www.rush.com

This evening’s musical performance by Rush was a testament to their longevity, both in years and their stamina on stage. Celebrating 30 years since Moving Pictures was released, that album was integrated in it’s entirety during their current live set. Moving pictures was Rush’s eighth studio album at the time of it’s release in 1980 – and the Willowdale, Toronto band has been around for well over 40 years making their signature brand of progressive music.

The fact that Rush delivered a set of music this evening that was close to three hours long is a testament to both the band, and their fanatical audience. I cannot believe Rush played such a lengthy set of music when most bands touring today cannot even hit the two hour mark on stage.

The last time I saw Rush play live was in Hamilton for the Roll The Bones tour – almost twenty years ago. To say I was a little under the influence for that show would be a gross understatement – as I can barely remember the performance at all… but I WAS there. And I have not purchased an album of music from Rush since. I almost went to see the Snakes and Arrows tour when it played at Molson Amphitheatre three years ago – but my fear of not knowing enough of their recent material kept me away. When I heard that this current Time Machine tour would encapsulate the entire Moving Pictures album – I was immediately interested.

After twenty minutes, video showing a dial with 1974 on it started slowing rolling up in years until cresting at 1980, when the opening notes of ‘Tom Sawyer’ were met with another standing ovation from the audience and a renewed interest in the evening. For fourty odd minutes I felt quite literally transported back in years – hearing an album I played the hell out of as a thirteen year old boy delivered live on stage by the very band that crafted the material. The entire Moving Pictures album is special to me – and this evening I found it wasn’t the obvious material that stood out for me as it was performed live. It was ‘The Camera Eye’ and ‘Witch Hunt’ from side two (yeah, that’s right, I’m talking vinyl here) that really stood out for me. ‘The Camera Eye’ in particular made me aware of just how far ahead of their time Rush were, when I compare them to a band like Tool riffing in similar song structures to a much younger audience.

See this Time Machine tour. It will utterly blow you away.