“Rush, the movie, won't be here long: Hot doc tracks the life of one of Canada's most influential bands” |
| Posted: 11 Jun 2010 04:13 AM PDT
| Rush, the movie, won't be here long  Hot doc tracks the life of one of Canada's most influential bands
KEN SIMMONS
Hang on. You're saying Rush is a cult band. Fringe crowd, no fans, not that popular really. That seems to be the underlying theme to "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage" which is showing at Studio 12 in the Avalon Mall tonight and Saturday night only. This is a documentary about one of the biggest bands Canada has ever produced; that the world has produced, really, with more consecutive gold and platinum albums for record sales than anyone other than The Beatles, The Stones and Kiss. (Yes, Kiss, and if you don't like that statistic - which is admittedly in dispute - tough.) The group was a critical success almost immediately with its first self-titled, independent release. That disc attracted a record deal, which resulted in "Fly By Night," and if you were listening to music in Canada in the 1970s, you were listening to that album. A cult band? Really? I mean, look at the influence the group has had. Trotted out through the 1 3/4-hour film are some huge, huge players in modern rock. Should I drop some names? OK, how about Billy Corgan? Trent Reznor? Gene Simmons? Kirk Hammett and Zakk Wylde and Les freakin' Claypool. Jack Black is here, too, bowing down in his own ever-so-unusual way. The one clip I expected to see but didn't comes from Ed Robertson, famed as a founding member of Barenaked Ladies. Asked early in his career about influences, he rattled off a list of usual suspects before leaping to his feet to proclaim, "and then there was Rush, and only Rush." Clearly this was a turning point in young Eddie's life. As the film points out, with great vintage footage and photos, there were many turning points for the band, too - just about every album. "2112" in 1976? Turning point, the guys say, mostly because its success gave the band carte blanche for the rest of its days. "Hemispheres" in 1978? The last of the epics. And 1981's "Moving Pictures?" This one killed me - the first real Rush album, drummer Neil Peart says. Interviews with the band members make up the meat of the doc, which is its greatest strength. Who better to tell the story, after all? They explain how each of these turning points came about, and what lay around those career curves. They even mention that mid-'80s shift to synth-heavy keyboards that bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee so loved, yet confused so many fans. That also explains that Oct. 30, 1987, concert at Memorial Stadium. The music sounded off, guitarist Alex Lifeson wasn't into it and the lasers just didn't do it for me. Turns out, Lifeson wasn't into it. Who knew? (There's a Facebook group dedicated to bringing them back. Sign up!) There's not much insight outside of the band, and although we see the impact of Peart's tragic loss of his daughter to a car accident and first wife to illness, the details are left unsaid. Directors Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn have serious headbanger cred, with "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" and "Iron Maiden: Flight 666" under their belts, and you know for them, the music is all that matters. "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage" won an award at the Tribeca Film Festival, but it won't be hanging around the theatres for long. This weekend's your only chance to see it on the big screen; tonight and Saturday at midnight. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until the end of the month for the DVD release. Ken Simmons, ksimmons@thetelegram.com, is The Telegram's features editor. |
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