Inside Rush's 'Farewell' Show (Excerpt) Classic Rock Magazine October 2015 Words: Philip Wilding Photos: Richard Sibbald |
It's a balmy Saturday night in Los Angeles, and Row 9 on the floor of the LA Forum is drummer heaven - or maybe drummer hell, depending on your viewpoint. Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers stands next to the Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins. A few seats along, Tool's Danny Carey is engaged in conversation with current Queens Of The Stone Age man Jon Theodore.
Like the 17,000 other people in attendance, they're here to see Rush bring their sold-out R40 'anniversary' tour to a close (in typically perverse Rush style, it's actually 41 years since they released their debut album). But there's one particular thing onstage that has them rapt, eyes front and centre: Neil Peart. As Peart thunders into Overture from the Canadian trio's breakthrough album 2112, the gaze of all four drummers instantly snaps stagewards, like dogs who have spotted a biscuit. The object of their attention rattles across his seemingly endless parade of tom-toms as the band segue into Temples Of Syrinx, and 17,000 pairs of air-drumming arms shoot ceiling-ward. None are more animated or as on the beat as Smith, Hawkins, Carey and Theodore.
A couple of hours later, Smith is enjoying the hospitality at the post-show end-of-tour party and recalling his indoctrination into the Cult Of Rush as a teenager. "I spent my sophomore year of high school in the parking lot, smoking weed and listening to 2112," he says. "That's when my Rush education began. I do believe it's a prerequisite for all rock drummers to go through a Neil Peart phase."
It's not just a drummer thing. Matt Stone, the co creator of South Park and a close friend of Peart, is equally effusive. "Totally amazing show!" he says, waving his drink around for emphasis. "I invited a couple of friends of mine that I grew up with in Denver. We saw Rush in 1985 at McNichols Arena, and it was really cool to bring it full circle here in 2015."
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