Rush

by Martin Popoff

  SNAKES & ARROWS Andrew Earles

  Snakes & Arrows put to rest the fears that had gelled among Rush fans since the release of 2002’s almost-impenetrable, experimentally driven Vapor Trails. The songs are back, as are the guitar solos (Vapor Trails was conspicuously free of Lifeson’s soloing for most of its duration), along with a sense of purpose and a mastery of the rock therapy its predecessor alternately succeeded and failed at providing its creators. Instrumentals are back in a big way, too, much to the unwarranted chagrin of some critics and longtime fans.

  In terms of tracks without Geddy’s somewhat modernized vocal range, Snakes & Arrows packs a whopping three: two fully formed jams (“The Main Monkey Business” and “Malignant Narcissism”—the latter’s title refers to a North Korean “Dr. Kim”–style character in Team America) and one plaintive acoustic venture courtesy of Lifeson, titled “Hope.” In a nod to their album-arranging habits throughout the ’70s, all three instrumental tracks appear during the second half of the album. And whereas previous post-1990 output could, for better or worse, sound like Rush awkwardly cozying up to grunge, alternative hard rock, and other sonic places associated with younger bands, as the ’90s came to a close, Snakes & Arrows found the trio using such influences to a more unique, if not subtle, degree. That said, “The Main Monkey Business” is distinctly informed by the post-metal movement omnipresent on the heavy music/metal landscape since Y2K, and sounds more like Russian Circles or even Tool (instrumentally, of course) than it does a veteran prog-rock band on the other side of their 30th anniversary.

  The instrumental tracks’ rear-loaded placement not only recalls the Rush of old, but it wisely lets the first half of the album showcase its own strengths: several guitar-dominated songs that are undoubtedly the best and most confident rock/hard rock Peart, Lee, and Lifeson had written since 1990’s return-to-the-rock refresher course, Presto. Opening track “Far Cry” is especially memorable and the vehicle by which a big hook Trojan-horses its way into the listener’s head for the rest of the day. Same goes for the standouts that follow. “The Bravest Face,” “Working Them Angels,” and “Faithless” display overt rejuvenation as much as they do forward momentum and artistic achievement, placing Rush in a category of its own—the aesthetic antithesis of their former contemporaries, namely in a live setting.

  Like Clockwork Angels in 2012, Snakes & Arrows provides the band a wealth of topical, creative dignity from which to draw for their epic-length concert sets, unlike most all of Peart, Lee, and Lifeson’s hard rock and progressive rock colleagues from the 1970s who are still active or have reformed over the last decade and rely on heyday content as a safety net when weak newer material fails to do little more than embarrass both the musicians and the loyal fans who perpetually hope for something better.

  While the sizeable followings of some other older bands might come off as a weird wrinkle in cultural logic, Rush’s huge, beyond-cult fan base makes total sense when the inspired Snakes & Arrows is taken into consideration. It’s debatable which act (third? fourth?) Rush is now navigating with pride, energy, success, and genuine invention, but there’s no question as to which album provided its genesis.

  Snakes & Arrows tour, Tweeter Center, Mansfield, Massachusetts, June 27, 2007. AP Photo/Robert E. Klein

  Snakes & Arrows tour book, 2007. Author collection

  The end result was Snakes & Arrows, issued May 1, 2007, a more completely written record than its predecessor, and a record with an added curious distinction: the massaging of acoustic guitar into what are mostly pounding rock songs.

  “Before we actually started writing, I mentioned to Geddy that I thought it would be refreshing to take an acoustic approach to writing,” noted Lifeson. “He thought that was a great idea. In fact, we both started out on acoustic, and it lasted for about five minutes, and then he put the acoustic down and he picked up the bass, the electric bass. We wrote like that in the old days, but he hasn’t played guitar in decades. The best way is how it ended up, me being on acoustic and him being on bass. And the whole writing process was on acoustic; I didn’t play electric once while writing. And of course, the album has a lot of acoustic on it, either in a primary or secondary role. I love using acoustic as support. I think it adds a richness to the heaviness, of this record in particular. And certainly guys like [Pete] Townshend and David Gilmour were masters at using acoustic to make a big statement.”

  “It’s much bolder, richer sounding, it’s heavier, it’s stronger, less personal,” added Alex, asked to contrast the record with its predecessor. “To me, I don’t find very much in common between the two records. Maybe a couple of tracks, like “Earthshine,” I could see coming out of this record. But Vapor Trails was a much more personal record, a much more difficult record to make, for sure. This record was just a joy. At every moment, there wasn’t a single difficult time we had on this record. Whereas with most of Vapor Trails, it was a struggle to make that record.”

