Music: Rush at Jones Beach Theater

Text and photos by George Molé

I've heard about Rush for years without ever quite knowing who they were.

I'm talking about Rush the band, of course, not radio host Rush Limbaugh.  Thankfully, I've long known who Limbaugh is--the "doctor of democracy," as he calls himself, who injects three hours of common sense daily into America's diseased body politic.

But I never had a true sense of the musical Rush.  Just a few hints.  "I love seeing Geddy Lee"--Rush's bassist, keyboardist and lead singer--"throw himself on his back and kick his legs like a bug!" my niece told me a few decades ago.  A male cousin, sometime back in the day, gave me a Rush cassette tape, which I never quite got around to listening to.  More recently, Facebook brings me from family and friends periodic rave reviews of Rush shows they've attended.

So seeing Rush live became yet another item on my bucket list--and I finally did, two Sundays ago, July 23, at the Jones Beach Theater, still one of the best places to see a summer concert.

Geddy Lee of Rush at Jones Beach Theater

My reaction--mixed.

Rush consists of only three guys--Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart--although they had some backup musicians at times during this show.  But with or without backup, they make music of amazing richness and density.  It's not an exaggeration to say that they play at a virtuoso level, with an ease and unity that reflects having worked together almost four decades.

Rush in concert at Jones Beach Theater

But, for those not familiar with it, the music is somewhat inaccessible, and suffers from a bit of sameness.  They launched into their signature sound from the first song and, great sound though it is, sinewy and seductive, it didn't change much throughout the generous three-hour show.

Onstage patter was limited to remarks like, "It's great to be back in this area," which I guess saves Lee from having to remember exactly what area he's in on any given night.  Pacing and variety, and there wasn't much of either, were provided by images and videos projected on the stage's large screens, occasional on-stage fire-and-smoke pyrotechnics, and one song that began with some powerful acoustic guitar by Lifeson.  Lee's high, wailing, heavy-metal-style voice, which has been compared to "a munchkin giving a sermon," is fascinating to listen to--but forget about trying to catch the lyrics if you don't already know them.

From left: Lifeson, Peart and Lee

But this is not to say I didn't like the concert--only that I  didn't know enough about their work fully to appreciate it.  I did recognize "Tom Sawyer," with its distinctive keyboard riff, and I would have recognized the gracefully-written "Closer to the Heart," if they had done it.  That's a start.  And I've read since that Peart, who writes much of Rush's lyrics, considers himself a libertarian and has been influenced by the writer Ayn Rand, one of my own favorites.  Once you know this background, lines like "No, his mind is not for rent / To any god or government" begin to come into focus.

So I think I have more Rush concerts in my future, but a bit of study as well.

New York: Rush Limbaugh at Town Hall, Tuesday night

Text and photos by George Molé

I knew we were in for an interesting evening when I saw the protesters across the street, ten or 20 raggedy-looking Occupy types, keeping it spontaneous and real with their professionally-printed signs.

The brilliant and controversial radio broadcaster Rush Limbaugh--philosopher, satirist, humorist and scourge of leftists everywhere--was making a rare public appearance Tuesday night, November 29, in ultra-liberal Manhattan.  A single show for his New York fans, at the historic Town Hall theater, that he billed as "going behind enemy lines."  And I had tickets.

"Racist, sexist, anti-gay.  Rush Limbaugh, go away," the demonstrators chanted sporadically, kept behind police barricades on the opposite side of West 43rd Street from the theater.  The Ditto-heads, as Limbaugh's fans are known, jeered back good-naturedly.  ("I understand it's raining very hard outside," Limbaugh would crack later during the show, "which means that the Occupy people are finally getting a shower.")

For show-goers, any spirits that might have been dampened by the wet weather...

...were raised as we drew closer to the theatre, with its classic, warm exterior...

...which is matched by the understated beauty of the interior.

Limbaugh, scheduled to begin at 7:30, took the stage about 8, having waited for the entire audience, many of whom arrived late, to be seated before he began.  "I really want to apologize for getting a late start," he joked, "but it was your fault."

