RŒSH
TIME MACHINE TOŒR PICTURES
Mohegan Sun - Œncasville, ConnecticutTIME MACHINE TOŒR PICTURES
July 19th, 2010
The "Time Machine 2010-11" Tour spanned from June 29th through October 17th, 2010 and March 30th through July 2nd, 2011
| Tour Dates | --- | Set List | --- | Tour Book |
"Rush at the Mohegan Sun"
After years of getting pigeonholed as a band for nerdy men (a stereotype even the musicians have good-naturedly embraced), Rush has become a family experience, judging by all the fathers with young children in the audience when the Canadian trio performed Monday at Mohegan Sun.
Billed as the "Time Machine Tour," the band's two-set, 25-song performance included the entirety of Rush's 1981 album "Moving Pictures."
The group embraced the time-machine concept in other ways, too, starting each set with a kooky video involving alternate versions of Rush (oompah band, trio of tykes, trio of monkeys), outrageous fake mustaches and guitarist Alex Lifeson in a fat suit.
In addition to a handful of old-school classics, including opener "The Spirit of Radio," the first set focused mainly on the latter half of Rush's career: the title track from "Presto," the synthy "Time Stand Still," a pair of songs from 1993's "Counterparts," a pair from 2007's "Snakes and Arrows" and a new song from a forthcoming album due next year.
The latter tune, "Brought Up to Believe" ("BU2B" for short), featured a thunderous riff from Lifeson alongside Geddy Lee's tight, punishing bass line.
The band, also featuring drummer Neil Peart, was in fine form during the first set, playing with all the dazzling virtuosity Rush fans have come to expect over the past four decades. The second set, though, was where the Rush really let loose.
It's paradoxical that the trio seemed the most spontaneous as it played through the seven songs on "Moving Pictures" -- everyone knew what was coming next, after all. Yet Rush summoned a little extra fire, Lifeson's guitar locking in with synthesizers crackling over Peart's robust drum fills on "Tom Sawyer," Lee adding agile, elegant bass that sent "Red Barchetta" racing and all three diving into the knotty instrumental "YYZ" with particularly fervent ferocity. There was even real fire on "Witch Hunt" as jets arrayed around the stage added an eerie torch-lit feel to the band's meditation on fear-mongering.
After "Moving Pictures" and another new song, "Caravan," Peart put on a display of blinding brilliance on a solo that made its way around the array of drums and percussion that fully encircled him.
Rush even tinkered with the arrangements to a few songs, something the band generally doesn't do. On "Closer to the Heart," Lifeson added an extended acoustic intro and the trio swapped the lilting rhythm with a tougher rock arrangement for a few bars on the last verse. And "Working Man," which closed out the two-song encore, started with a deep reggae backbeat before the band did an about-face into the lean hard rock of the version from Rush's self-titled 1974 debut.
-Eric R. Danton
The following photos from the July 19th, 2010 Mohegan Sun show are courtesy of Kathy Hicks-Murray
