Rush hometown tour stop review (in Toronto)

September 26, 2007

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Rush

Air Canada Centre

Sept. 19, 2007

I hate stadium shows. First they stick you so high up in the nosebleeds that there’s snow on your seat. Then the sound is so bad that you can’t even recognize songs that you’ve grown up with and know by heart. Then you’re surrounded by people who chastize your for standing up and blocking their view. These things may not have much to do with the music being performed on stage, but they sure as hell effect your ability to enjoy it.

How does one get enthused about a show when the people around you won’t even stand and cheer when the band takes stage?

It was a grand entry to be sure: first a lengthy animated video presentation followed by the glorious opening chords of “Limelight”, rendered barely recognizable by the ACC’s dreadful acoustics. It set the tone for the evening: good performance marred by external factors.

Now Rush are a band who can juggle their back catalogue better than most. Their set lists tend to represent their entire careers and are rarely predictable. Tonight was no exception. Numbers like “A Passage to Bangkok” and “Circumstances” were both unexpected and welcome. But the emphasis did seem to favour the mellow, largely bypassing the hard rockin’ seventies. The latest album, Snakes and Arrows was played almost in its entirety. And while it has its moments (“Far Cry” is probably their best song in years), it is a mellow piece of work, and it lead to long slow moments where the attention wavered (possibly yearning for the days of “Working Man”).

As usual, Neil Pert’s obligatory drum solo was the highlight of the evening, an elaborate, multi-layered percussive attack that took on a life of its own. Curiously enough, the videos in the background were also memorable: hypnotic computer generated patterns, and bizarre mini-movies that moved in synch with the music. There were also visits from Bob and Doug McKenzie and all the South Park boys which lent the evening a light-hearted intimate atmosphere more typical of a small club than a nearly sold out arena. Rush are good at that.

And of course, there’s “YYZ”.

All in all, not a bad evening, though hardly the religious experience one craves when seeing a godlike band.

-Steve Dylag