RUSH concert Review "Irvine" 8/13/2010

RUSH-Live

Sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980's

(note: skinny ties, red leather, and doubleneck guitars)

So, I saw RUSH last Friday 8/13/2010 at Irvine Meadows (or Verizon Wireless amphiteheater or whatever they call it now).  This was my 10th or 11th time seeing them and as always they put on a good show.  Granted I'm a RUSH geek so I was bound to like it even if they came out and played a couple Lady Gaga covers and took a dump on the stage and left.  That being said there was something nice about seeing these three guys (who are arguably approaching retirement age) just rock the snot out of the venue and their respective instruments.

You can find the set list on some other RUSH geeks blog or tweet so I won't go into that but what I would like to note is how much effort these guys put into their show.  Each time I see them they are getting a little older, a little balder, and a little heavier around the gut (aren't we all really?)  It could be comical, or pathetic to watch these old guys sweat their way through 9 minute long tunes written when Jimmy Carter was still in office.  But in this case it was inspiring.  Yeah they still got in the chops department, but they don't in the looks department.  But they never have.  That's the beauty of RUSH, they look bad and sound great, even in their heyday (see pic above).

It's some kind of glorious capitalist moment when three elder Canadians can cross the border, pack 15,000 Southern Californians (albeit slightly nerdy Californians, myself included) into an outdoor venue and continue to separate them from their hard earned money ($355 in my case for a "VIP Package", sort of a "king of the nerds" lettermans jacket if you will).  And they have been doing this since 1974, without any change in the basic formula!  Most hipster band would give their left shirtsleeve tattooed arm to have this formula work for them.  But sadly it won't precisley for the single reason it works for RUSH.  Essentially RUSH get up there and play their instruments for 2+ hours and show you how much better they are than you, and people pay good money to see this.  With the hipster bands, people pay good money to be close to something cool and bigger than them.  This usually lasts until a new "cooler" hipster band comes along to make people feel even "cooler" for liking them.  RUSH have never been cool and they never will be.  Critics have never liked them and they never will.  And isn't that just the best thing.  You don't have worry about who you are or what you do, what you look like or how bad you "air drum" to enjoy RUSH.  You just have like the music pure and simple, no pretense, no packaging or marketing, just music...

So, I'm sure my $355 (after Live Nation takes its cut, and RUSH production costs are paid) will be split three ways and Alex will use it to buy golf balls, Geddy will put it toward some ultra-rare signed baseball memoribilia, and Neil will like use it to buy some McCallan scotch, and that's just fine with me as long as they keep coming back and playing their music and going through the effort for the fans...