And let’s check out those videos eh. Check out that grim demeanour.
For sure his concentration was often severe because it had to be but I’m happy to maintain that over his last few years with Rush he was both a very different drummer, having rethought and rebuilt his technique, but also a very different person. Some talking between songs. Some talking in songs. Laughs, smiles the lot. Every minute of every set? Of course not. More generally? Absolutely.
Lots of comments from Gump, Lifeson and Lee to that effect too.
Yes, you can find examples of him smiling - which is lovely, let’s face it - but they are rare, and excerpted from 2 to 3 hour concerts. If you watch whole shows, however, you can clearly see he was his serious self most of the time while playing; roughly the last 20 years of shows would include R30, Snakes and Arrows, Time Machine, Clockwork Angels, and R40. I’m not saying he wasn’t feeling relaxed and having fun but that it’s hard to tell that from the way he looked while playing most of the time.
On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Anika Nilles is having loads of fun and is looking relaxed as well:
You’re making, at best, an obtuse point. I mean on the one hand I’ve literally just watched her for the best part of 3 hours over 2 sets and using low vision aids, which give me a view of facial expressions arguably better than anyone bar the first few rows. She didn’t crack a smile until the end of the second set.
On the other hand, what is your point? Try grinning for even 30 minutes doing anything. Of all the things to pick from my review/post you chose to argue something petty. Why? To score some, “I know Rush better than you points.”? You’re welcome to them. I know what I saw and the guy next to me in the Centre Bell was on his 244th Rush gig across continents and he made exactly my point to me before I’d even registered the point.
Well done though. Have yourself some top fan points. Nowhere to go after that so you’re welcome to them.
Why am I doing this? Partly because I love the way you respond when someone challenges you. It is amazing to me! Like Wile E. Coyote, you never give up. And I actually respect that about you a great deal.
Also partly because engaging in civil debate - no matter how trivial - to discover the truth is a very human thing to do.
Partly because it’s fun. If you could see me I’m grinning right now.
And partly because engaging in silly arguments is how you make a new best friend!
I suspect the only way we could settle this is by watching the same concert video with a stopwatch to see how much of the concert is taken up by Neil Peart smirking and grinning and comparing our results. But that would be ridiculous and I suspect neither of us wants to do that. However, I will from now on when watching be on the lookout for signs of him enjoying himself more than I had previously thought. And for that I really am grateful. Thank you, Mike!
Why such negativity about the new drummer? Seriously, you get to enjoy a great band reincarnated and you start winching about an undoubtedly very good drummer. Yet you are lucky enough to be able to get these shows and hopefully enjoy them.
I’m unaware of any negativity towards her. The observation was that until the very end she had to concentrate extremely hard to match the basics of what Peart did and thus it didn’t look like she was having fun until the end. No criticism of her. If anything, a reflection on the sui generis nature of Peart’s drumming.
Really glad @mikehughescq that you and your son enjoyed the show. He would never have expected to see them play live and I am glad it lived up to his expectations. I vividly recall taking my then 11 year old daughter to see Muse at the O2 - awful seats and the band were already past their best - but she absolutely loved it.
‘Making Memories’ (to quote a less well known song) is what it is all about and when your family, and the band, have such a great time it really is special. That’s what live entertainment is all about for me.
I think it is accepted that Neil Peart was a master drummer. Even so he went off to study with Freddie Gruber and reading his writing about this shows how technically adept he really was. The band have always practised for weeks before tours and Neil’s pre-show ‘warm up’ often exceeded an hour. Of course when he then played, he also played an electronic kit as part of his long solos and would often trigger electronic elements of their sound. He wasn’t called The Professor for nothing.
If you read his books, he often described playing in the band as ‘going to work’. I take this to be a reflection of his dedication and application; he strove for perfection and was clearly having to strive so hard in later days to meet his high standards. He famously said he couldn’t better ‘Clockwork Angels’ and wouldn’t record again.
I think Anika has been incredibly brave to sit on his drum stool. The fans have been great but imagine the grief she would have received if she wasn’t up to performing. Just as with Adam Lambert and Queen, they never replace the missing person - but they do allow the rest of the band to enjoy what they do so well and play their music. We only borrow it.
Neil had his own ways but just because he concentrated so much on stage shouldn’t be read as not having fun. The lyrics to Limelight show his thoughts. I’m not surprised at all that Anika has to do the same. Alex and Geddy are childhood friends and when Neil joined the band, they gelled and survived major challenges. As will be obvious by now, I am just thrilled we all get to enjoy 50 Something with them.
Been a genuinely tough few years for the 21 year old so to hear that we couldn’t have given them a better birthday present in amongst a really lovely 2 weeks away was the icing on the cake really.
I suspect many of us will be of an age where our recall of the music of our youth was all about tribalism. People who read Melody Maker couldn’t read NME. You couldn’t listen to Rush if you were into punk or post punk etc. When I was in the 6th form we were gifted a turntable and speakers which was located, of course, in a metal filing cupboard .The musical contrasts at the time were a war zone to the extent that one day someone cracked and AC/DC went flying out of a 2nd floor window. At the time I was more post punk than rock. I had Rush obsessed friends but they left me cold bar the odd thing like Closer To The Heart. Some of the stuff I found unlistenable. Lines were drawn right across the 6th form. For many of my friends they remain firmly in place. Many of my Bunnymen loving friends forever associate Rush with certain effete Tolkien loving, double denim wearing members of the 6th form they hope to never see again.
Permanent Waves changed all that for many, myself included to a degree, but largely those divides lasted decades.
It’s interesting and amusing how things change. Go back 45 years and I’d tell myself I was tuning things out. I’d literally not heard it in that long but Friday night I was highly amused to find myself singing under my breath “We are the priests of the temples of Syrinx…”.
Same here. I thought the opportunity had passed. It has of course to see Neil Peart but to see Alex and Geddy supported by Anika and Loren Gold was something I never expected. To go from their intro video to Xanadu was very moving.
Thanks for this @mikehughescq, I laughed out loud. Certainly recognise the tribalism you describe. Guilty M’lord.
The funny aspect was that in 1990, I was Head of Sixth Form at a comprehensive school in Guildford. I managed to persuade PJ Hi Fi to sell us a second hand system for the common room. All I can recall was the original Cyrus One amp. It was a great system which I left out for general use. Unfortunately someone turned the amp up to max and blew a speaker cone. However, happy ending, as one of my students not only sourced a replacement pair of cones but also rigged up a physical ‘stop’ to prevent the volume dial being turned too far. If I remember correctly, dominant music was G’n’R, Extreme, RHCP and Thunder. Snow Dog and I ran trips for sixth form to see a number of these bands - couldn’t get them past H&S now though!
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.The musical contrasts at the time were a war zone to the extent that one day someone cracked and AC/DC went flying out of a 2nd floor window. At the time I was more post punk than rock. I had Rush obsessed friends but they left me cold bar the odd thing like Closer To The Heart. Some of the stuff I found unlistenable. Lines were drawn right across the 6th form. For many of my friends they remain firmly in place. Many of my Bunnymen loving friends forever associate Rush with certain effete Tolkien loving, double denim wearing members of the 6th form they hope to never see again.