RUSH

[wolof7]

Hahaaa! Was looking for a good reason to restart this thread, although any reason would suffice. I was hoping for a status update on Clockwork Angels which sounds like a 2011 release is going to be unlikely. However I was creepin around the interweb when I stumbled upon this countdown: Booyah!

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/Alex-Lifeson-0225-2011/

[Jaimoe]

If anyone is planning on a vacation in Toronto, Rush fans must visit Lifeson's bar, The Orbit Room. It's a cool place located in Little Italy and features live gigs every night by great acts. Lifeson sometimes joins in and jams, but he doesn't do Rush tunes. It's cool seeing Lifeson playing guitar on non-Rush tunes in an intimate setting. Little Italy rules too!

[Ruckus]

Thank you for starting this much needed thread man.  I take issue with very little of that list but hey, its just a list.  I was really lucky to play with a very good guitarist and extraordinary drummer in high school in one of my bands.  We were able to master Fly By Night and Closer to the Heart in their entirety which for many may not be a big deal but it was HUGE for us.  We had most of Limelight down but the guitarist and I couldn't play a majority of the solo.  Doh!

I've actually never been a fan of the Spirit of Radio solo but otherwise mere quibbles is all I got about this list.  Well done.

Maybe Tracy can come pick me up on one of his vacations on his way to Toronto and we can go to Lifeson's bar

[Crispy]

Dude.
(thanks, wolof)

Rush La Villa Strangiato live Pink Pop Festival

[wolof7]

I don't often like quoting Billy Corgan but "these guys definitely need to be in the conversation of one of the all-time greats." They often get overlooked for having their own niche, even myself, being such a big fan, will forget about them for months. However, when I do rediscover them it's glorious.

Thanks Crispy for reposting that vid, I have not seen that since I watched the Beyond the Lighted Stage doc. Lifeson is just insane.

Ruckus, that is certainly an awesome thing. I play a little guitar and to get even attempting a Rush song is daunting and oftentimes really frustrating to me. To be able to experience a run thru of those tunes is no small feat. Fly by Night is often overlooked in their catalog, I love that album.

I am surprised that that list does not go beyond their 80's output. Generally speaking it is the time of their most well-respected music but Lifeson has not lost any of his chops in the last albums. When I saw them in Boston for the Time Machine tour in September Lifeson owned that whole show, he was having such fun up on stage. I am not a huge fan of Vapor Trails but I thought Counterparts, and Snakes and Arrows were pretty great RUSH records. I think Test for Echo even has it's moments even though some of it's production feels glossy to me.

Right now I am really into and Hemispheres which has not left my record player in nearly 2 weeks. That album along with permenant waves, farewell to kings, 2112 and Fly by Night always rotate as my favorites. I'd say Signals and Moving Pictures I appreciate more of the songs rather than as album propers even though the latter is a near perfect album as well. 

[Crispy]

I think it was impossible for most male kids in their teens in the late 70s/early 80s not to be a little obsessed with Rush, and it's quite a bit harder for everybody else for the reason Tracy gave elsewhere: they're nerds. The only reason they aren't more widely considered one of the greats is that nerdiness, and their uncool status ever since those days. I didn't enjoy much of their material after Signals, and ever since I've gone through phases of non-listening too, but every time Exit Stage Left hits my turntable, I remember how much I fucking LOVE Rush.

One of my dream MMJ covers is to hear their take on Xanadu.

[wolof7]

One of the things I love about Rush which may be interpreted by some as a contributing factor to their brand of "nerdy progressive"rock is their ability to not take things too seriously. Sometimes, in the rock world, that is not appreciated. I believe that their goofiness lends itself to their general likability and makes them more personable.

I see a lot of the same sense of humor in MMJ. What with the bears, halloween shows, artwork, lyrics, Yimspeak etc. When I first heard Highly Suspicious I understood it in that kind of context right away and loved it, still do, but it proved to be somewhat of a dividing line for fans. I hope that with this new album they maintain that sense of self-awareness/humor which does not disregard the fact that rock should be fun. I am assuming that with a song title like "hangin on to black metal" they will.

Rush could poke fun at themselves. Watching the BTLS doc made them seem completely normal, friendly and like they understand their fans on a personal level(being rock fans themselves), not just as rock stars. Even Peart's discomfort with interacting is somewhat endearing, he generally has a hard time with it, and goes on to discuss this issue in depth and not seem like a pretentious asshole but more as someone with general social anxieties.

