WWRD - What would Rush do?

[theseoafs]

The last few Rush shows have incorporated a lot of humor, if anything maybe DT could add more lighthearted moments to their shows.

Historically, that hasn't been DT's style, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did start doing that; the guys all seem to have good senses of humor (see forklift).

[Cedar redaC]

The last few Rush shows have incorporated a lot of humor, if anything maybe DT could add more lighthearted moments to their shows.

Historically, that hasn't been DT's style, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did start doing that; the guys all seem to have good senses of humor (see forklift).

Agreed.

[Setlist Scotty]

The last few Rush shows have incorporated a lot of humor, if anything maybe DT could add more lighthearted moments to their shows.

Historically, that hasn't been DT's style, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did start doing that; the guys all seem to have good senses of humor (see forklift).

True, altho I certainly would say that the cartoon videos shown during Octavarium, TDEN and other songs since do show the humor creeping into their shows. Nowhere near what Rush does these days, but still it's a start.

[The Letter M]

The last few Rush shows have incorporated a lot of humor, if anything maybe DT could add more lighthearted moments to their shows.

Historically, that hasn't been DT's style, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did start doing that; the guys all seem to have good senses of humor (see forklift).

True, altho I certainly would say that the cartoon videos shown during Octavarium, TDEN and other songs since do show the humor creeping into their shows. Nowhere near what Rush does these days, but still it's a start.

Didn't DT start doing those after Rush did one for "By-Tor & The Snow Dog" on the Vapor Trails tour? Seems like another case of WWRD.

-Marc.

[Setlist Scotty]

The last few Rush shows have incorporated a lot of humor, if anything maybe DT could add more lighthearted moments to their shows.

Historically, that hasn't been DT's style, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did start doing that; the guys all seem to have good senses of humor (see forklift).

True, altho I certainly would say that the cartoon videos shown during Octavarium, TDEN and other songs since do show the humor creeping into their shows. Nowhere near what Rush does these days, but still it's a start.

Didn't DT start doing those after Rush did one for "By-Tor & The Snow Dog" on the Vapor Trails tour? Seems like another case of WWRD.

Yeah, but if you wanna talk about Rush's incorporating comedy, you can easily go all the way back to 1984 (maybe even 1982) when they began using The Three Stooges as their intro music. And having Count Floyd introduce The Weapon. Oooooooo!!! Scary!!!   

[KevShmev]

Rush has always done a good balancing job of not putting humor in their songs in the studio (which would sound odd, given their style), but incorporating humor into their live shows. It sure helps that a) Alex Lifeson is just a naturally hilarious guy, not to mention silly as hell, and b) they have no problem making fun of themselves, like the Spirit of Radio bit during the intro bit on the Time Machine tour (sounds like The Spirit of Crap ).  I love the shot of Peart dressed as the cop covering his ears in horror of how bad the music is.

[robwebster]

Yeah, but if you wanna talk about Rush's incorporating comedy, you can easily go all the way back to 1984 (maybe even 1982) when they began using The Three Stooges as their intro music. And having Count Floyd introduce The Weapon. Oooooooo!!! Scary!!!   

Don't know how far they go back, but I always liked Alex Lifeson's chatterings in the middle of La Villa Strangiato. In fact, any time Alex Lifeson speaks on stage.

ETA: Aha! Beaten to the punch! Yes, "naturally hilarious" is spot on.

[KevShmev]

Yeah, but if you wanna talk about Rush's incorporating comedy, you can easily go all the way back to 1984 (maybe even 1982) when they began using The Three Stooges as their intro music. And having Count Floyd introduce The Weapon. Oooooooo!!! Scary!!!   

Don't know how far they go back, but I always liked Alex Lifeson's chatterings in the middle of La Villa Strangiato. In fact, any time Alex Lifeson speaks on stage.

Haha, pretty much.

The look he gives the camera at 0:59 in the link below still makes me LOL for real.  I barely knew Rush at all when I first saw A Show of Hands in the fall of '91, but that cracked me up even then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYEmQN0IJyc

And the "Still No Guitar" version of LVS is awesome, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_mbYzM8axo

"I hate Rush
they are so boring
they played that stupid song
for like 20 minutes."



And that clip just shows how funny Alex is.  A trainwreck like that happens, and you know he was aggravated, but he still made it entertaining for the crowd until the techs finally got the problem fixed. 

[King Postwhore]

Rush was funny on stage even before they had the screen.  There are pictures with Alex wearing couch cushions on his back.   Alex with the bag over his head backstage messing with the guys from Kiss smoking weed from the slit he cut out as a mouth.  So many funny moments of interplay live between all three.......

[MoraWintersoul]

Since this thread has morphed into onstage Rush appreciation, I'll just drop this off and be on my merry way:

[Setlist Scotty]

Rush was funny on stage even before they had the screen.  There are pictures with Alex wearing couch cushions on his back.   Alex with the bag over his head backstage messing with the guys from Kiss smoking weed from the slit he cut out as a mouth.  So many funny moments of interplay live between all three.......

Not sure what kinds of backstage craziness DT's done in the past, altho I'm sure they've done their fair share too.

But getting this back on topic, I do hope that DT will incorporate a little more comedy into their shows, as long as it is done tastefully, as Rush has always done. Their use of the cartoons probably puts them at about the same point Rush was in in 1982/1984 with the aforementioned Three Stooges and Count Floyd intros.

[Cedar redaC]

The Alex Lifeson rants are classic.

"What are we? Primus?"

WWRD?

John Petrucci should randomly start ranting during an instrumental section.

