RŒSH
TIME MACHINE TOŒR PICTURES
Rogers Arena - Vancouver, British ColumbiaTIME MACHINE TOŒR PICTURES
June 30th, 2011
The "Time Machine 2010-11" Tour spanned from June 29th through October 17th, 2010 and March 30th through July 2nd, 2011
| Tour Dates | --- | Set List | --- | Tour Book |
What better way to kick off the Canada Day long weekend than by taking a trip back in time with the Great White North's favourite prog-rock sons Rush?
For close to three hours Thursday night at Rogers Arena, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart generated enough electricity to power a small Prairie town for a month, serving up the classics from their 40-year long career, including a complete, sequential rendition of 1981 quadruple-platinum masterwork Moving Pictures.
For the largely middle-aged, surprisingly not-so-mostly-male audience (with a few entire families with kids in tow), it was a dream come true.
The penultimate concert on the trio's Time Machine Tour, celebrating Rush's four decades of music, turned the 13,000-strong crowd into a mass of hands either air-drumming, air-guitaring or, as the Paul Rudd and Jason Segel comedy I Love You, Man put it so well, "slappin' da bass."
Considering the band's pedigree, its last few outings, and the fact that this tour had been going on since June last year with the same set list, this machine was a well-oiled one, honed to perfection and without too many surprises. What you got, though, was a tightly woven exercise in prog-rock majesty, with all the visual and sonic trimmings.
A tongue-in-cheek video intro featured a polka band named Rash time travelling through the ages until it became Rush, producing the first notes to opener Spirit of the Radio.
Not skipping a beat Lee, Lifeson and Peart launched into a two-set marathon that would first include mostly material from the past two decades -such as Time Stand Still, Presto, Workin' Them Angels, Faithless, Freewill and Subdivisions -before working its way back to Moving Pictures and its parade of standouts, from Tom Sawyer to Red Barchetta, YYZ, Limelight and Vital Signs.
There were also a couple of tracks from the forthcoming album Clockwork Angels -BU2B, a.k.a. Brought Up To Believe, in the first set and Caravan in the second -thrown in the mix as well.
As usual, this Rush show was uncompromising, relying on notefor-note perfection, the band refusing to deviate from its set path, handling time shifts and switching signatures on a dime.
Thankfully, if you were looking for a bit of variety there were the spectacular retro-themed visuals on display and larger than life camera shots of Lee, Peart and Lifeson in action.
Performance-wise, the three were just as sharp as ever: Lee clawing his bass and manning the keys, his singular voice sounding mighty strong considering his 57-year-old vocal cords; Lifeson flying through his arpeggiated riffs and skybound pulls on guitar; Peart sitting behind his massive drum cage, big studio cans on his head.
The lighting was spot-on, with its dynamic rigs and strobe effects.
The sound was as solid as any arena gig can offer, though Lee's vocals were sometimes lost in the mix.
The show culminated with chunks of 2112 and Far Cry, before stretching out even further into an encore that included La Villa Strangiato and Working Man.
Time-travelling with Rush was a brain-rattling, ear-blasting experience, and one that had more than a hint of Canadian pride involved.
- FRANCOIS MARCHAND, VANCOUVER SUN
The following photos from the June 30th, 2011 Vancouver, BC show are courtesy of Daria DeBuono
