Tag Archives: live

Rush Live at the Juno Awards

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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 Anika 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

Classic Rock (A)Live and Well in Waterloo

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Well, that was fun. Classic rock cover bands in Kitchener-Waterloo seem to have continued after my old band, Bil Weber and the Glum Bunch (ca 1988-92), in which I played keyboards and sang about half of the lead vocals. The Waterloo Open Streets Festival just featured Neil and Friends (OK, they definitely need a better name!) playing very similar stuff to what we did, and with similar attention to how things were performed on the original recordings.

Both groups played Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” and Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing.” We, however (because we had keyboards, instead of a second guitarist), played the Doobie Brothers “China Grove” instead of Neil etc.’s version of “Listen to the Music” and (at least at one gig, combined with another band) Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla” instead of Neil etc.’s version of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love” (both originally involving Eric Clapton).

I introduced myself to Neil and Friends, but they were a bit freaked out that I was talking about my band from 20+ years ago. (They are probably all IN their twenties, though perhaps in their early thirties.) However, they did seem impressed that I had done my dissertation on Rush. They didn’t play any Rush songs, and the Bils were from so long ago that what we played also predated my academic work on that band (so we didn’t, either). However, they did play some CanCon via April Wine’s “Say Hello” and (sort of, via) Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.” Our late-60s pseudo-CanCon (and more keyboard-oriented) equivalents were Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” and “Born to be Wild.”

Maybe I should get in touch with them and offer to play keyboards and contribute some vocals! I’ve moved so often over the past 25 years that it’s been very difficult to get around to that sort of thing again. These guys all have jobs in the area and just play for the enjoyment of it, so there wouldn’t really be any pressure, presumably.