  Snakes & Arrows tour, Camden, New Jersey. Artist: Jim Mazza/www.mazzaart.com

  The good vibes carried on over to the cover art, the claustrophobic blacks and reds of Vapor Trails giving way to bright tropical, aquamarine hues that set the tone for the buoyant, boisterous percussive tracks enclosed. “The cover came from a game board, and the game is Lela, an ancient Indian game,” noted Alex. “And the source of the game we’re familiar with is snakes and ladders. It’s a game of karma, and you go through the squares and move up on the arrows, whatever karmic number you land on, on the square, and your bad karma sends you back down on the back of the snake. And a lot of the record deals with that duality of east/west, good/bad, love/hate, and it’s really about life, this record. And to me, thematically, it’s probably a little broader than it has been for a while. We always work on some sort of a theme, but with this one, it touches on a lot of different aspects of the human condition and how we live together, things that we believe in, things we don’t believe in.”

  The fun Rush had making Snakes & Arrows would perpetuate the celebratory mood of the band as they operated in the live-centric years leading up to its release. But now with the legitimacy of a well-reviewed new album under their belts, Rush would essentially work happily as well as strategically to keep the party going, death of the music business be damned, full speed ahead fired by … steampunk.

  Snakes & Arrows tour, Madison Square Garden, New York City, September 17, 2007. © Frank White

  2008–2011

  DIGITAL MEN: RUSH IN A WORLD WITHOUT RECORDS

  “We have an incredibly diverse appeal, I’d like to think. Some fans are strictly technical fans geeking out on the drummer or the weird chord formations. There are other fans that have felt a connection to the spirit of our songs, the way they resonate thematically, a more emotional appeal. You can have two Rush fans sitting side-by-side listening to different aspects.”

  —Geddy Lee, quoted by Arye Dworken, Heeb, 2009

  THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IN THE MODERN AGE has been defined by the demise of physical product, specifically the inexorable decline and inevitable death of the CD format. What passes for sage advice in this blighted environment is the idea that it’s now all about the live show and merchandising from the booth at gigs as well as online. In retrospect, it would seem as if Rush had exhibited some sort of genius foresight to be triumphing in the here and now. Through tireless touring, a huge variety of well-designed and reasonably priced merchandise, and most importantly, through its reputation as putting on one of the most elaborate, expensive, and technically brilliant shows in the business, Rush seems set to sail right through the handwringing o’er drastically reduced sales figures for full-length rock ’n’ roll albums.

  Becoming pop-culture heroes doesn’t hurt either. Following up yet another concert experience, Snakes & Arrows Live, issued on April 15, 2008, Rush played live on television for the first time since 1975, crunching through “Tom Sawyer” on The Colbert Report, a typically rarified choice for Rush’s return to TV. Completing a one-t
wo punch for long-suffering fans, the band’s appearance on Colbert coincided with their first full feature in Rolling Stone magazine, the gist of which was Rush’s emerging state of cool. It does not go unnoticed by fans, however, that the issue was a rare one for the magazine in that the cover included no headline or tag text, only a photo of President Obama, denying Rush that extra spot of glory.

  Time Machine tour, Charter One Pavilion, Chicago, July 5, 2010. Lyle A. Waisman/Getty Images

  Final performance of the Snakes & Arrows tour, Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville, Indiana, July 24, 2008. Paul Warner/WireImage/Getty Images

  By this point, Neil had issued two more hit travel memoirs, Traveling Music: Playing Back the Soundtrack to My Life and Times, and Road Show: Landscape with Drums—A Concert Tour by Motorcycle, while Alex got the biggest laughs, starring in one of the highlight episodes (May 2003) of Canada’s legendary Trailer Park Boys comedy series, then appearing briefly in both the Trailer Park Boys movies. In March 2009, Rush figured prominently in the storyline of the movie I Love You, Man, appearing on screen as well. Shortly thereafter, Neil and his photographer wife, Carrie Nuttall, would have a daughter together, while Neil was soon to have yet another book published, this one called Far and Away: A Prize Every Time, with Carrie having put together a book of her photography.

  Meanwhile, Geddy, art and book collector (with fine wine to go with both—more than five thousand bottles), in June 2008 combined two of his other hobbies, baseball and philanthropy, by donating his autographed Negro League baseball collection to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. Much of his collection remains, along with a vast knowledge concerning the design of baseball parks all over North America, one of Geddy’s interests.

  The Snakes & Arrows tour was documented in a CD and DVD released in April 2008 and November 2008, respectively. Author collection

  RushCon 9 poster. Author collection

  Snakes & Arrows tour, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Artist: Chuck Loose/Iron Forge Press/www.ironforgepress.com

  After the Snakes & Arrows tour (June through October 2007) was reprised as the Snakes & Arrows Live tour (April through July 2008), Rush came off the road for two years. What better time to accede to the myriad demands of Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen of Banger Films—makers of Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, Global Metal, and Iron Maiden: Flight 666—who had embarked upon a painstaking, meticulous telling of the Rush story in documentary form (disclosure: this writer worked full-time on the film). Culled from more than a hundred hours of interviews, a vast library of concert footage, and a mountain of memorabilia and photography, the Grammy-nominated Beyond the Lighted Stage debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 24, 2010, with wider release as well as issue on DVD arriving two months later. Selling double platinum, the movie did wonders for Rush’s name recognition in the mainstream, its serious tone and professional crafting truly marking the band’s arrival as a household name as history-making rock ’n’ rollers.

