You can trust Louder
When rock’n’roll judgement day arrives, Rush’s enduring dedication to the live album alone should enshrine them in that celestial afterlife.
Their first, All The World’s A Stage, came in 1976; Time Machine 2011 – Live In Cleveland [let’s spare them the ‘hello’ jokes] is their ninth.
It is a noble if anachronistic tradition, and in their hands the double-live record retains much of its original magic. There may be cavils about the setlist, at least in the first half of a show which might have benefited from some meaty sci-fi era intensity, but there can be none over the length. Over 26 songs, including, gloriously, all of an artfully-updated Moving Pictures, Rush offer something for everyone.
They have made their accommodations with age – Lee has developed a mellifluous vocal waft where once lay yelps – but their fire and their humour are fiercely present, and the years lend poignancy, especially here to Time Stand Still.
Of note to Rush-heads will be two new songs, BU2B and Caravan, both pleasingly retro bruisers.
Jon Hotten is an English author and journalist. He is best known for the books Muscle: A Writer's Trip Through a Sport with No Boundaries and The Years of the Locust. In June 2015 he published a novel, My Life And The Beautiful Music (Cape), based on his time in LA in the late 80s reporting on the heavy metal scene. He was a contributor to Kerrang! magazine from 1987–92 and currently contributes to Classic Rock. Hotten is the author of the popular cricket blog, The Old Batsman, and since February 2013 is a frequent contributor to The Cordon cricket blog at Cricinfo. His most recent book, Bat, Ball & Field, was published in 2022.