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On Rush

A A A Comments By Patrick Williams Thursday, Aug 9 2007

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I was loading up the snark gun, getting ready to wail on all the old folks who might be planning to head out to catch the Rush show this Saturday at Smirnoff Music Centre. (A sample: Who's the tour sponsor, Ex-Lax?) Then I remembered something, namely, me at 14, huddled on a shag carpet in 1976 in a tiny bedroom in a small mining town, desperate to get out, crazy with boredom, dropping a needle into "Fly by Night." For three and a half minutes, rock 'n' roll bliss, transported from Nowhere, Illinois, to Anywhere Else by Geddy Lee's tenor. And for that, I'm gonna repay Messrs. Lee, Peart and Lifeson with some faux-hip alt-weekly sarcasm? Fuck that. Is Rush a little overwrought and pretentious? Maybe so, but that's because it's ROCK, stupid...or at least that used to be rock before it became alt, which grew the pretension and shrunk the musicianship. So be proud, Rush fans, and when the time comes to sing along with "Closer to the Heart," be proud and sing it loud. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $35 to $75. Visit ticketmaster.com.
Sat., Aug. 11, 7:30 p.m.

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