Rush is a Band

A blog devoted to RUSH:
Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Fri, Mar 29, 2024

Martin Popoff reviews R30

Sat, Feb 18, 2006@9:50AM | comments removed/disabled

[BW & BK: R30 Review]

The Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles site has another positive review of R30 (10 on a scale of 1-10). This one is notable because it's written by Martin Popoff, the heavy metal writer who penned Contents Under Pressure.

Heavy metal in the '80s was slammed for turning kids into cat-sacrificing Satanists. Because of hip-hop, a generation and a half care only about money to buy guns and guns to get more money. But Rush are the worst - Alex, Geddy and Neil would like nothing more than for you to loaf in front of the tube all day. Just as you've recovered from that yardstick of DVDs, Rush In Rio, the guys load up and bombard us with R30, which opens ecstatically not one way, but two. As you groove to the 'R30 Overture' introduction, an intimate instrumental medley of a bunch of killer old Rush riffs (Sabbath's done this too, remember?), you open yourself up to the plush physical elements of this crazy package: a four-fold gate, a Geddy pick, an Alex pick (wot, no Neil stick?), a big booklet of photos, a faux backstage pass (ha... like they'd want us backstage), and way stage right, a nifty gatefold 2CD version of the concert. Into the DVD, and you get the campfire-ready Frankfurt show in gorgeous fidelity, Neil's drums in particular captured sprightly and tightly (he naughtily overdrums 'Anthem' which back in '75, was already over-drummed, but he slow-simmers 'Animate'). It's too sick, the selection of songs, which also includes Feedback cover selections and lost years weirdness like 'Mystic Rhythms', 'Force Ten' and 'Dreamline', which now fit due to the leveling factor of a singular live sound. Onto DVD two and you get videos, soundcheck stuff, other live tracks (including 'Freewill' from the triumphant Toronto Rocks stand – AC/DC gets all the press, but Rush ruled as well). There's also the big Juno Awards career retro documentary, which includes all sorts of other-band testimonials, plus interview footage through out the years, which serves to highlight the discomfort an under-stated and shy Rush has talking about themselves. Capping it off, you get the first mention of the band Wireless in DVD format, although deeper satisfaction comes in Geddy mumbling the names of UFO, Pat Travers and Max Webster, the latter being a band fully equal to (or perhaps greater than?) Rush in terms of creative contribution to rock 'n' roll Canuckness.

NOTE: Posts over 10 years old are partially archived. All comments, images and other embedded media have been removed.

Share