Put That Chicken Down! The Obligatory Rush Post

Geddy Lee, avec poulet

Oh what the hell, I'm going to write about Rush.

I've made no secret of my affinity for Canada's finest power trio. This year they became the first band to get into the Hockey Hall of Fame before the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"When the weary world was young": Rush in NYC

As I write this, Vh1 Classic is playing R30, the film of the band's 2004 tour in celebration of their 30th anniversary. Filmed in Frankfurt, Germany, the show has just been reissued on Blu-Ray in an expanded format that includes the entire concert, not just the shortened version that appeared on DVD five years ago. The band is in really good form on this show (although Neil did not have a high opinion of the gig, as expressed in his book, Roadshow: Landscape With Drums.)

It so happens that R30 is the only Rush tour that I've missed in the past 20 years. I've seen "the boys" eleven times. And here's the list:

• Presto, Meadowlands Arena ("Attack of the Killer Rabbits")
  
  
• Roll The Bones: Madison Square Garden ("Skulls On Ice")
  
  
• Counterparts: Madison Square Garden (two nights in a row!)
  
  
• Test For Echo: Meadowlands Arena. (First tour with no opening act, complete performance of 2112)
  
  
• Vapor Trails: Garden State Arts Center, Jones Beach, Madison Square Garden (hat trick!)
  
  
• Snakes & Arrows: Jones Beach, Madison Square Garden, Jones Beach.
  

I've never seen them do a "bad" show, although Counterparts on the second night and the 2008 Jones Beach show were both off-the-hook excellent, with the Vapor Trails show at the Garden just behind. Of their many live records and DVDs, my favorites are All the World's a Stage and the excellent video A Show of Hands released on DVD as part of the Replay X 3 box set.

Rush are planning work on a new project, which may be a new CD or a series of songs released in twos and threes as they're finished. No word yet on a 2010 tour but I know I'll be there if it happens....

 In the meantime, this should tide you over: