The one Rush concert Geddy Lee couldn’t remember playing: “I had no idea”
When you’ve been playing music for as long as Rush had, there were bound to be some gigs that blended together.
Even if you get that same rush every time you step out onstage, there are occasionally going to be those Spinal Tap moments when you’re playing in Fresno and accidentally call it Chicago at some point.
Everyone remembers their first major arena shows, though, but Geddy Lee remembered being completely incapacitated during one of their first tours of the stadium circuit.
Then again, was there any band that seemed less likely to fill stadiums at the time than Rush? That’s not even intended as a crticism. The arena was always meant for throngs of people raising tier firsts in the air, and yet the Canadian power trio somehow found a way to create one of the greatest cult followings of all time and get people to chant along to songs in odd metres.
That was when Neil Peart joined the band, but the early days of Rush feel like talking about a completely different act. They still had the same mannerisms as their future self, but the music wasn’t exactly on the same level as ‘La Villa Strangiato’. In fact, if you looked at song titles like ‘Need Some Love’ and ‘In the Mood’, they would probably be mistaken for a good Bad Company single or Led Zeppelin B-side if you weren’t thinking too hard.
At that stage, everything about Rush’s career was still uncharted territory. Moving from clubs to larger venues meant adjusting not just to bigger crowds but to the pressure that came with them. For a band still finding its identity with a new drummer, those early tours were as much about survival as they were about performance.
It also highlighted just how quickly things were changing for them. One minute they were building a following through sheer persistence, and the next they were sharing stages with established acts, expected to deliver night after night. That sudden leap left little room to ease into the moment, making it understandable that Lee might have looked for something to steady his nerves.
Although this period is known as the dumber version of Rush, they still got a hit out of the deal with ‘Working Man’, leading to them going out on tour with Uriah Heep for the first time. While Peart was still green following drummer John Rutsey’s departure, the thought of going on in front of thousands of people led to Lee needing some liquid courage.
Trying his best to take the edge off, Lee got something to drink and never recalled the rest of the show, telling Beyond the Light Stage, “They said, ‘Well, you can have booze sent to your dressing room’. I ordered a little bottle of Southern Comfort, and Alex [Lifeson] ordered Blue Nun wine or something. I remember taking a sip of this stuff, and it went straight to my head, and I was completely dizzy, and we hit the stage. By the time I came to my senses, we were off, and I had no idea how well we played”.
Given that many bands have drinks before they go onstage, this may have been the last time Lee could have gotten away with something like that. Since Peart started steering them towards longer pieces, you’d have to be stone-cold sober to try to attempt something like ‘Xanadu’, especially with the different time signature changes and strange chord progressions.
That’s before you get to Lee’s job as the frontman. Outside of having to sing those high parts every night, he also had to be the guy playing bass, triggering bass pedals with his feet and playing keyboards all at the same time. Rock and roll might lend itself well to the excessive lifestyle, but Lee needed an Olympian-level amount of endurance to play with Rush on a good day.