[The Letter M]

The Alex Lifeson rants are classic.

"What are we? Primus?"

WWRD?

John Petrucci should randomly start ranting during an instrumental section.

The soft section right before the vocals come back in at the end of "Metropolis Part 1". You know the part I'm talking about. Better yet - it needs a JP rant where, at the end, he asks JMX if he has anything to add - then the whole band stops and looks at him, to which JMX responds:
".... bass"
...then they finish the song.

-Marc.

[Cedar redaC]

The Alex Lifeson rants are classic.

"What are we? Primus?"

WWRD?

John Petrucci should randomly start ranting during an instrumental section.

The soft section right before the vocals come back in at the end of "Metropolis Part 1". You know the part I'm talking about. Better yet - it needs a JP rant where, at the end, he asks JMX if he has anything to add - then the whole band stops and looks at him, to which JMX responds:
".... bass"
...then they finish the song.

-Marc.

At this point in the show, everyone's heads explode when John Myung says something during a live show.

The bootleg would go down in history!

[Ruba]

A great album.

[The Letter M]

I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but DT even did a bit of WWRD back in the early 90's when they released "Metropolis Part 1" with the label as a joke (akin to Rush's "Where's My Thing? (Part IV of the Gangster Of Boats Trilogy)"). But if you like "Metropolis" to Rush's "Cygnus X-1, Book I: The Voyage", a 10-minute song, Dream Theater almost released the sequel as a side-length epic, just like Rush's "Cygnus X-1, Book II: Hemispheres".

But, as we all know, that idea was scrapped and later redone to become the whole album Scenes From A Memory, but the comparisons and parallels would've been drawn immensely between the two.

Oddly enough, in the beginning of "The Dance Of Eternity", you hear fade-in/fade-out samples of "Part 1", a technique used in the middle of "Hemispheres", which utilizes samples from "The Voyage" in the same format, so it seems they were still influenced/inspired by Rush/Hemispheres/The Cygnus Duology.

-Marc.

[ytserush]

Since this thread has morphed into onstage Rush appreciation, I'll just drop this off and be on my merry way:

Works for me!

[emtee]

I don't think Rush ever felt obligated/pressured (insert your word of choice here) to stay within a set of musical
boundries whereas I thnk JP has made it pretty clear that DT will stay within a pre-determinded musical space.

[Orbert]

I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but DT even did a bit of WWRD back in the early 90's when they released "Metropolis Part 1" with the label as a joke (akin to Rush's "Where's My Thing? (Part IV of the Gangster Of Boats Trilogy)"). But if you like "Metropolis" to Rush's "Cygnus X-1, Book I: The Voyage", a 10-minute song, Dream Theater almost released the sequel as a side-length epic, just like Rush's "Cygnus X-1, Book II: Hemispheres".

But, as we all know, that idea was scrapped and later redone to become the whole album Scenes From A Memory, but the comparisons and parallels would've been drawn immensely between the two.

I remember when Scenes from a Memory first came out, and I saw the parallels immediately.  I saw it as something of a "one upping", though.  Rush made a Part II that was an entire side, so Dream Theater made a Part II that was an entire album.  It just seemed to me that DT (especially Mike) acknowledged Rush (especially Neil) as an influence, but always pushed it farther.  Neil was the first drummer I knew to have a huge kit with two bass drums.  Mike's kit therefore was half again as big, with three bass drums.  It still amazes me.  How in the hell can anyone need three bass drums?

Oddly enough, in the beginning of "The Dance Of Eternity", you hear fade-in/fade-out samples of "Part 1", a technique used in the middle of "Hemispheres", which utilizes samples from "The Voyage" in the same format, so it seems they were still influenced/inspired by Rush/Hemispheres/The Cygnus Duology.

This one's a tough call for me.  I think it's a cool device, so half the time it's cool that DT did it because it would've been a shame if Rush did it and everyone else was afraid to, for fear of being labelled copycats.  And half the time I think DT are copycats for doing it.

[The Letter M]

Mike's kit therefore was half again as big, with three bass drums.  It still amazes me.  How in the hell can anyone need three bass drums?

Well, Mangini has FOUR bass drums. And don't even get me started on Terry Bozzio...

-Marc.

[ytserush]

I don't think Rush ever felt obligated/pressured (insert your word of choice here) to stay within a set of musical
boundries whereas I thnk JP has made it pretty clear that DT will stay within a pre-determinded musical space.

That's the one thing I'd really like to see Dream Theater do (and they so obviously can if they want) is push the envelope more. They could go to places Rush can only dream about.


That said, there are correlations between albums for various reasons.

When Dream and Day Unite and Images and Words kind of follow the same trajectory as Rush and Fly By Night.

Then you kind of have Falling Into Infinity and Scenes being like Caress of Steel and 2112. Same with Six Degrees and A Farewell to Kings with experimentation. The comparisons kind of go off the rails at that point which may be where the accusations of becoming "by numbers" start.

Of course, I have a love affair with Octavarium which I suppose could be argued about being by numbers, but it's just so good that I guess it doesn't make much of a difference to me. It just seems like it came from an organic place.


And this may be a bit of a stretch, but you might be able to loosely link Vapor Trails and A Dramatic Turn Of Events.

[ZirconBlue]

Of course, I have a love affair with Octavarium which I suppose could be argued about being by numbers. . . .

Specifically, the numbers 5 & 8. 

[ytserush]

Of course, I have a love affair with Octavarium which I suppose could be argued about being by numbers. . . .

Specifically, the numbers 5 & 8.

Zing!