Grace under pressure: Recovering from tragedy, absence, Rush returns to concert stage

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Sept. 20, 2002 | 10:03 a.m.

Guitarist Alex Lifeson has been a fixture in Rush for most of his life, but it took the Canadian power trio's near-demise before he fully appreciated how much he has enjoyed being in the band.

"I've been in the band since I was 15 and we've been touring internationally since 1974, and I realize I took it all for granted after a while," Lifeson, 49, said in a recent phone interview from a hotel room in Calgary, Alberta.

"Coming back into it now, I soak in every moment because it could be the last. Anything can happen. And I think that's what we've learned that your life can change immeasurable and irreversibly in a split second. So if you're having a good time, why not really really enjoy it?"

Lifeson and his bandmates have learned those lessons painfully. For nearly five years Rush has been on extended hiatus, while drummer Neil Peart recovered from the double-tragedy of losing his 19-year-old daughter, Selena, in a car accident and his wife, Jackie, to cancer in a 12-month span.

Determined not to continue as Rush without their dear friend, Lifeson and vocalist/bassist Geddy Lee put the band on indefinite hold. In the interim, Lee released a solo album and Lifeson worked as a music producer.

"Rush just sort of stopped. Neil's recovery took a long time, as you can imagine," Lifeson said. "I think Geddy and I both felt that if Neil ever wanted to come back to work, we'd be ready for him, but whether he would or not was not up to us.

"We tried to support him as best we could as friends, and there was no pressure from us regarding the band. But it was touch and go for a bit."

Then, one day last year, Lifeson and Lee received the phone call they had feared might never come. Their drummer, remarried and starting to put his life back together, wanted to talk about the future of Rush.

"(Neil) called us and said, 'Let's get together and talk about work,' " Lifeson said. "So we arranged a meeting, and he said, 'I'd like to try it but I can't promise anything.' And we said, 'Don't worry about it. We'll try it and if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out.' "

To the delight of Rush's devoted legion of fans, the trio's reunion did work out, resulting in "Vapor Trails," the group's first studio album since 1996. To mark the occasion, the band is in the midst of a tour that began in late June and could last well into 2003.

Saturday night at 8, Rush will play the MGM Grand Garden Arena for its seventh Las Vegas show. The band's run of local appearances began in 1975, with a Sahara Hotel concert featuring Kiss as the opening act.

"I think we're playing the best we've played. I think we sound the best we've sounded," Lifeson said. "The show is very exciting and a lot of fun.

"And looking out at our audience, it's Rush so it's not just a bunch of people who just want to go to a concert. They're Rush fans. They're there to hear the music and they're there to share in that experience. There's a great communion with our audience."

Rush's longtime followers might not have been so keen to hear the band during its initial rehearsals after returning to the studio, however. Lifeson said it took several sessions before the trio shook off the rust that had gathered during its time off.

"For the first couple of weeks, we sounded like a really bad Rush tribute band," Lifeson said. "First we were learning the new stuff, songs that we haven't played before. But once we got into the older stuff, I find that you play it once or twice -- even things that we haven't played in a long time -- and your memory starts to process where all of that stuff is stored and then it becomes a lot simpler. You just have to unravel it."

With 34 years and 17 studio albums to draw from, the trio took special care preparing the setlist for this tour. Taking into consideration their fans' suggestions on such websites as petitionrush.com, the band has been performing a show featuring songs from nearly every record in its catalog.

Several longtime Rush concert staples, such as "Closer to the Heart" and "Red Barchetta," have been dropped in favor of seldom-performed oldies such as "Working Man" from 1974's self-titled Rush debut album and "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" from 1975's "Fly By Night."

"Geddy and I listened to all our records on one afternoon. That was an interesting experience," Lifeson said. "Like (1975's) 'Caress of Steel,' we hadn't listened to some of those records in yeeeeaaars. We made notes on potential songs that we could do live that we hadn't played before. And I think it's a good cross-section of all our stuff that everyone will enjoy, or they seem to be, anyway."

Of course, the live show also showcases material from the band's latest release, which has drawn critical acclaim since it was released in May.

Though still loaded with most of Rush's trademarks -- Lee's high-pitched vocals and spiraling bass lines, Lifeson's crisp guitar work and Peart's intricate drumming -- "Vapor Trails" is a departure from its recent predecessors in one significant way: It features no keyboards.

Lifeson said he suggested eliminating the synthesizer, a fixture in most of Rush's music since the early 1980s.

"I told Geddy at the beginning of this record that I really felt that this would be a great opportunity for us to really concentrate on the three of us. It's a coming together of the three of us after this very difficult period, and I think the record should reflect that energy.

"And Ged was great with it. The only thing he said was, 'That's fine with me, but let's not discount it. If we think that a keyboard would work great in a part let's use it. Let's not just have a policy not to use it.' And I said, Sure, that's fair.' But we never felt the need to go to keyboards for anything."

Doing without keyboards left more room for Lifeson to operate, and the guitarist took full advantage of that opportunity. Eschewing most of his signature solos, he says he instead looked to provide a more organic, earthy quality to the new album.

"I didn't feel like playing solos on this record, so I really downplayed that. I played a few, but I just wanted to play within the band," Lifeson said. "I started doing things like building guitar parts that were normally keyboard sort of washes and shadings. Geddy started doing that also, using his voice as another harmonic instrument. And the record really took on a very in-your-face tough approach and sound as a result."

On "Vapor Trails," as on nearly every Rush track since Peart replaced John Rutsey in the band's lineup in 1974, all lyrics were written by the group's drummer. But this time, instead of telling stories about faraway lands or epic battles, Peart looked to his own life, and his recent trying times, for inspiration.

"A healing hand, a secret touch on the heart. There is never love without pain. Life is the power that remains," Peart wrote on "Secret Touch," one of the album's 13 cuts.

And, Lifeson asserts, those types of heartfelt lyrics have aided not only the band's resurgence, but also Peart's own difficult healing process.

"On the lyrics for 'Vapor Trails,' you can see where those lyrics are coming from. I think he's much more personal than he's ever been in the past, which was a surprise for all of us," Lifeson said. "And I think it ended up being very theraputic for Neil. It's all part of his recovery."