Motorcycle Thoughts

Snakes & Arrows.

This album has been a real challenge for me, as a card carrying member of the Rush fan for life club, I found it difficult to assess my feelings about the album. Rush has for many albums doing some experimenting with many different sounds and techniques that, well, pushed any devoted Rush fan into one of two groups.  One of the groups consisted of fans that liked the newer (post Moving Pictures) albums, the other group consisted of fans that did not.  I sympathized with both groups, but stood fast as a fan of all of their music. I always viewed Rush as a group that did not need to be popular, but keeping pace with music. When the synthesizers came in the early 80’s, there was Geddy keying them up.  Electronic drums came, Neil picked himself up a nice set, you get the idea. I feel that this is why Snakes and Arrows presented me with such a problem, I expected something new, in fact that is exactly what I got.

When I first listened to the album all I could say is that I did not care for ‘Workin’ them Angels‘.  Listened to it one more time with essentially the same results. So, I put it down for what turned out to be about 3 days. I was in the car and something told me to take the CD with me (yes it was already loaded in the iPod, but…).  I listened to Far Cry, I remember thinking to myself “is this the same song I listened to earlier?”. Every song I listened to after that was the same question.

What had happened?

W ho cares…  I loved it, absolutely loved it.

Fast forward about a month, it was after the great concert at Blossom, I was talking with a Rush fan that had not been able to partake in the new album.  He was telling me about his brother that had the album and was relating the same story, about initially questioning the album, putting it down, and listening to it again.

His brother put it best: “It is Pure!”.

Finally it makes sense, that’s it! Holy Smokes! I thought about the concert, through the set when they played the tracks from Snakes & Arrows. They were jamming and Jamming like there was no tomorrow. No synths, just a bit of peddle powered effects. They are back to their roots. yeah baby

In my mind the Greatest band in all of history.

First a bit about the Venue, Blossom Music Center, what a place. We parked in the grass lot, so the walk to and from the concert was LONG, no problem though, it was nice to wind up and wind down before and after the concert. This was my first show at this venue, situated in a beautiful setting north of Akron right in side the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The Amphitheater style Venue fits nicely with its surroundings and features some architecture that is absolutely beautiful. Set into a downhill slope. Under the roof is some all weather seating that isn’t all that comfortable, but then you won’t be sitting long.

The sound quality for the venue is about on par with an amphitheater style setting. It isn’t bad but it isn’t what I would hope for. Seems there is a bit more reverb in an amphitheater, I imagine there is quite a bit of compromise with emphasis (at least in this case) on style rather than acoustics and sound deadening. In the great tradition of Rush, it was loud, and no, I am not getting old.

The traffic control is marginal at best. One would think that the designers and developers would have traffic control and speed of getting people into and out of a venue very high on their list of priorities for a public facility. The drive in along the twisty roads of W. Bath and Riverview was beautiful, however when you need to go to work the next day getting out quick at 12:00 midnight is priority.

On to Rush

Unless you are a Rush fan, you probably do not appreciate the greatness you are about to experience. No opening band, and except for a 20 minute intermission, the group played the entire three hour set. Why not, they have the material to cover the time, and then some. They are sporting 19 full on studio pieces, and a large assortment of collection albums as well as a selection of live recordings. All this not including Feedback which is Rush covering some greats.

Rush came out after a short video prelude which featured the band members and others in a rather lighthearted and quite humorous outake. The highlight for me included Neal Peart’s role of waking up in bed and scaring the other character, complete with the unique hat that Neal likes to wear. Following the prelude video, the band started the set off with the Great Limelight from the album Moving Pictures. I will pause here to tell you that there is not a single song that this band has done that I do not like, for me, a full ninety seven percent of their songs are absolutely great and wonderful pieces of work. Limelight (and the band appearing on stage) put the crowd into an absolute hysteria. I still love to go to concerts, that much is certain. Suprisingly, Rush played a quite varied mix of music before the intermission including several that I have not heard live. In the great tradition of Rush, they came out on stage with a minimal of showmanship, instead concentrating on the greatness of their music. When I refer to showmanship I can remember some of the concerts that I have attended including Kiss, and Sammy Hagar that were full of showmanship. Rush always known for the light show and other such pyrotechnics and laser show, relied on those to fullfill the need for showmanship. The band came out, tore the place apart (Musically) and fullfilled every expectation that a true Rush fan would have.

It is nice to see a band that seems so serious about their music, be so lighthearted about themselves. Geddy Lee started out wearing an Ohio State shirt. The entire band wore nothing more than casual t-shirts and jeans, as well as some interesting shoes. I point this out not to criticise but drive home my point about showmanship. Just come out, knock my socks off, that is the way I like it.

The second set concentrated on their new album Snakes & Arrows. It is so nice to see Rush coming back full circle to their roots. The band has evolved over the years incorporating various technologies into the mix including assorted effects and synthesizers. While playing the pieces from Snakes & Arrows, the band played their core instruments. Geddy his base, Alex his guitar, and Neil his drums. Except for the brief addition of some foot pedals from Alex it was pure, and great.

I would also like to add a link to wikipedia’s write up of Rush to this posting.

Rush: The Musicians Musicians

I have been a Rush fan since Moving Pictures was first released. A friend in High School who was a drummer by choice threw me the cassette and said listen to this and then talk to me, in response to an argument between him and I. I went home popped the cassette into my boom box and sat down. Tom Sawyer first song first side, just blew me away. I could not believe how awesome the song was, the power of the lyrics the strength of the musicians, despite the terrible sound emanating from the terrible speakers and limitations of the cassette itself. It was truly an experience to remember. The following song Red Barchetta I came to find out later that the drummer Niel Peart is a word smith, poet etc. adapted the song from a poem called A Nice Morning Drive, written by Richard S. Foster (thanks Song Facts) The song was a story that I could close my eyes and listen too. The rest of the songs just blew me away, but I will save the details for additional postings that I have.

Needless to say, I returned the cassette the next day to my friend at school and apologized profusely for my stupidity. My first Rush piece that I owned was a cassette of Signals which I wore out. My library now contains all of Rush’s works, including some printed material and most of the video material. Needless to say the iPod holds the complete collection.

I am a die hard Rush fan forever. I love the latest Snakes and Arrows and already sport my tickets to the concert in August at Blossom near Cleveland.