Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage

source: Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage

source: Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage

I remember that my first Rush album "Permanent Waves" came with my twelve albums for a penny from Columbia House in the summer of 1980. I had a classical music background but was so moved with the musicality and the lyrics that I went album hunting at the local stores and found "Caress of Steel" and ran back and played it again in wonder at the completeness of it and thinking it was brand new - not realizing that it was a much earlier album until later! Such is the timelessness of the Rush experience! This documentary is an awesome, tasteful, and well done work that will truly take the Rush elite on an intimate journey into the lives that produced their insightful lyrics, their cutting edge sounds, and their ability to look inside our humanity. It shows enough of their personal lives to make you feel like one of their friends - but remains private and close. You will cry with their losses and smile with their accomplishments in this first class film. It also warmed my heart to see one of their first legs up into the big time was opening for Uriah Heep, one of my favorite bands as well! When a new rock station in our area started up decades ago and said they would play our call in requests for a month while they perfected their sound and lineup and after a week they put out a request to please limit requests for Rush - that they could not become an "All Rush Station!" Such is the power of this band. From the beginning that first penny was the best that I have ever spent to find such a moving experience over the years. The documentary "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage" is just what you want if you are a Rush nerd like me. Be careful if you are not one already - watching this may make you become one!

These guys just know how music was meant to be played.

Compelling, fun, revealing and studded with topnotch music, "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage" is one of the best documentaries on music featuring one of the best and most influential bands in Popular Music. With their complex yet catchy sound the great power trio were one of the few musical acts to successfully blend technical proficiency with quality creating some of the most outstanding music in all of Rock. Tracing the group's origins in Toronto when bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson met and their eventual recruiting of drummer Neil Peart it's a highly watchable tale of the band's rise to success, the challenges they faced on the way and their vast and profound influence and legacy. Interviews with the band members highlight their amiable articulacy as they relate their memories and experiences. The group's broad and deep appeal is shown by the admirable range and number of the great musicians featured who share the band's impact on them: Trent Reznor, Gene Simmons, Billy Corgan, Les Claypool, Tim Commerford, Kirk Hammett, Mark Portnoy and Jack Black are among the stars shown and it's a delight. Interviews with the band's family members and people closest to them add a warmth and intimacy to the story. Filled with priceless images and footage of the group with a soundtrack of great music, it's a feast for the sight and senses. With the recent passing of Neil Peart the film has a moving and poignant effect. One of the standout documentaries and a most fitting tribute to one of the all-time great Rock bands this is one every Rush and Rock fan should see.

Man this show was so well made... one of the best band type documentaries I've ever seen. Rush is by far one of the very best rock bands of all time and it was great to see how they started out. Hard to believe these guys are still close friends after all these years. Three people in this band... only 3!!!! Just think about some of their songs and understand it's only 3 guys make that music happen. Just unreal talent that goes beyond just being a musician... even if you're not a huge fan of this band you will certainly like this documentary. Well worth watching... awesome...

The film takes a three-pronged approach. First, there are interviews done in contemporary time, with the three principals of Rush, and well-known musicians who admire them, or were influenced by them. Second, there are interviews with family, handlers, and music industry associates. Third, there are many archival clips of live performances of Rush. Their growth from getting their first radio play in Cleveland to being well-known was quite engaging; the first hour slipped by quickly, going from nowhere to the album Moving Pictures. Then the issue of dealing with fame started to come in. Fan interaction rose strongly. Alex and Geddy were fine with that, but Neil was more of a private person and avoids interactions. The band's character and their fans' characteristics are compared in lots of detail. Neil was the principal lyricist, and his special talent seems to be reflecting his deep literacy in terms that just about anyone can understand. Further, their music tends to be complex, yet still accessible. In the eighties, the group switched producer and instruments toward synthesizers, electronic drumsets, and keyboards. They trended toward shorter songs with less complexity, less bass, and more keyboard. Some of their fans drifted away, many others did not. As one of their industry admirers put it, there were different periods of Rush, and that is one of the things that makes them interesting. Toward the end of the eighties, they switched producers again, and went back into being a 'power trio' again, but in the current context. Around 1997, Neil's daughter died in an accident, and his wife passed from illness not too long after. He embarked on a long trip on motorcycle (55k miles). The band shutdown while Neil healed. When Neil returned, there was a period of getting his chops back. They recorded a new album; they went on the road again. The band was rejuvenated, and traveled to places where they had ever been before, to large audiences. In the 21st century, some of their fans from the seventies celebrate them: the makers of South Park and Steven Colbert, for instance. Up to the time the documentary was made, the band was going strong. As Geddy said at one point, Rush is the world's most popular cult band. -----Scores----- Cinematography: 9/10 Nicely done. The archival footage clips look like the eras they came from, but the current interviews looks sharp and well-produced. Sound: 10/10 Seldom disappoints. I wish there had been more concert footage, but the exposition was too good to be omitted. Acting: z/10 Not really applicable here. Screenplay: 10/10 Well-organised, well-presented, and rich in the level of information that it presents.

