https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUUdaFswPQERush broke its 30-year televised silence a couple weeks ago, finally appearing on The Colbert Report and playing a live version of "Tom Sawyer" so long that it lasted over two episodes. Hilarious. But the highlight of the show wasn't "Tom Sawyer" or Colbert trying to stage an intervention for Neil Peart's drum addiction. It was a video snippet of "Anthem," the full version of which is at right, from the power trio's 1975 effort Fly By Night.
It was, in a word, invigorating.
Stripped of the band's usual banks of synths, amps, peripherals and extracurricular percussion, Rush simply rocked back in the 1970s. And while there is much to be said for technology, and the way it has changed the group's music, it was refreshing to watch them tear the heart out of "Anthem" without the use of anything other than bass, guitar, drums and pure energy. I haven't been able to stop watching that video, more than a week later. It's a bracing reminder of how pure riffage can get when there's little put in its way.
Which made me think: Which Rush rules the most? Is it the stripped-down outfit that avoided synths and turned out brain-teasing grinders like Fly By Night and 2112? The keyboard-laden prog-rockers that made Moving Pictures, Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows? Or the back-to-basics revisionists that turned out Counterparts and Test For Echo? Or is it a moot point, given the band's productive continuum?
After more than three decades, I'm going to have to go with the loud-as-bombs Canadians that cranked out "Anthem." I can even overlook the Ayn Rand lyrics. They just rocked that hard.