In regards to their music, some of their lyrics are rediculous. Having never been a huge sci-fi nerd it did take some time to accept Rush on the same level as a Pink Floyd or a Rolling Stones because those bands are singing about sex, drugs, government, isolation, paranoia, all things that makes rock n roll rebelious. But Rush can rock just as hard if not harder than those bands. They are certainly more meaningful these days than both of those and many other bands who have managed to fade or let their ego's get in the way of things.

To me Rush represents rock in it's purest form that it's only about the music and having fun.

[Ruckus]

Shame on you Wolof!  You posted that list and then didn't watch each posted video for each solo in their entirety.  That La Villa Strangiato is special.  I had a Rush bass transcription book of Chronicles.  I just laughed at LVS and tried to play a majority of the notes at half speed.   ;D  Impossible for my pretty crappy chops.  I think there is no greater compliment in Beyond the Lighted Stage than when Mike Portnoy talks of mastering LVS on drums as THE measuring stick.  I mean, we're talking about Mike Portnoy here.  That song was such an unthinkable technical feat it blows my mind.  I mean its impossible to play yet they wrote it.  It's so unbelievably complex, particularly the drumming, yet it compromises none of its beauty.

What more can I add to what you guys already mentioned about their nerdiness.  They were and still are massive nerds but they'll go down in my mind as the greatest rock band of all time who happened to be nerdy as fuck.  I guarantee you won't find a fanbase with a higher collective IQ and lower sexual prowess quotient than Rush fans.  (Well there are some exceptions)   :D  Perfect example being my high school experience.  I know I've mentioned this here before.  I played in a nerdy trio of honors students that covered or attempted to cover the likes of Hendrix, Zep and Rush.  The drummer got a 1600 on his SATs (just like Mahg33ta) ;).  The other band I played in (which played parties) played only Nirvana, Pearl Jam, STP and the like and were not big into the whole school thing.

Rush just wasn't cool nor approachable for the average young music fan.  I figure you become a Rush fan in one of two and a half ways.  1) You're dad forced it on you. 2) You picked up an instrument and your 1st teacher immediately told you that Rush is the greatest band of all time.  2.5) You were supremely nerdy enough to discover Rush on your own and like them because you were such a self confident man built to hone in on nothing but the greatest music being created.  I believe Crispy and Tracy may be 2.5.

I agree with you guys on what the peak of their catalog is in my mind.  I think Fly By Night through Moving pictures is perfection.  However, like Wolof, I don't discount all post Moving Pictures Rush.  I think there are moments in Signals, Grace Under Pressure and Hold Your Fire but the 80's influence is just tough to overcome.  I actually enjoy Presto and Roll the Bones a lot even though Peart's drums still sound to synthetic.  I loved Counterparts and Test for Echo thought both had some major lyrical stumbling blocks.  It was nonetheless awesome to hear them return to crunching guitar leads.  I'm actually not a huge Snakes and Arrows guy but I really dig Vapor Trails though I was late to the party with that one.

And as proof of my nerdiness, I submit that Lifeson's finest solo is the conclusion to Part IV of 2112, Presentation, which precedes Part V, Oracle: The Dream.   ;D ;D ;D  Damn it felt good to type that.

Working Man deserved a place also.

[Crispy]

Great stuff, wolof and Ruckus!

In those years around 1980, as I alluded to, there wasn't a thing weird about liking Rush -- the world hadn't really caught on to the nerd factor yet, I think, and they were considered pretty cool as a band, especially with Moving Pictures. So you're right on with your assessment on 2.5, in that most guys at that time could discover Rush on their own through the radio and MTV, although a guy didn't have to be supremely nerdy (though I was) to get them. As for that sexual prowess quotient...

I think playing the LVS bass part at half speed may be a monumental achievement!  8)

[wolof7]

I definitely got into Rush through the 2.5 category you mentioned. I always knew I liked their music when I heard it on classic rock radio and admired them as an amateur guitarist but never had the desire to explore them until recently, in fact only in the last 3-4 yrs. Rush is still really new to me. This was after I was growing tired of indie rock stuff, it just became too much, too many animal-band names. I wanted something heavier but unpretentious. Rush was perfect. I was at a local record store and bought 2112 and Exit Stage left for about $7 total.

However, I also remember at the time I was in grad school studying Clinical social work/ pscyhology. I was spending alot of time with a patient who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was just an amazing guy, one of my alltime favorite clients I've ever worked with. He absolutely loved Rush. He told me how great their shows were (I hadn't seen them at that point) and explained that most of their stuff beyond their popular albums was more than worth exploring. I did a lot of music type expressive therapy stuff and activities with him. We listened to a lot of Rush which really helped him focus and distract himself from some of the more psychotic symptoms inherent with that illness. I owe most of my interest in the band beginning with my work with that client. I owe him big time.

