Thoughts on Rush playing live last night at the Juno Awards in Hamilton, Ontario.

There are about one hundred Rush songs that would give a good sense of what Geddy Lee can still sing quite well, but “Finding My Way” is not really one of them. (They even kept it in the same key as the original recording.) However, playing the first song from the band’s self-titled debut (1974) does suggest they meant it as a kind of re-birth (after last playing live in 2015), and it also subtly pushed the point that Neil Peart (d. 2020) hadn’t always been the drummer (or lyricist, obviously), even though he played that song live hundreds of times. In addition, Neil was born in Hamilton, and they had him (not John Rutsey) in the on-screen clips. Moreover, 1975 was the year the band won its first Juno Award (for Most Promising Group), so that also makes sense. The song’s not very Rush-like lyrics also suggest getting back on track: “I’ve been gone so long. I’ve lost count of the years . … Look out, I’m coming. Finding my way back home.” The band members were obviously enjoying themselves, which was nice to see!

Instrumentally, Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee were still quite good, and Annika Nilles was fortunately very good. On the other hand, “Finding My Way” is a boogie-blues-type song in 4/4, so we have yet to see what she can do with something more progressive-rock oriented. I’m not sure what Loren Gold and all those keyboards were there for. He added some organ-like or string-pad sounds (and even possibly supporting vocals) towards the end of the song, but I don’t think Geddy ever played keyboards on that song. Given the predominantly twenty-something nature of the music fans at that awards show, the band could have played a more familiar, later song, such as “Tom Sawyer” or “Subdivisions.” There was a slight chance some of those fans at the show might have known one of those songs, or at least might have heard one or both of them played by a parent or teacher on a CD, mp3, or stream, for example. And I wanted to hear the Oberheim OB-X8 synth! I guess it’s possible they played another song or two, but that only the one song was broadcast. Tickets are stupidly expensive for the Fifty Something tour, but it should be good for those who can make it. #Rush #Junos