Concert review: Rush Time Machine Tour

I wanted to take a moment away from the norm to do a bit of a review of a concert my wife and I attended last night at the Yum! Center here in Louisville, Kentucky. The concert was Rush’s Time Machine Tour.

Wow. That’s the first word that pops out of my mouth, when I think of last night’s experience. I will preface all of this by saying this was the eighth time I have seen this band. So, I have a bit of experience when dealing with that cult-like band Rush. Yes, I am a “Rush fan” in many ways — and am proud of it! Yeah, I played D&D for years and I can quote songs from every Rush album dating back to their 1974 self-titled debut recording. And after seeing them live as many times as I have, and listening to their recordings countless times over the years, I have to say that last night was something very special.

I don’t want to drone on and on about how perfect their music is and how they are the best musicians in the history of the world, ever! I don’t want to say how incredible Alex’s back phrasing was on the La Villa Strangiato number. Instead I want to go this route — so that more of you can relate.

When I was a young boy, back in 1981, I had one of the original Sony Walkmans that only played cassettes. I remember well the first cassette I bought was Rush’s Exit Stage Left. Why I bought it? I have no idea. Maybe it was the cover, or maybe it was that I had never heard a band live before and there was my chance.

For some reason, one particular song title excited me – Red Barchetta. So I wanted that song to be the first song I heard. And when I did hear it, something magical happened. I was transported somewhere else, to some magical place that I had never before visited. I spent the rest of the day wearing out the batteries in that Walkman, listening to Rush’s Exit Stage Left.

Throughout the years, from that point on, I could point out moments just like that, with each Rush release — moments that I left the world only to find myself in that strange, magical place that only music like Hope, Mission, Subdivisions, Stick it Out, Between the Wheels, and of course Tom Sawyer can take you. When that happens, you forget every trouble plaguing your existence at the moment.

Last night’s show did that to me for three hours. That’s right, for three solid hours I was not of this planet. I was lost in the midst of perfect melodies, rhythms, and life. And when Alex brought to life his solo from La Villa Strangiato, I wanted to weep just like I did the first time I heard that song live.

You may think me crazy — but for me, there are few things that can transport me like the music of the one true power trio from Canada. Watching Geddy “slappin’ da bass” really brought me back to a truth that I had lost. That truth can be found within the lyrics of their song Mission:

Hold your fire. Keep it burning bright. Hold the flame ’till the dream ignites. A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission.

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7 comments on “Concert review: Rush Time Machine Tour”

1. To preface, I am a friend of Jacks from our time spent together online within the Kentucky Mountain Bike Association. I learned a long time ago that another absolute passion we share is our feelings about Rush.
   I was at the show last night and was staggered when I read these words, crafted more beautifully than I am capable, and expressing the same take on the evening.
   My first Rush album was also Exit Stage Left. I too bought it because I liked the cover and had heard of the band and that they were ‘cool’. This is the summer I had to live with my grandmother as my grandfather had passed and she was afraid to be alone. So I set up a room for the summer in her home with a tape deck beside the bed. I played my bootleg copy (I couldnt afford the real one) on that tape deck until there were no more magnetism left on the tape. I was awakened by The Trees and its social commentary. I was transported to a mystical land in a time far distant ruled by Gods when I heard Xanadu. Red Barchetta instantly showed me that rock songs enjoyed by teens dont have to be about the opposite sex or mindless anthems. The Spirit of Radio still gives me goosebumps describing a feeling I had know for years and still experience but had never been able to pinpoint. that music over the airwaves with the potential to touch many at once holds its own magic over other mediums. I could drone on about every single song on this album and the next 2, with a near life-changing moment coming to me when I finally heard the song that would become my favorite for the next 28 years without an equal, even to this day, Subdivisions. But Jack has covered the evening beautifully and I am so thankful that I was able to be there, in that place, on that night, 26 years after the first time I seen them live. I got to share the experience with my brother Paul, who I turned on to the band when we were in high school, and my baby brother Nick who wouldnt be born until 8 years after my first taste.
   So grateful that I found a voice that spoke to me like this little band from Canada, and helped me understand feelings and open up intellectual doors in my mind that found no other pathways.
   I am a fanatic, and I am not ashamed.
   Dave

