A Rush and a push and Cleveland is theirs It’s a fair cop: there may well be a surfeit of live Rush DVDs on the market, but this is simply because, in a live context, Rush are – ahem – fuckin’ awesome. More prosaically, they also sell records in sufficient numbers to commercially justify the filming of lavish, multi-camera tour souvenirs; but there’s still no getting away from the Canadian trio’s genuinely superhuman stamina and amiable charisma.
So, do we really need another live Rush DVD? A trillion times yes. On one level, Time Machine provides a gargantuan enormodrome spectacle with staging that includes back projections, flame throwers, a rotating drum kit and typically endearing, self-effacing Rush quirks – a backline of amps that resemble a laundrette and a sausage maker. On quite another level, the three members of Rush are pushing 60 now, and to witness men of their distinguished vintage performing that triumphal, life-enhancing music with such youthful, celebratory vigour is oddly and unexpectedly moving.
The Cleveland audience are a show unto themselves, playing air drums en masse along to Neal Peart’s logic-defeating fills on Tom Sawyer, and visibly and audibly melting after a passage of monumental ensemble playing on Free Will. A 2-CD/double-vinyl set of the same performance is also available on Roadrunner.
