All roads have led to this. Forty-one years in the making, the R40 tour took a very real journey back through time. Beginning with the grand design: a state-of-the-art stage set that pivots, rolls and dives, and brings Clockwork Angels into bombastic, colourful life before marching stridently back in time (through theatre stages, a panoply of band and fan shots, the accrued memories of a life spent playing live) to a mocked-up school gym and the band playing there; a solitary bass amp set on the chair behind Geddy Lee, a mirror ball spiralling crazily above, casting thin rods of light like a light rain across the crowd, “Working Man” coming to a shuddering halt as the band’s beginning becomes their end.
The two hometown shows at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre this summer were always going to have an added poignancy given the giant question mark over the band’s future – Neil’s resistance to play live, Alex’s physical travails – plus, this was the town where Rush rehearsed in their rooms and garages, were the scourge of high school dances, brought the bar scene thrumming into bluesy life, it’s where “Subdivisions” was played out and the song born.
Any doubts were offset by a sell-out 35-date tour which drew people from as far afield as Australia, Japan, China, South America and London (not the one in Ontario, though they were in attendance too) and only amplified the Canadians’ legend. People came dressed as the band (the 2112 era proving particularly popular even down to Neil’s moustache), eleven-year-olds thrilled to hear songs that were recorded and released when their fathers were still teenage boys and were now too trying to keep time with Neil’s rattling fills.
Toronto was the live debut for “Losing It,” the band’s hymn to a creative light finally snuffed out. The version on the Signals album was raised ever higher by Ben Mink’s (FM) wonderfully affecting violin part, the recreation of which had always put the song beyond the band’s live set. His appearance (mere moments after the band had casually told him that the whole show was being filmed) was, and is, a moment of intractable and pure joy, filled (much like the R40 tour) with bittersweet highs and lows, inexpressively beautiful, the violin’s high-keening song reaching out to the impossibly high ceiling, disappearing there among the rafters.
“Closer to the Heart” is similarly impactful, as the room lights up with thousands of plastic star men logos held high, swaying unsteadily, couples link arms as the song’s refrain echoes around the room and down through time. “Xanadu” buzzes into life as the stage becomes a giant lattice of blue laser beams, the audience in thrall as Lee and Lifeson strap on their double-neck guitars.
It’s a musical history writ large; songs that have travelled with people for some if not all of their lives. As Geddy Lee shouts from the stage, maybe for one final time, “Thank you for forty years and I hope we see you again!” And that sentiment is reflected in every joyful face staring back at him.
Credits
Executive Producers
Pegi Cecconi
Ray Danniels
John Virant
Audio Producer
David Bottrill
Audio Consultant
Brad Madix
Audio Mastering
Joao Carvalho
Record and Mix
David Bottrill
Audio Recording Assistant
Colin Miller
Concert Audio Recording
Livewire Remote Recorders, Toronto
Audio Mobile Engineers
Doug McClement
Audio Mobile Assistants
Gary Tompkins
David Johnston
Alex Halayko
Assistant Audio Producer
Ryan McCambridge
Venue
Air Canada Centre - Toronto, Ontario
Sound Design
Mike Rowland/Rancho Fantastico, Toronto