2. Jack offered me a chance to guest post about some writing I do, and I will in the next couple days. But I had to jump in here to echo he and David. My name is Eddie, and I too am a Rushaholic.
   Kind of like Jack, I bought a casette solely based on the weird album cover, and the fact that it was in dollar-bin at the local K-Mart (close as we had to a record store in small town Iowa). There was this big owl staring at me, see, the album was called Fly By Night. Walked halfway home in the snow, listening to it on a walkman under my jacket against my belly (‘cuz the cold slowed it down otherwise), then walked back to K-Mart and dug Caress of Steel, A Farewell to Kings, and Signals out of the same bin. Far and away the best four dollars I ever spent in my life, and still one of my best days, ever. Could have gotten frost-bite, and it still would have been worth it. Still not selling my dreams for small desires…
   Eddie

3. Hi Guys
   It is always difficult to put into words the influence/impact/beauty that Rush conjur up, but your words just about say it all! Moving Pictures was the first Rush
   album that really blew me away, and after that it has been a long realtionship. A such can not wait until later in the month when they hit the UK. Playing all of the one album, could be a musical climax for me!
   As in te US, there are those in the UK, who get Rush totally and then those who go ‘Who?’ They do not know what they have been missing. Rush have been aport of my life for nearly 30 years now, and I can not imagine a time when they will not be part of it. As they approcah possibly the twilight of their career, to see them still at their peak, is hard to believe!
   To reflect on your comments. my memories would be listning to my Sony Walkman, with the stereo effect of Witch Hunt and Camera Eye playing , in my bedroom, when I was supposd to be studying!
   looking back listening to Rush was probably much more influential than reading about Geometry etc!!

4. Thanks for the great review. I attended Rush’s Time Machine concert in Dublin, Ireland, last week. Absolutely phenomenal! A complete masterclass in musicality. What constantly amazes me with their music is the diversity of rhythms and medolodies and time signatures, even within a single song.

5. yo !!
   interesting comments & i too would like to contribute. “Moving pictures” was a serious change in direction for a band known has serious rockers who always had a twist of diversity & originality. I was fortunate enough to to see Rush on the original Moving Pictures tour at the ultra super cool cow shed known as Bingley Hall in Stafford (UK). Moving Pictures is timeless and should be mentioned in the same breath as classic albums such as Floyds Dark side of the moon.
   Again I consider myself very lucky to have seen Rush twice on this Tour (Manchester & Sheffield) & I have to say the mix of old & new Rush classics & the odd surprise that takes you back decades is amazing !!!!
   What made me smile looking at packed houses was the number of the younger Rush fans who were there. THIS TOUR & PLAYLIST WILL TAKE SOME BEATING !! ,,,, Thanks guys see you on the next tour.

6. Eddie you are the man; great narrative, simple sweet and so easy to connect with. I think all of us dug in the ol’ “unwanted” bin at various record shops and found some of the best RUSH treasures ever. For me, riding the skateboard with the buddies to Tower was the best Saturday afternoon ever. I snagged the debut album because it looked so grainy and powerful with that RUSH exploding in those “cool” letters. Too funny. Then, 2112. Fly By Night, Caress of Steel. So much fun unwrapping the cassette and eagerly popping it into the cheap Radio Shack ghetto blaster. Damn, better than Christmas morning. Totally awesome. Simple pleasures, kids: take notes on that!

7. You captured the essence of being a RUSH fan so beautifully! I remember buying Moving Pictures based on the airplay the Tom Sawyer was getting at the time. To this day I remember sitting in my room listening to this wonderfully spellbinding music performed to utter perfection. I had never heard anything like it. The lyrics were captivating and seemed to fit the music like a hand in a well-worn glove. Since then I’ve purchased every studio album, except the one with all the 60′s cover tunes (I’m sure I’ll buy that one sooner or later) and most of the live recordings too. I saw them in concert for the first time in April of 1981 and made my seventh show 30 years later last month in New Orleans. The highlight for me was finally getting to hear The Camera Eye performed live; it’s one of my all time favorites. That was easily the best RUSH show I’ve ever seen. They just get better with age! I just hope they are still touring when my two sons get a little older so I can take them with me for their first (and my eighth) evening with RUSH!