By 1988 Rush had completed their transformation from guitar-dominated, classic-meets-prog rock power trio, led by Geddy Lee's piercingly shrill vocal delivery, to a much more lush, synthesizer-driven sound that all but neutered Alex Lifeson's once heroic guitar leads, and saw the miraculous transformation of Lee's once epic wails into a more melodic, almost soothing, tone that you could actually relax to with the right intoxicant flowing through your bloodstream, and a proper pair of headphones wrapped around your ears.
For the longest time, this was my least-favorite Rush period. Beginning with Signals in 1982, on up through Hold Your Fire from 1987, Rush had changed drastically from the band I came to know and love via such landmark albums as Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures, which, to me, had the perfect blend of guitars and synthesizers. Since I was primarily drawn to Alex Lifeson's complex rhythms and stunning guitar solos, it was especially painful for me to see him relegated to such a background role during this stretch.
Now, I can look back on this period with great fondness, especially since Rush has all but abandoned keyboards — and guitar solos! — throughout the 1990s and this current decade. Signals is easily one of my top-three favorite Rush albums now, and the often overlooked Grace Under Pressure album will always hold a special place in my heart, since that was my very first Rush tour.
A Show Of Hands was filmed during Rush's three night stand at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England in April 1988, towards the end of their extensive Hold Your Fire tour, and features material mostly from the band's infamous "synthesizer period". As maligned as this period has been by many long-time Rush fans, Geddy certainly did some wonderful things with his collection of Oberheim, Moog, and Roland keyboards during this period, which makes me wish he'd take them up more again - but just take them up in moderation. They have been almost entirely exorcised from the band's music since 1991's Roll The Bones album, and now I actually miss them.
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
Great review, Paul. I entirely agree - I'm missing the keyboards more now than ever before, and that's while loving what they're doing now. But seeing "Mission" on the latest tour really illustrated how minimized Alex Lifeson was during this period - he barely played at all while Geddy manned his keyboard for the majority of the song.
Just in case anyone's curious, the difference between the video and CD releases of A Show of Hands is that the video is entirely from the two Birmingham, England shows, as you point out, while the CD is a compilation of various cities on the Power Windows and Hold Your Fire tours. Interestingly, the laser disk version of ASoH includes "Lock And Key," but, frustratingly, it was not added to the DVD release. Luckily, I happened upon a guy back in the late 90s who was able to give me a copy of the audio of the whole ASoH laser disk, so at least I have a copy of that song, live.
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2 - Paul Roy
Thanks a lot Tom. I never thought I'd find myself saying that I miss the keyboards in Rush.