart's abhorrence of the factionalism that strangles rock music.

"The same thing happened about 10 years ago. I know from friends who grew up in southern California that when we started embracing reggae and African styles, the reaction was 'Aaaaw, them too?'

"I guess I anticipate that we might face that with rap, but it's the kind of attitude where I think, if people feel that way about it, they deserve to feel that way.

"To us, we're the ultimate stylistic sponge, and from a lyricist's point of view, rap was pretty irresistible."

From a musician's point of view, the Rush sound will never be too relaxed. Peart, bassist/singer Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson share a "hyper-critical" attitude toward their playing, especially Peart.

"I do tend to judge myself entirely on the performance of the previous show. My whole cumulative life is added up in those two hours, and if I find myself wanting, I'm depressed until the next shot. That's one nice thing about it, it's a repeatable challenge. You can go back the next day and say, 'Ok, tonight I'm gonna be great.'"

* Rush, with Andy Curran, at the Montreal Forum tonight at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $ 26.50 and $ 19.50, on sale at all Admission outlets.