UK Review
Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2004 6:39 am
First review I've seen, from today's London Evening Standard:
So, despite the occasional snide remark, very positive from a paper that is usually so scathing of music I like. I've copied it word for word, so any inaccuracies, spelling etc are their faultIt was 1974 once more
Rush, Wembley Arena by John Aizlewood
"We're very sorry," confessed Rush singer, Geddy Lee, referring to the Canadian trio's 12-year absence from these shores. "To compensate, we're going to play way too much music."
He wasn't joking. Three-and-a-half hours later, they had played 35 songs spanning the 30 years since this line-up convened. Helium-voiced Lee played keyboards and bass simultaneously, Boris Johnson-shaped guitarist Alex Lifeson had sweated so much you wondered if the poor lamb would expire and Neil Peart had delivered an eight-minute drum solo as if it were 1974 once more.
Back then, lyricist Peart was in thrall to the crackpot theories of author and faux-philosopher Ayn Rand. Yet for all the dubious notions expressed on The Trees, 2112 ("We are the priests of the Temple of Syrinx," indeed) and Tom Sawyer, that Seventies material was Rush at their peak: complex, yet full of whistle-in-the-bath melodies. Last night, they still sounded majestic.
Alas, the decision to offer a career overview meant that for every Eighties nugget such as Force Ten and a lively cover of Summertime Blues, there was the flabby padding of Mystic Rhythms and a disastrous assault upon Robert Johnson's Crossroads. Surely, though, after such a marathon, nobody could feel cheated.