BTW how does Rush not invoke sex appeal? I mean we all watched that video above. If a girl sees that kind of playing wouldn't the power of its hypnotic technical rock lure them into the sack? If not what about Lifeson's mane of black chest hair in the beginning? He's blonde, WTF? :D

[Ruckus]

Nice story Wolof. :)  If everybody in the world loved Rush.... ::)

Something that gets lost on me is definitely the era in which I became a fan of Rush, the early to mid 90's.  It somewhat boggles my mind that there was a time when Rush was huge on mainstream radio and was cool music.  Thanks for reminding me Crispy.

[Crispy]

Nice story Wolof. :)  If everybody in the world loved Rush.... ::)

Something that gets lost on me is definitely the era in which I became a fan of Rush, the early to mid 90's.  It somewhat boggles my mind that there was a time when Rush was huge on mainstream radio and was cool music.  Thanks for reminding me Crispy.

You betcha, ya whippersnapper! (Get off my lawn)  ;)

[Tracy 2112]

wow, I thought I heard the rumblings of a D&D match going on around here....

I saw Rush for the first time in 1981. Back then, if you were cool you were into Rush (as well as the Stones, Aerosmith, Yes, ZZ Top, etc...). I don't know what the nerds were in to  b/c I wasn't a nerd, I was a dope smoker with a paper route who was teetering on the edge of failing out of 11th grade and hanging out at the bowling alley playing pool and pinball; trust me, I was cool. I think the nerd factor kicked in when people jumped on the "Rush wagon" after Moving Pictures and Signals, and they "got Rush" but then the 80's happened and you got stuff like this:

Rush - Time Stand Still (Music Video - 1987)
-That's not cool-
Which, for me, was easy to love, but for noobbs, they had to make a quick decision to stick with this or bail on it. Trust me, in 1987, this wasn't cool, especially if you didn't know their roots, and you had The Replacements, Pixies, Husjer Du, etc.. really anti-everything. I ramble. I love, love, love Grace Under Pressure, don't get me wrong. But the 2 following albums, especially Hold Your Fire, were hard (are hard) to navigate.

Ruckus, I'll drop by tonight around 7 and pick you up.

[johnnYYac]

Dude.
(thanks, wolof)

Rush La Villa Strangiato live Pink Pop Festival

I can't keep up with you guys, but you're helping me re-appreciate Rush.  This video is killer!   :o

I played the studio cut of LVS taking my daughter home from a doctors appointment this afternoon.  Apparently, 9 year old girls don't get Rush.  Maybe if she saw this live version, she'd see the light!

[Crispy]

Johhny: "I played the studio cut of LVS taking my daughter home from a doctors appointment this afternoon.  Apparently, 9 year old girls don't get Rush." 

FTFY

(kidding, girls -- kinda)

[lucylew]

I've been to Alex's bar in Toronto.  Was in town to see PJ and of course I had to check it out.  The locals were very kind and bought my husband and I many rounds when they found out we came from Cali.

Rush fans are good peeps. 

[Tracy 2112]

I figure you become a Rush fan in one of two and a half ways.  1) You're dad forced it on you. 2) You picked up an instrument and your 1st teacher immediately told you that Rush is the greatest band of all time.  2.5) You were supremely nerdy enough to discover Rush on your own and like them because you were such a self confident man built to hone in on nothing but the greatest music being created.  I believe Crispy and Tracy may be 2.5.

1.5) You're boyfriend forced it on you

11 years ago, I held my girlfriend (now my wife) down on the ground (in a fun loving way) for the entirety of Camera Eye played L O U D (she was trying to escape) so she would understand Rush (and me) better. She is now a fan and has seen them 2x with me; soon to be 3 in April. She's a big fan of how Neil Peart slows down time.

[Ruckus]

Ruckus, I'll drop by tonight around 7 and pick you up.

I knew he wasn't coming!

[Ruckus]

I've been to Alex's bar in Toronto.  Was in town to see PJ and of course I had to check it out.  The locals were very kind and bought my husband and I many rounds when they found out we came from Cali.

Rush fans are good peeps.

^THIS^

Awesome you made it there.  Every Rush fan I've ever met has been too kind.

[Tracy 2112]

Ruckus, I'll drop by tonight around 7 and pick you up.

I knew he wasn't coming!

"Tonight" is relative to when you read the post. Soooo, see you tonight!