The show's format was not announced in advance, and I imagined Limbaugh would give us some sort of multi-media mix--perhaps some short monologues interspersed with video clips, guest appearances and music.  How else could a radio host entertain an audience in a theatre?  But instead, Limbaugh stood at a podium, on a sparsely-decorated stage, and did nothing but speak, apparently with no notes, for an hour-and-a-half--and with wit, passion and sharp insight kept his audience enthusiastically, raptly attentive for the entire time.

Limbaugh is a verbal jazz artist, and I found myself amazed, both in the moment and upon reviewing the transcript later, by the free-form nature of his monologue.  (And, I've noticed, his words don't translate too well to the written page; they're best heard in his voice, projected through the  prism of his personality as he speaks.)  He told stories of his early days in radio; riffed ribaldly on Barney Frank (since he won't be running again, his "seat is now wide open"); filleted the budget super-committee ("[i]t was never intended to succeed"); kicked around the Republican primary race; discussed his battles with his dad over the value of a college education; roasted the liberal media; and used the occasion of a protester in the audience to dissect the Occupy phenomenon.  All was punctuated by humor, and he even threw in a couple of quick, spot-on impressions of Barney Frank and John McCain.

The aforementioned protester provided one of the evening's quirkiest moments, managing to walk up the center aisle to a spot directly in front of, and a few feet away from, Limbaugh.  He then held up some sort of newspaper for Limbaugh to see--which the latter peered at amiably, seemingly trying to make out what it said--before finally being hustled out by yellow-jacketed staffers, throwing all his papers into the air on his way back down the aisle.

Limbaugh wasn't fazed.  "Now, when you see that," he joked, "I wonder why am I paying thousands of dollars for security?"

"These are people threatened by the truth," he went on more seriously. "It really is unfortunate. These are the people that think you owe them everything....This is what the education system has done to them. It's festered their resentments...And so they try to disrupt the things that are working. Now, I look at the Occupy crowd down there, and they've all got iPhones or computers. How do they think that stuff happened? They're out there protesting the very people and things and system that made it possible for them to have those things. Where do they think this stuff comes from?"

Limbaugh's summation of the Tea Party movement was more positive--and, I thought, quite powerful.  "Well, most of the Tea Party people, a good percentage of them, are people that have never, ever been formally involved in politics at all," he reflected.  "They just got fed up. They were shocked, scared, stunned to see what was happening to the country with all this mindless spending. All the debt being run up, they know what it means. They know what it means for the future of themselves and their kids and their grandkids, and it isn't good -- and so they started going to town hall meetings wanting to be heard for the first time; and because it was spontaneous, and because it's genuine, and because it was real, Obama and the Democrats in the media are scared to death of it because they have to manufacture that emotion."

Limbaugh's passion was most evident as he discussed America's founding and its philosophical underpinnings--the latter of which is represented in today's political arena, as he sees it, by conservatism.

"Really, the founding of this country is a miracle," he mused.  "The rule for human beings since the creation of time, since the creation of the planet, the normal, standard operating procedure has been tyranny, dungeons, oppression, poverty...It's been the standard. The exception to that has been the United States. The exception to what life was like for most every human being has been the United States of America."

And the greatest threat to the nation, in Limbaugh's eyes?  Liberalism, as represented by President Obama and the Democrat party.

"I can't get past the fact that if this guy in the White House gets four more years," he said, "you and I are not gonna recognize the country we grew up in. It's that serious to me.  And I know that humor is a great way to deal with things, and sometimes using humor can even be persuasive. But there's not a whole lot that seems funny to me right now."

Thankfully, despite that sense of concern, much of what Limbaugh told us in the heart of Democrat Manhattan was indeed leavened with humor, richly optimistic ("we [conservatives] have to tell ourselves each and every day that we are the majority"), and full of determination.

"Why do we have to settle for this?," he asked.  "We don't, folks. We don't have to settle for any of this. We don't have to settle for 9% unemployment; we don't have to settle for an incompetent in the White House. We don't have to settle for somebody that doesn't respect the country. We don't have to settle for somebody who doesn't believe in American exceptionalism."

"I'm trying to do as much as I can with what I have to reverse the trend that we're on," he added, "and save the country from the encroachment that we face from the left."

Thanks, Rush, and keep it up.  And try coming back to New York a little more often--there are more conservatives here than you might think.