BEFORE: And so I come to the last of 52 films in this documentary chain - it's really 53 if you count the one about 90-year old people staying active (Mick Jagger turned 75 during my study of rock music, he only LOOKS 90 years old...). I've gone from the beginning of the Beatles to the end of Rush, from 1963 to 2016 over the last 6 weeks. From four lads from Liverpool to three dudes from Canada, I guess there's a certain form of symmetry there. And the stories of the bands were all the same, really, except for all those places where they were different.
Geddy Lee carries over from "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage", and he and his bandmates get the last encore.
THE PLOT: An account of the final tour of the band Rush, including in-depth interviews with members of the band, the crew, and various fans.
AFTER: Damn, I really wanted this to be JUST a concert film. Would that really have been so wrong, to just watch Rush play for 90 minutes, run down the whole set list from their final concert? I mean, if that last concert in L.A. was so meaningful, why didn't we see all of it? Heck, why didn't we see HALF of it? Or even maybe three full songs? Now I feel ripped off. I already watched the interview format Rush documentary yesterday, why did we need another one that discusses the band's history and the influence they had on modern music? Can't people who want to see all that just watch "Beyond the Lighted Stage" again, and why couldn't we just have rocked out tonight?
See, I really wanted to go out with a bang, and instead it ends with the whimper of Rush fans, crying because it's the last time they'll see their favorite band perform live. Boo freakin' hoo. Some were so overcome with emotion that they stood next to their seats for an extra half-hour, unable to go home, because that would mean that the evening was truly over, and they'll have to find something else in their lives to obsessively keep track of. Or perhaps they were still hoping that the band would come out for another number - but dude, come on, the house lights came on and the janitors are cleaning the floors, it's time to go. The band's on the bus already, they're not going to come out and play "Tom Sawyer" again.
Rush stayed together for 40 years, that's certainly an accomplishment - heck, that's about five times as long as the Beatles stayed active, together, on the rock scene. But NITPICK POINT, the narration here says that they "never took a break, never stopped touring..." Umm, that contradicts the information from yesterday's film, when Neil Peart drove his motorcycle across North America for FIVE YEARS and the band didn't create music or play any concerts together. If that's not a break, then what was it? That's five years when they didn't tour, right?
And Neil's the one who suggested that the band stop for real, right after the final tour. Health concerns are bound to be an issue when a band has been together that long - the rigors of a tour are probably hardest on a drummer, and he suffered through everything from teeth issues to callouses to chronic tendinitis, and then Alex Lifeson also developed arthritis. They just couldn't rock out like they used to if their bodies had started breaking down. Do we really want to see bands like the Stones perform using canes and walkers to get around on the stage? That would be very sad. I don't know how Jagger and Richards are still able to do what they do - my theory is that the drugs have developed sentience and are walking around in the skin-shell that was once Keith Richards.
No, I think it's better to leave the stage while you can still do so under your own power. Canadians may be hearty cold-weather folk, but even they have their limits. I applaud them for sticking together as a trio and honoring the agreement that if one of them wanted to pack it in, then they'd all pack it in. Their management did point out that each member has wanted to quit at various times, and the band has always gotten back together after their sabbaticals, but if this really is the end, it feels like these guys will be well taken care of, at least if the number of shiny cars in their garages is any indication. Peart only agreed to the final tour as long as he could ride his motorcycle from each city to the next, which allowed him to obsessively plan the most scenic and bike-friendly routes possible that would still get him to the next gig on time. I admire people who plan trips like this, whether it's visiting all the MLB stadiums over the course of a summer, or hitting every diner on Route 66, whatever their thing happens to be.
As I've seen in a number of documentaries, like the one about Chicago and the one about the Eagles, it's fairly standard practice to include footage from a band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rush was first eligible in 1998, but the band wasn't nominated until 2012 - you can say that's because of their genre, or maybe it's record label politics, or this or that, but it doesn't really matter. You get in when you get in. So it wasn't really fair for those Foo Fighters to hold Jann Wenner (the event's MC) responsible or hypocritical just because Rolling Stone didn't cream all over every one of their albums - there's no way that had anything to do with the 14-year delay. Anyway, it's not that magazine's duty to love every rock album that gets released, the staff are journalists who need to remain impartial, plus critics who are supposed to criticize things, that's right there in their name! I used to read a magazine about comic books called Wizard that raved about EVERY single comic book that came out, and it just came off like a bunch of B.S., because not everything in any genre can be "good", there will always be comic books and albums that are "better" than others, which of course is a matter of opinion, but that means there will always be some that will feel not as good. At the end of the day, the only thing you can do is try to find the books, record albums and TV shows that appeal to you, not waste your time on the ones you don't like, and not fault anyone else for making different choices.
I knew who Geddy Lee was years before I ever heard a Rush song, and just like with Frank Zappa, that was due to my interest in novelty records in the early 1980's. Geddy sang on the famous comedy track "Take Off" by Bob & Doug McKenzie (aka Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas from "SCTV") and for a long time, that was all I knew about him. But that's all right, I caught up with him again later during college.
NITPICK POINT: This film shows some of the Rush superfans, the people who keep track of how many concerts they've seen, how many times they've gotten selfies with each band member, vital stats on the set-lists, etc. Some even go to something called "RushCon", which is a gathering of fans that meets up at important concerts, and of course many of them had to attend the final concert. (Last chance to add to their totals!). There's even a super-fan who's collected so many press clippings and so much memorabilia that he essentially runs a Rush archive that other people can draw from. Now, with all those superfans out there, how come none of them submitted complete credits for this film to the IMDB? Why did I have to do it? All of you obsessive fanatics looked at the IMDB cast page with just four names on it and said, "Yep, that seems about right for a documentary that probably interviewed DOZENS of music experts and fans..."? Really?
Also starring Alex Lifeson (carrying over from "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage"), Neal Peart (ditto), Ray Danniels (ditto), Liam Birt (ditto), Michael Moore (last seen in "Sicko"), Randy Johnson, Martin Popoff, John Virant, Gerry Barad, Gavin Brown, Pegi Cecconi, Brian Hiatt, Jillian Maryonovich, Eddy Maxwell, Howard Ungerleider, with narration from Paul Rudd (last heard in "The Little Prince") and archive footage of John Rutsey (also carrying over from "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage"), Taylor Hawkins (ditto), Dave Grohl (last seen in "Lemmy"), Mick Jagger (last seen in "Bowie: The Man Who Changed the World"), Brian Jones (last seen in "Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown"), Charlie Watts (ditto), Bill Wyman (ditto), Ronnie Wood (last seen in "20 Feet from Stardom"), Keith Richards (last seen in "The Kids Are Alright"), Roger Daltrey (ditto), Pete Townshend (ditto), John Entwhistle (ditto), Keith Moon (last seen in "Super Duper Alice Cooper"), Jann Wenner, Barack Obama (last seen in "The Rolling Stones Olé Olé Olé: A Trip Across Latin America").
RATING: 5 out of 10 road trips in the camper van
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