Note: This review was for the Time Machine Tour in 2011. The Clockwork Angels Tour is reviewed starting here (and look for each venue – I reviewed each one). The Sun has also reviewed the Clockwork Angels O2 gig.
I saw this in today’s Sun newspaper. It’s a review of the O2 gig on Wednesday.
The full text reads:
A GLEAMING crimson Les Paul slung round his neck, Alex Lifeson saunters across the stage, his 57-year-old fingers picking out one of the most exhilarating riffs in the history of rock.
The Spirit Of Radio is in full cry and a woman near me is in tears of joy.
How many bands induce such emotion in the first five seconds of a gig?
There is a reason why Rush trail only the Beatles and Stones for consecutive gold or platinum albums.
It’s not just their astonishing musicianship. That gets only a tenth of the way there. It’s a blend of power, subtlety, soaring choruses and some of the most intelligent lyrics ever written.
It’s cool to hate them, to refuse to see beyond their three dope-fuelled years of proggy hobbit-bothering 35 years ago.
But drummer Neil Peart has since penned skilful and profound explorations of love, loss, prejudice and alienation.
Yet there is nothing po-faced about it. The comic mini-movies tying the show together display a limitless capacity for self-parody.
Here are three Canadians, all nearing 60. energetically revisiting their 40-year career – yet somehow there is nothing sad about it.
It is effortless. There is a not an awkward move or pose all night.
Geddy Lee has never sung better. And fabulous songs like Workin’ Them Angels and Far Cry remind us that some of their best work has come in the last four years, that they still create tremendous material.
Few peers can say the same. Let’s hope we haven’t seen the last of them.
The “5” rating is the highest The Sun awards to albums or gigs. This is also only about the third time Rush has been mentioned by The Sun in the last 40 years! (I’m not making that up)
You can see my photos/comments about each gig on the UK Time Machine Tour – surprising as it may seem, Rush did play in places outside London – at the following:
Just one thing I’d add – well, perhaps correct about – that article above. Rush isn’t touring BECAUSE it is 40 years old. It is touring because it is still a viable band. It has never disbanded and got back together. It isn’t a novelty act, like many of the great 70s and 80s bands who are touring today (with only part of their original line-ups, or after giving up when they became unpopular at some stage), so it isn’t a gimmicky gig to go to whenever a tour is announced.
Rush fills arenas. It always has.