concert

Rush: Rock with a brain

Longtime Canadian rockers Rush bring a high-energy show with a brainy tinge.

By SEAN DALY
Published June 17, 2007

TAMPA - Behold 15,000 Rush fanatics, robustly male, rather sweaty, completely reverent, bowing to the prog-pop power trio famous for feeding urges both primal and cranial.

If you like seven-minute drum solos that'll spin your head around, oh man, was Ford Amphitheatre the place for you Saturday.

Rush, which is closing in on 40 years together, played for more than three hours, mixing dense political allegory with complex but catchy musicianship. The Canadian-born high-concept band is a little bit AC/DC, a lot Ray Bradbury - brawny and brainy all at once.

Whether you love Rush or hate 'em, it's usually for the same reasons.

From the very start of the show a rather punctual 7:45, with the sun still shining, the band assumed those classic positions: bassist-keyboardist-vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and the most worshiped drummer of all time, Neil Peart. Each musician is distinctive, bombastic, an aggressive master of his art.

They often play warring, tempo-tricky parts on the same song - and yet ultimately blend in propulsively rocking ways. This was only the band's third show on a tour backing new album Snakes & Arrows, but their playing is already flawless.

There's Lee, 53, looking like a grownup Harry Potter, his helium-tinged vocal one of the most unique in rockdom. He immediately hit those heavenly notes in opening song Limelight.

He sings some seriously heavy stuff, but he's not without humor. He thumped his bass not in front of a stack of amps but a row of rotisserie chicken ovens. (In previous tours, Lee has bopped in front of washing machines.) Even funnier, he had Canuck comedy duo Bob & Doug McKenzie introduce new song The Larger Bowl, and South Park's Cartman lead into Tom Sawyer.

And then there was Lifeson, 53, who plays with a bluesman's fury. His riffs are tough, macho, strong, like AC/DC with a doctorate in psychology.

On the raucous new instrumental jam The Main Monkey Business, he pounded out wicked licks as footage of lumbering men in gorilla suits flashed behind him. Weird? Yes. Awesome? Heck yes.

And Peart - good lord, the 54-year-old's kit is mind-boggling. During Freewill, a video screen showed an aerial shot of Peart's domain, and his drum setup had more parts than the space shuttle. And then there was that long, sexy drum solo, which touched on tribal beats, bebop jazz and straight-ahead heavy metal. At one point, he stood up, and the entire drum kit rotated, giving him fresh skins to pound on.

Three-plus hours is a lotta Rush for a casual fan, especially since the boys loaded their 27-song setlist with deep album cuts.

That said, they were definitely in the mood to dazzle, firing up a light show reminiscent of the mothership in Close Encounters. During Dreamline, the best song of the night, they even shot lasers into the crowd.

Rush is a thing of beauty, or headaches. Me? I dig three dudes who make the noise of 30.

Sean Daly can be reached at sdaly@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8467. His Pop Life blog is blogs.tampabay.com/popmusic.

[Last modified June 17, 2007, 02:17:51]