The band that Geddy Lee said was “bigger than life”
Given Rush’s sturdy positioning in the realm of prog rock, it makes sense that Geddy Lee would know better than anybody how important live shows are to a band’s legacy.
Most musicians will probably agree that one of the biggest challenges in the business is ensuring that popular songs translate to the stage. And, given the number of times that Rush achieved the seemingly impossible, it’d be easy to assume that they’re immune to said hurdles. However, they experienced just as many struggles when it came to making the experience as good as possible.
The most obvious challenge with this was when they took parts of their record Moving Pictures to the stage. Now, as with most records, the strongest songs to play live made themselves known immediately, coming to life in unique ways the moment that they started performing them in front of a live audience. But others, like ‘The Camera Eye’, didn’t really have the same charm.
But even still, there was an energy to the others that ensured their natural flow as part of the broader set, which is also something that Lee always has in the back of his mind when it comes to creating the most magical live experience – that every song must be placed meticulously, almost like the entire experience tells a story.
This is also probably why, when they played the album in its entirety during the Time Machine tour, Lee was basically beside himself with joy. “I loved playing the whole album; I was amazed at how it still flowed after all these years, and I thought the material stood the test of time,” he told Bass Player, saying that the impact also encouraged them to explore similar approaches in the future.
When you look at it like that, it’s easy to see how much learning and development Lee experiences from record to record, not just with the basic creative process but with how to ensure the material flourishes beyond the studio. That, in essence, was always the secret to Rush’s success; their ambition was beyond the basic principles of what’s expected of an artist. And when it came to live performances, they were second to none.
It’s also something that Lee learned from an early age, especially when it came to admiring his heroes. For instance, like many in the same boat, Lee learned from the best by absorbing how others performed in front of a live audience, taking in the kind of aura and magnetism some people had when breathing fresh life into songs on stage. One such band was Led Zeppelin.
Lee wasn’t unique in his fixation with Led Zeppelin; a significant chunk of his generation’s musical heroes also took to following their specific rulebook in breaking into the rock mainstream. But one thing he did take from the band and apply to Rush to ensure their success was making shows as special as possible.
As he reflected to Good Times in 1993, “I grew up seeing people like Led Zeppelin and their shows were always bigger than life. We all feel that’s very important, that a concert should be something very special.”
He went on, “We’re trying to figure out what to do this year, we’re trying to figure our staging and it’s hard. We don’t want to repeat ourselves but we don’t want to leave anything out. These days, it’s very fashionable to go out and limit your visual show. We’re not that kind of a band, we feel compelled to give our fans a memorable event.”
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