Toronto pop culture, updated weekdays. scroll@eyeweekly.com
The eighth annual RushCon is taking place over the next couple days, a midweek affair designed to coincide with the Rush concert at the Molson Ampitheatre on Wednesday night. Sure beats watching a tribute band, right? Last fall, though, attendees got a bit of both — culminating in a Saturday night show at the Air Canada Centre. This summer, the same Snakes & Arrows tour is rounding its last lap, perseverance that provided Rush with a feature story in Rolling Stone, something that has notoriously eluded them since a profile in May 1981. Back then, Rush were trying harder to shoehorn into the realm of REO Speedwagon and Styx. Distilling power-pop out of prog-rock on “Limelight” must've stuck, since it’s been their opening ditty throughout this 113-date tour, even if they never again managed to create such an Objectivist toe-tapper. What took shape instead was the kind of loyal fan base that has converged in Toronto each year since 2001, because there are always those who haven’t had the chance to re-stage the Moving Pictures album cover on the front steps of Queen’s Park. But when RushCon was conceived by Elizabeth Maxwell of Houston, TX, they weren’t quite sure whether this would be a celebration of an ongoing musical concern. Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart had just regrouped at the time to record Vapor Trails — their first album in six years. Peart took time away from the drums after the passing of his daughter and wife, and speculation was this could be the trio’s swan song, or at least less likely to be accompanied by a tour.The fact that they’re still at it after 34 years, and set for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to commemorate the 35th – even while insisting they’re too young to be in the Rock Hall that keeps snubbing them — seemed enough to justify the Rolling Stone profile, even if their name was left off the wordless cover.Nonetheless, it helps to make Rush fans feel just a little more normal than before.Yet these fanatics couldn’t be a less elitist bunch, insists 40-year-old Maxwell, who never really heard the band before the 1989 album Presto. And another woman helping with organization only came aboard circa Test For Echo in 1996.From the start, surprisingly, the coordination of RushCon has been an all-female affair. “Their audiences are still predominantly male,” assures Maxwell. “But I have seen more and more women in the crowds who aren’t just there as a girlfriend." (The relative lack of Rush fan ladyfriends is referenced in Rolling Stone, too.) Having the actual Rush as the headline act of RushCon in Toronto is at the mercy of a tour schedule, of course. For year three, a local show took place a few days before the weekend fest. But the stars lined up in 2004, and similar symmetry has been feasible for the past two years. The summer concerts by the lake have also helped facilitate a pre-show boat cruise. A midweek RushCon means booking a tribute band was trickier, although past years have been headlined by acts like Limelight from New York, Toronto Airport from Florida, Hemispheres from New Jersey, Exit Stage Left from Quebec, 2112 from New York, Rosho from Brazil, and Freewill from Arizona. But coinciding with a tour also means some die-hard fans have already blown their Rush-related disposable income to catch concerts in other cities. So, while 350 fans turned out to experience a similar itinerary in 2004, this year’s event will draw about 75 – visiting RushCon veterans, and online forum regulars. The event kicks off tonight at the Days Hotel & Conference Centre on Carlton Street – no boutique lodgings for this sensible bunch — with the annual “In the Mood” mixer, so named for its Rush lyric-inspired start time of a quarter to eight.Wednesday morning festivities include trivia game shows and a charity auction leading up to the boat cruise and concert. A pubcrawl on Thursday afternoon will go from Maple Leaf Gardens, to the office of Anthem Records, to Queen’s Park. Past and possibly future years of RushCon included a visit to Lakeside Park in St. Catherines, where Peart grew up, and Rush did a sappy song about in 1975.“We’d walk around there for an hour or two, along the pier and back, singing the song,” explains Maxwell. “It also provided an excuse to go to Niagara Falls.”For those left wanting more after the current issue of Rolling Stone, there’s the July 2008 issue of academic journal Popular Music and Society, featuring an article by Chris McDonald, “Open Secrets: Individualism and Middle-Class Identity in the Songs of Rush” which “considers how individualism and escapism play integral roles in the formation of a largely male, middle-class, suburban world view.” The songs held up as evidence are “Subdivisions” and “Tom Sawyer,” both from that brief early-'80s period when Rush courted popularity.But, like the song goes, one must put up barriers to keep oneself intact.
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