RUSH. You're going to have one of three reactions to that title. One: Who are they? Two: Oh yeah, some group that recorded Tom Sawyer back in the day. Three: Awesome kings of Rock 'n' Roll! I used to be a massive Rush fan up until around their Test For Echo album. Major life changes and having gotten too frustrated with their 80's synthesizer work put them on the back burner for awhile. I had, however, been to the Counterparts concert and was exhilarated by their fun performing. I was so excited to see the boys in this documentary though. The documentary is fairly simple: some concert footage, talking heads from Rush themselves or people who worked with them/admired them, a little footage of the band just goofing off together, and you've got your film. So don't go to this documentary expecting a breakthrough in the film genre. It is a solidly produced and edited movie that has an undercurrent of positivity, fun, and honesty. You feel like you get to know the band, and they come across as good friends, good husbands, and good guys. It's something awesome to see hard rockers getting hit with success but never giving in to the usual temptations of infidelity, casual sex, and heavy drug usage (except for pot). There's a sense of righteousness about this band, in a weird way. Much is focused on the band getting little critical respect, but winning devoted fans worldwide. I remember growing up I actually got teased for having them as my favorite band. As I watched the film, I had a big smile on my face as memories flooded back from how I tried to cop Neil Peart by taking pots and pans and drumming on them. Their epic song story concepts always fascinated me. But they were always on the edge of mainstream. Now Rush seems to be cool again. Rush fans, we can come out of the closet and enjoy them once again publicly. This movie is not for someone who is not a Rush fan, but it is very endearing for those who enjoy them. I have been listening to my old Rush music since seeing this documentary and marveling once again at their craftsmanship.

I came away wanting more from this documentary, much more. I thoroughly enjoyed the early life stuff and the build up, formation of the band etc.. but what was really missing from this was epic concert footage! Come on! Let's see Tom Sawyer COMPLETE, best concert footage you can find, and blow my eardrums off!! Let's see some of their earlier stuff COMPLETE!! Stretch it out, make it overly long, make it so that only die hard Rush fans will stay till the end, then treat them to something AMAZING!!! In short, make the documentary for RUSH FANS, and us alone. This film instead chooses to give a very complete overview, and overview only, of the life of Rush, from birth to present day. It gives us teasing clips from concerts, and lots of candid humour. Of particular amusement was the joking commentaries from the likes of Jack Black and others attempting to imitate key Rush musical milestones. I have not yet seen a Rush concert, and it is on the bucket list. I was hoping for a taste of that with this movie, seeing it in a theatre at a special screening, and I didn't get that. But for what it was, it was an OK solid doc.

Three kids Alex Lifeson, drummer John Rutsey, and Geddy Lee started a band in suburban Toronto. They played in school dances, graduated to Toronto clubs, finally getting noticed in Cleveland radio, and signed to an American label. Rutsey is replaced for health reasons with Neil Peart. With bookish reserved Neil's words, the band gains a following in the 70's and beyond. The band was never superstars but has garnered a devoted cult following of mainly disenfranchised male youths. This is a wide documentary of these music nerds. There is not anything dark except for the heart-breaking tragedies suffered by Neil. The guys are fully in control of the narrative. This is not a band of sex and drug in any case. At one point, they are described as boring (not musically). For fans, this is great and for non-fans, this is the music of an interesting community of smart adolescent male outcast. It's not anything terribly dramatic but it is compelling nevertheless.