The two songs Alex Lifeson said Rush would never play live: “Knowing we would never play them”
Since the 1970s, Rush rewrote the rulebook on what could be done within a rock context. Until their final album, Clockwork Angels, the Canadian power trio focused on taking their music to places no one had ever considered, whether through side-long epics in their glory years or dense synth textures during the 1980s. Although the band can turn anything into musical ecstasy in the studio, a few songs never had potential as live tracks.
Then again, the band already had an uphill battle when performing live in the first place. Due to the dense productions of their albums, there was a need for many more instruments on stage, with Neil Peart famously expanding his kit into one of the most extensive setups any drummer has used onstage.
While Alex Lifeson could get the job done with guitars and a handful of effects pedals, Geddy Lee tended to have his hands full the most, dealing with both the bass guitar and the keyboard while singing. If that wasn’t enough, Lee also had to utilise different bass pedals, playing a keyboard with his feet whenever he decided to play their synth material like ‘Subdivisions’.
Even though the band would try anything that could work in a concert setting, Lifeson said there was no way songs like ‘Madrigal’ could have met the stage. Being a deep cut from A Farewell to Kings, this track saw the band embracing synth textures for the first time on record, creating a flowery atmosphere that makes the entire song sound like it should be playing at any modern Renaissance fair.
When discussing which songs suit a live performance the best, Lifeson said that there was no chance ‘Madrigal’ would get airtime in their setlist, saying, “No, there was always one or maybe two songs we would record, knowing we would never play them live. That was certainly one of those songs. ‘Different Strings’ was another”.
As Lifeson alluded to, ‘Different Strings’ has a similar story behind it. Although the band had been working on making accessible songs on the album Permanent Waves, ‘Different Strings’ focuses more on the synth textures than any band arrangement. Despite Lifeson’s contributions to the song and Peart’s minimalist percussion, the track lends itself to being a studio creation rather than a staple live cut.
Granted, it’s not like the band doesn’t know how to scale things back during a concert. For their tour for the album Test For Echo, Peart’s mile-long drum solo would be followed by both Lee and Lifeson coming out onstage with acoustic guitars to play the song ‘Resist’. If every band member were to put the same energy into either ‘Madrigal’ or ‘Different Strings’, it would involve getting more personnel, which was considered taboo among the members.
Notoriously insistent on making every live concert the most authentic experience, the band ensured that anything that appeared on the setlist came from their instruments, with only a few exceptions throughout their career. While not every Rush song became a staple of their setlist, songs like ‘Different Strings’ serve as brilliant museum pieces of what the band could do when left to their own devices in the studio.
Will the two surviving members of Rush, who are set to go back out on tour, make it on to the set list? It’s unlikely, but they also suggested they would never perform live again without Neil Peart. Lee said it was a “very difficult decision on many levels” before describing the passing of Peart as “devastating”, and noting, “it was a very sad time”. He added, “I mean, this is a relatively recent decision. And I would say it was kind of out of the question for the longest time because of those circumstances. And how do you replace someone who’s irreplaceable?”
While they were hanging out on a regular basis, playing Rush songs together was never up for conversation, until one day, when that all changed. “We were laughing so hard and we were enjoying it so much. And it was almost like playing those songs dispelled the dark clouds,” Lee shared.
