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The Globe And Mail: August 24, 2004

Rush brings fans closer to the heart

by Alan Niester

Although local-hero power trio Rush have performed in Toronto dozens, if not hundreds, of times throughout their vaunted history, Sunday night's appearance at the Molson Amphitheatre was indeed something special.  For it marked not only yet another triumphant homecoming, but also the culmination of the North American leg of R30, the band's 30th-anniversary tour.

Thirty years.  Consider the accomplishment.  First off, it's incredibly rare for any band to remain intact for thirty years with no personnel changes.  (The band is actually older than 30, having formed in 1968.  This is the 30th anniversary since Neil Peart replaced John Rutsey on drums, creating the band lineup as we know it.)  And even if somehow a band does stay together in some form, it has usually peaked by this point, and is playing out the string back in the small clubs and beer halls where it began.  Not so in Rush's case.  Sunday's appearance was in front of an ecstatic, sold-out throng.

And it's not as if it has been an easy ride.  The band's early years saw it endure a string of negative reviews while it patiently built up a loyal grassroots following.  And recently there have been real-life experiences that have threatened the band's existence.  The tragic loss of two members of Neil Peart's immediate family in the mid-nineties put the band on temporary hiatus, and more recently, guitarist Alex Lifeson was involved in a still unresolved run-in with the law in Florida.

Not surprisingly then, Sunday's appearance was more than just another stop in a tour to promote a studio album (although Rush has just released a covers EP called Feedback which remarkably managed to hit the Top 10 in the Billboard albums charts for a short period after its release).  This was very much a celebration of the band's history, a recounting, and a chance for true fans to experience songs (By-Tor and the Snow Dog, 2112, Xanadu, all from the band's first decade) that they never expected to hear performed in concert again.

On stage for over three hours, the band divided the show into two halves with a 25-minute intermission.  After a nifty video that managed to include symbols from most, if not all, of the band's albums, and a video introduction from Jerry Stiller (George Costanza's father on Seinfeld) in a Rush T-shirt, the trio broke into a 10-minute instrumental medley that included bits of Bastille Day, Hemispheres and A Passage to Bangkok among others, then segued right into The Spirit of Radio, one of their dozen or so most enduring hits.

Backed by the ubiquitous tumbling clothes dryers (joined this year by an automatic-styled vending machine) and lit by an overwhelming collection of lighting effects, Rush filled the first half with a more predictable selection of numbers, from 1978's The Trees, to Red Barchetta to YYZ, Force Ten, Subdivisions and all the way up to Earthshine, from 2002's Vapor Trails.  Overall, this was a business-like and competent first half, highlighted by a video visit from the rapping skeletons of Roll the Bones, though I did mention to the guy next to me that I thought the band were more spirited during their "comeback" appearance here in 2002.

Not to worry, because things really took off in the second half.  Regrouping with the popular Tom Sawyer, the show kicked into overdrive after a mid-set interlude that included a non-boring Peart drum solo, then a short acoustic interlude in which Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson performed side-by-side on Resist from Test for Echo, and then a neatly understated version of The Yardbirds' Heart Full of Soul, for which the audience provided relatively drunken backing vocals.

The home stretch was a Rush fan's dream come true, featuring venerable, guitar-drenched chestnuts 2112, La Villa Strangiato, By-Tor and Xanadu before finishing the main section of the set with the closer Working Man.  If Lifeson's impending date with The Man is weighing on his mind, it certainly didn't show on this night.

The band's choice of encore material was interesting.  Two of the final numbers performed were covers, Summertime Blues and Crossroads from the Feedback release.  This might have been a nice opportunity to revisit the Dr. Strangelove-inspired video missile ride of Distant Early Warning, perhaps, or New World Man or Big Money or a symbolic Closer to the Heart.

Certainly every Rush fan will have had a list of songs he or she wishes were played on this night, but no one could ever fault the band on the Herculean effort it did put forth.  Perhaps those songs are being saved for R35, coming to an amphitheatre near you in 2009.