If you need one moment to sum up Rush, consider “Far Cry,” the new song that opened the Canadian progressive-rock veterans’ second set Sunday night. On CD it’s a textured, melodic rocker with tricky rhythmic shifts and thoughtful lyrics about modern-world dislocation. But live, its midsection found guitarist Alex Lifeson slinging power chords, bassist Geddy Lee duck-hopping across the stage, and fireworks going off at the climax. Half cerebral kicks, half arena-sized cheap thrills - that’s Rush in a nutshell.
Sunday’s concert was partly a visit to familiar territory: It’s officially a continuation of last summer’s tour, so the set list and staging were essentially the same (two filmed song intros again from Bob and Doug MacKenzie and the “South Park” kids). As always, the show was epic in length (nearly three hours). And a Rush audience is still at least 70 percent male, many of them expert air-drummers: Aping Neil Peart’s tom-tom fills on “Tom Sawyer” has become a communal ritual.
Still, it was a slightly different kind of Rush tour, tilted to the band’s more cerebral side. The current “Snakes & Arrows” is one of Rush’s most nuanced albums, with moody layers of melody and textured arrangements, including Lifeson’s first-ever mandolin solo. While most veteran bands avoid playing new material, Rush did nine songs from the album, including five in a row to start the second set. And they dug up older songs (such as buried album tracks “Between the Wheels” and “Witch Hunt”) that suited the new material’s direction.
“Snakes & Arrows” is a strong disc, but it’s one that takes a few listens to fully get, which is why an encore tour made sense. The band seemed looser and more comfortable with the new songs this time around. Stone-faced drummer Peart seemed especially limber compared to last summer’s show. And Rush gave the set list a couple of tweaks, swapping some of last year’s deeper tracks for more obvious crowd pleasers (“Circumstances” and “Entre Nous” are out; “Red Barchetta” and “2112 Overture” are in). That made the show less geek-friendly, but it made for a more balanced set. It also allowed for a rousing end-of-show blowout, with the “2112” section played between dependable barnstormers “The Spirit of Radio” and “Tom Sawyer.”
Variations aside it was still Rush, with the usual complexity and oddball humor. In a neatvisual pun, there was a chickenrotisserie onstage where you’d expect to see a wall of amps. There aren’t a whole lot of veteran arena bands who work this hard or deliver as much.
RUSH aComcast Center, Mansfield, Sunday night.
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