  Coinciding with the increased stature and profile afforded by the film—not to mention the band’s star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame (June 2010)—Rush hit the road for what would be called the Time Machine Tour, featuring stage props and designs inspired by steampunk, a form of old-time science fiction that pays homage to Victorian style, most cogently represented in visual form by mechanical contraptions made of riveted metal, their cogs and levers powered by belching steam. Picture The Fabulous World of Jules Verne and Frankenstein crossed with Johnny Depp’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and you sorta get the drift.

  Culled from more than a hundred hours of interviews, a vast library of concert footage, and a mountain of memorabilia and photography, the Grammy-nominated Beyond the Lighted Stage sold double platinum in DVD and did wonders for Rush’s name recognition in the mainstream. All author collection

  However, the Victorian vibe of the tour was essentially a cart-before-the-horse construct that originated with Neil’s steampunk theme as applied to the forthcoming new studio album, Clockwork Angels, suspended in animation so the band could go back on the road. Tantalizingly, however, Rush did manage to advance-issue two raucous, heavy new tracks, “Caravan” and “BU2B,” both of which have been played live on the tour.

  The band addresses the media before their induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in Toronto on March 28, 2010. AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young

  Retrospective III, released March 2009, covered the band’s years on Atlantic Records.

  Working Men, released in November 2009, captured fan favorites performed live from 2002 to 2009.

  Time Machine tour, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Artist: Thom Self

  Time Machine tour, Giant Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania, April 8, 2011. Brian Hinelin/CORBIS

  “Sometimes they pile up,” noted Alex, describing what it’s like to write with Neil in this day and age. “It’s not unusual that he pushes something every time around. ‘Have a listen to this now,’ or ‘Check this out.’ But we gravitate to what we gravitate to. And it tends to be something that is more modern or current that he is writing. And I have to say that, Geddy and Neil working together, it’s a marvel, how they get it all together. It’s done so professionally and respectful. It’s gotta be tough for Neil, though—spend all this time writing a song and Geddy might pull one line from it, and say, ‘This I really like. Can we build a song around this one line?’” Groans all around. “Yeah! [laughs]. And I’m sure that’s the response. And Neil says, ‘Yeah, I’ll have a look at that, I’ll see what I can do.’ And Geddy comes in, and then, ‘This whole chorus is happening. Can we just do a shift? What if we actually move this to here?’ So he’s really great that way. And I have to say, and that’s not with all lyrics. But I think it’s always for the best—then Geddy can sing them with conviction.”

  The two new tracks, essentially digital releases, coupled with the band’s ceaseless attention to the live experience, underscored Rush’s grasp of music industry realities in 2012. Last album out, Neil was famously said to have muttered to himself as he signed his record contract, “We’ll never see a dime of this.” While discussing Clockwork Angels, the guys openly conjectured about possibly not issuing a CD at all and, in any event, releasing songs to the ’net as they were completed, having done just that with the first two. Further acceding to what was seen as smart management of career in the modern age, Rush obliged with a live set that included one of their classic albums executed in its entirety.

  Alex and Geddy at the band’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony, June 25, 2010. s_bukley/Shutterstock.com

  The Moving Pictures set would be issued as Moving Pictures: Live 2011, and the wider set, in video and audio, as Time Machine: Live in Cleveland 2011. Final word on Rush at this particular state and place of grace goes to Peart, who penned the following for the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

  Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland was a concert DVD, Blu-ray, and double CD filmed on April 15, 2011, in Cleveland, Ohio, and released in November 2011.

  Despite the usual pressure of performing a show that you know is being “immortalized,” the three of us felt we had played pretty well that night. And of course the audience was incandescent! We had given the directing job to the Banger guys, Scot and Sam, because their documentary about us had obviously cast us in a new sort of “lighted stage.” We thought they would bring a fresh eye to a live concert DVD. We reviewed early edits, to approve their general approach, then just left them to it. The results justified our decisions and our trust, and just as we were very proud of the Time Machine Tour, we are pleased with its presentation. It is different from any of our previous concert DVDs, with more focus on the audience, and it highlights something special that only people who have been there will understand: the relationship between us and the audience.

  Seven months later, in November 2011, as we release that performance into the world, we are back in the studio in Toronto, working on the Clockwork Angels project that we started almost two years
ago, before the Time Machine Tour. In fact, the first two chapters of the story, “Caravan” and “BU2B,” were part of that show.

  I guess what we’re creating now is the rest of that story, literally and metaphorically. The show is over—on with the show! That’s the way we roll.

  Photo shoot for Total Guitar Magazine, LG Arena, Birmingham, England, May 22, 2011. Gavin Roberts/Total Guitar Magazine via Getty Images