(this blog was begun on the night of August 21, 2019)
Tonight was a little different. I went with Grimsley to the AMC Theater in Warner Center to see "Cinema Strangiato", a brand new Rush concert movie filmed in their hometown of Toronto in 2015 during their final tour. I wasn't aware of this movie until I saw an ad for it on Facebook about a week ago. It was gonna be one of those "one night only" screenings of the kind put on by Fathom Events, only this company was called Atom. By the time I checked the ticket link, the showing was almost sold out, but I managed to score a pair of seats in the second row near the center.
Hey! That sounds just like what you'd say if you just got lucky on a pair of actual concert seats.
"Second Row Center"! Man, I used to get so jazzed when I got incredible seats to shows in the old days. That was back when Rock Was Everything. Nowdays there aren't many bands left, and Rush is gone, but we got to see 'em tonight on the big screen, up close from second row center, so that in itself is a minor victory against the passage of time, and it was a really great concert movie to boot.
I saw Rush 32 times during their career (hmm, can you call a rock band's tenure a "career"? Sounds too Establishment), but anyway, where was I? I use too many parenthetical asides, and sometimes when I come out of my parentheses, I forget what I was saying, so lemme go back and check. :)
Okay, so yeah - I saw Rush 32 times between 1978 and 2015, the first time being at the Long Beach Arena in November '78 on the "Hemispheres" tour, and the last time being at The Forum in Inglewood on August 1, 2015, which was also the final Rush concert. I wasn't quite there from the beginning, but I was there for the long haul and at the very end, and Rush was amazing every time I saw them.
This is captured for posterity and with digital clarity, up close and personal, for all the Rush fans who saw them in concert and for all those yet to come who will not have had the chance. "Cinema Strangiato" is one of the best filmed concert movies I've seen. You really feel like you are either sitting in the best seat in the arena or standing onstage next to the guys. My biggest takeaway was watching their fingers move, and realizing once again just what incredible players Alex, Geddy and Neil are, and were as a band. The other thing I noticed is how the three of them were able to play all those thousands of notes and phrasings and yet not get in the way of one another. Though each guy is absolutely shredding in every song, it never sounds jumbled or just like a slurry of notes, but always very musical. Each one of the trio plays in the space left open by the other two, and a complex tapestry is woven.
Rush may have been the first band - that I am aware of anyway - to retire in large part for physical reasons, much like athletes retire. Neil Peart simply couldn't do it anymore. He had developed severe tendinitis in various joints and was reported to be playing in great pain at some shows. Though he looks okay in the movie, you can understand by watching him play how he could have sore joints after all these years. How many rock bands play and tour for 40 years, anyway? How many even last that long with all the original members? Yeah, I know : Neil wasn't the original drummer. But he was the one who made Rush into what they became. He played on every album but the first one, and he was with them for 41 years.
Every so often I will do another run-through of who I consider to be The Greatest Rock Bands Of All Time. I'm a big fan of lists, as you know. When I draw up my Greatest Bands list, I will usually do a Top Ten or Top Twenty, maybe a Top Twenty Five if I'm really "in the mood" (hey, did you see what I did there? You did if you are a Rush fan, haha).
And every time I do my list, Rush either comes out at #1, or they are at least in the Top Three.
Let's do a Top Ten right now, just for the heck of it.
#1: Rush
#2 : Ritchie Blackmore (includes all his work)
#3 : King's X
#4 : Todd Rundgren
#5 : Emerson, Lake and Palmer
#6 : Van Halen
#7 : Yes
#8 : Pink Floyd
#9 : Judas Priest
#10 : Sparks
I would say that the top three listed above could be interchangeable, as I have listed each at #1 in the past, going back several decades. There is no doubt that King's X was my #1 all through the '90s, and Ritchie (in Deep Purple and Rainbow) would've been my #1 in the 70s and part of the 80s. Heck, Van Halen were my Superheroes for a long time, Eddie in particular.
But overall, it always comes back to Rush.
That's how great they were. If you didn't see "Cinema Strangiato" this time around, make sure you caatch it next year. Yep, it's apparently gonna be screened as an annual event, kinda like a Grateful Dead memorial trip for Rush fans. It's a way of keeping Rush alive, in our minds and hearts, and with our eyes and ears. /////
That's all for now. See you tonight at the Usual Time! Dare me to finish a blog in one night, I dare ya.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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