Rush - White River Amphitheater, Auburn, WA Friday, July 20,

[M. J. Perry]

Rush – White River Amphitheater-Auburn, WA Friday, July 20, 2007

What would probably take an hour and a half to two hours to get to ended up a three and a half hours drive to see Rush at the White River Amphitheater. But that is another story.

I only missed about the first 15 minutes or so of their first set but you can hear the music waiting to get into the facility. So maybe all was not lost on that aspect.

What sucks about this whole thing was that I can’t recall too much of what they performed during their first set after being stuck in traffic for so long plus I was freakin’ hungry. But there sound was very good and the lights were orchestrated along with the music with at times the lights moving up and down in different directions. There were video screens but they were not used all that much during the first set. From time to time would appear the band on the screens then other times different types of video clips of objects moving in different directions. The video screens were used quite a bit during their second set especially with video effects when songs were performed from Snakes & Arrows.

Rush did several songs from their new CD Arrows & Snakes in which they opened their second set with “Far Cry” and “Armor and Sword” from the CD. Other songs that dotted their two sets were “New World Man”, “The Way the Wind Blows”, “Spirit of Radio”, “Dreamline”, “Witch Hunt”, and the cartoon characters from South Park took a swipe at trying to perform “Tom Sawyer.”

The words one of the cartoon characters went something like “Tom Sawyer built a raft and sailed down the river with a black boy.” And one of the characters stopped the band and said those are not the word to the song and it was Huckleberry Finn that built a raft and sailed down the river with a black boy and to sing it right. The one that was doing the singing started screaming that he was Geddy Lee and he will sing the song “the way I damn well please.” You really have to see it to understand it. If you are a regular viewer of South Park then you would probably know which character said what. And their band name was Lil’ Rush.

The instrumental song “Malignant Narcissism” went right into Neil Peart’s drum solo which on the video screens showed three sets of cameras on him from different angles. About half way the drum set spun around and the video screens began to show old cartoons and black and white video clips of individuals playing different types of instruments from the past.

Alex Lifeson took the stage after the drum solo and performed the acoustic instrumental song “Hope” from the Snakes & Arrows CD. For being a simple instrumental the fans really got into the light side of the show. It was very well received.

The evening ended with Rush playing “One Little Victory”, “Road to Bangkok”, and YYZ for their encore.

Geddy Lee’s voice seems to be stronger than it was during the 70’s. Maybe over the years he learned how to take care of his vocal cords because he can still hit a few of those notes from back in the day.

In all it was good night for music even though being stuck in traffic and being a little late for the show did suck.