RUSH - STILL AWESOME

Coming right on the heels of my post about Genesis, here's one on Rush. For those of you who are new to No Expiration, no, this isn't a prog-rock blog. Rush was my first favorite band as a kid, and although I don't rate them as my #1 anymore, I still love them. And I say that without any sarcasm at all. Not everything they've done has aged well... but a lot of their music has aged really well.

They played Madison Square Garden the other night - I couldn't make it, although I did catch their show earlier this summer at PNC Bank Arts Center, and they never change their setlist anyway (one of the things that bugs me a bit about them). While their new album, Snakes & Arrows, isn't their best, there are some great moments, and "Far Cry" in particular made me proud to be a fan. It's one of their best. If you're the type who would go to a Rush concert and not know any of their recent material, I recommend at least going to the iTunes store and downloading it, along with "The Way The Wind Blows," and some other recent songs, like "One Little Victory" and "Resist."

"One Little Victory" is a song from a few years ago, and is especially powerful and moving. As with all of Rush's songs, the lyrics were written by drummer Neal Peart, who lost his only child a few years back. About a year later, his wife passed away. You can read about it in his memoir Ghost Rider. But the guy knows something about "one little victory" - if you read the book, you can see what a struggle getting through the day was (and even if you haven't read the book, you can only imagine).

Anyway, when I saw Rush over the summer, I was blown away by how powerful they were. I'm sorry I couldn't see them this week, but I hope they do another summer tour in '08. These guys have always charted thier own course, never followed trends and yet they still headline arenas. You've got to respect that.