12

Rush celebrates Canada
Day with Vancouver

 

 

 

would bring us to a different year in Rush’s
career. In 1993 they’re performing ‘Stick

It Out’ while the angst-ridden music video
plays behind them on screen. In 2007
they’re playing ‘Workin’ Them Angels’

and ‘Faithless’ on their Snakes and Arrows
Tour. In 1980, Lee insists we should choose
a path that’s clear, and several thousand
people throw their arms up and cry that
they will choose freewill.

After a brief intermission, the
show started up once again with another
pre-recorded skit. Rash are now Rush,
performing in a completely white room.
“Ray Daniels’ (Lifeson) presses the
red button again, repeatedly changing
the teenaged group into small children
and back. Suddenly an English music
video director (Lee) yells cut, and his
moustachioed cameraman Percy (Peart)
stops filming. Three beautiful blondes
“moving pitchers” of beer walk by and one
presses the button again out of curiosity.
This turns ‘Rush’ into, amongst other
things, babies, each other (i.e. Peart in
Lifeson’s place), wizards, and monkeys.
After the blondes spoil the shot, the director
quits and Daniels takes over, leading into
the band performing “Tom Sawyer’.

This time, each song was accompanied
by strange onscreen animations. Each
cartoon was themed according to the
song. For instance, ‘The Camera Eye’
featured little paper people taking pictures
of the audience, while a lens behind them
suddenly became an eye that transforms
the people into a lamp, a corncob, and a
monkey. Another for “Witch Hunt’ opened
with a cloaked figure sulking around a
forest. Eventually a man jumps out at him,
carrying a torch, and as he closed in on the
witch, flames shot up from the stage.

Multicoloured lights, film footage,
and occasional lasers were coordinated
with every song. However, once it got to
the end of the Moving Pictures set with
“Vital Signs’, something odd happened.

A giant mechanical lightest that hung

over the group during the night suddenly
started moving around rapidly. As it
twirled, it stretched out its eight rainbow-lit
appendages, folding them up and stretching
them back out as it continued to spin; all
while the lights flashed.

From there, the next six songs had set
designs that featured colours melting into
each other, both in the form of animation
and light. ‘Caravan’ had an epic animated
tale of another paper man traveling the
world while fire spurted from the stage
again. Peart’s seven-minute drum solo
was at first an ode to his pure Godliness,
with multiple camera angles capturing his
intense drumming. As the music turned
from rock to swing though, the images
of Peart were replaced with a CGI robot
that was part drum, part drummer, and we
watched in awe as it attempted to keep up
with Peart. The solo was then followed by
probably the one song everyone had been
waiting for: “Closer to the Heart’. Rumours
continue to circulate the fan base as to
why the group refused to perform the song
for several years. Personally, I think it’s
either because they felt playing it too often
would drain the song of its meaning, or that
perhaps Peart found it really boring to play.
Whatever the reason, the audience was just
honoured they got to sing along with it live.

The night ended with a two-song
encore. First, the mind-melting ten-minute
instrumental ‘La Villa Strangiato’, and
finally, going back in time once more to
1974, we saw the debut of Rush’s first
album, represented solely by the song
“Working Man’. To close things off, we
were treated to once last skit, starring Paul
Rudd and Jason Segel reprising their roles
from J Love You, Man (2009). The two fake
backstage passes to hang out with Rush
after the concert. At first aggravated by the
two annoying fan boys, the group kicks
them out. Rudd and Segel are hurt, until
Lee comes out to give Rudd a very cool
birthday present from the band. The moral
of the story is that Lee, Peart and Lifeson
are the greatest.

By the time I arrived home that night,
it was officially July 1. Stumbling back to
2011 in my Time Machine Tour shirt and
Peart-inspired bandana, I knew the first
thing I had to do was tell my father about
the show. After a long and confusing night
of not knowing whether I should dance or
mosh, I wouldn’t have wanted a simpler
way to celebrate Canada Day.