The Daily Herald: August 26, 2002

No hurry, no worry for Rush

by Doug Fox

There was a Rush delivery Friday night at the Delta Center.

And fittingly, it was completely unhurried.

Without the encumbrance of an opening act, progressive-rock titans Rush had the stage all to themselves and put the time to good advantage, delivering 27 songs and nearly three hours of music to a rollicking audience.

Rush's set list structure encompassed highlights from all phases of its 29-year recording career -- but the beauty of it was the band didn't just pay homage to its hits on Friday, but also treated longtime fans to plenty of obscure album classics, some of which had never been performed live before this tour.

"We'd like to do something we've never done before," announced bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee late in the band's first set before playing "Between Sun & Moon."  "It was on our 'Counterparts' album and then we forgot about it.  We forgot how much we liked it."

The fans apparently didn't, giving the cool tune a resounding reception.

Theme music from "The Three Stooges" TV program actually opened the show when the house lights first went out, and the Canadian trio then launched immediately into "Tom Sawyer."

Rush, also featuring guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart, kept the early momentum going with strong renditions of "Distant Early Warning," "New World Man" and "Roll the Bones."

"It's a great pleasure to be back in Salt Lake City one more time," Lee said when he finally addressed the audience.  "We've got about 25 songs to play for you tonight, so get comfortable."

The audience's definition of comfortable must have been to remain standing and air-drumming to Peart's thunderous backbeat.  Peart, also the band's sole lyricist, has long been regarded as one of the top drummers in rock, and after watching him for several hours in concert it's easy to see why.

If you simply listened to Peart's playing peripherally, while choosing to visually focus on the other members of the band, you would be missing a big part of the Rush experience.  Peart's pounding almost has to be seen -- as well as heard -- to be believed.  Sometimes you don't realize just how much he is doing until you see it with your own eyes.  His eight-minute drum solo midway through the band's second set was one of the true highlights of the evening.

Incidents in Peart's personal life were the impetus behind the band's recent six-year break from touring and recording.  A month after finishing the final show on the band's "Test For Echo" tour in 1997, Peart's 19-year-old daughter was killed in a car accident.  Less than a year later, he lost his wife to cancer.

It was uplifting to see him sharing his immense talent with fans once again.

Lee looks and sounds much the same as he has throughout the band's long career.  He still sports long hair and can still hit all the high notes -- which in his case are really high.  His work on the bass and keyboards was also impressive.

Lifeson appeared to get most of his exercise changing guitars -- something he did after nearly every song.  Solo highlights for him included the new "Earthshine" and "The Spirit of Radio."

The band's 12-song opening set -- which also included album cuts "The Pass," "Bravado," "The Big Money," and "Freewill" -- was followed by a 20-minute intermission.

The second set featured some eye-popping special effects, including lasers and a dragon that spit fire off a video screen to some coordinated spots on stage.  Second-set musical highlights included "One Little Victory," "Ghost Rider," "2112 Overture," "The Temples of Syrinx," "Limelight," "La Villa Strangiato" and an acoustical duet of "Resist" by Lifeson and Lee.

The two-song encore showcased "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" and "Working Man," the single from the band's self-titled debut album from 1973 -- a fitting choice to cap Rush's retrospective performance.