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Rush is one of the worst, and one of the greatest rock bands in history

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Combichristoffersen

Combovers don't work when there is no hair
Or a certain Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band that shall remain nameless.



... Okay, GnR. Axl sounds horrible now. More so than usual.

Axl always sounded like a cat getting anally raped with a drill.

As for Rush, I've never really listened much to them, but what I've heard was OK, I guess. Besides Geddy Lee's vocals sounding kinda.. unusual.
 

Entropia

No One Remembers
King Crimson > Rush

While KC and Rush are "Prog Rock"... Comparing the two is like apples and oranges. King Crimson's style and approach to music is far too different than Rush's. Rush goes for a more standard rock song with their technical expertise. King Crimson plays more towards 'Progressive' then 'Rock'.


Anyway - I love Rush. I've seen them twice live, and I'm glad I have. They are one of my favorite bands. Aside from Geddy's vocals I don't understand why you would not like them. Their lyrics certainly aren't as worse as some other bands out there.
 
Rush is the greatest progrock band of all time.

I like Rush, but I think King Crimson could take them.

I heard they're not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which means they're probably hacks.

If you look at the list of bands that have been constantly snubbed, you'll see a very clear bias against prog rock, proving that the voters are all middle aged people with a 35 year old grudge against it.
 
Critics not liking Rush says more about the critics. And really, who gives a shit what a critic thinks anyways?

Love Rush, and sweet holy lord are they impressive in concert.
 

EYEL1NER

Member
Rush isn't one of my top favorite bands or anything, but I still love them and think they are great.

It all started for me probably 17 years or so ago when my current step-dad moved in to my mom's house. She always listened to rock, but he brought a whole bunch of new stuff in and Rush happened to be his favorite band. We went and saw them on their R30 tour a little while back and they killed it.
Thinking about them right now is making me want to go and download their song 'Different Strings' on iTunes or Amazon when I get home.

I've never had a problem with Geddy's voice either, but I also like people like Billy Corgan, Dave Mustaine, Claudio Sanchez, King Diamond, Little Jimmy Urine, and Tegan and Sara, artists who have voices that a lot of people do not like (not trying to superior claims about my musical tastes; I just looked up a couple lists of hated vocalists and I happen to like a lot of them).
I can see why most people don't like his voice, but I do think some people hear it once or twice and write him off as being bad and don't really give him a chance. Not everyone of course, but some people.
 

Switters

Member
I remember the first time I saw RUSH. They played passage to Bangkok. The entire stadium erupted with a greenish fog. EVERYBODY airdrummed.
 
I can't say I'm really a big fan of any albums post-Hold Your Fire with the exception of the song "Roll the Bones"
Same. I own every album before Presto, but after HYF, they've only had a few good single tracks. I loved Caravan and I hope their next album is worth it. They still kick ass (2010 Time Machine concert was amazing), but you can tell people go just to hear their 70s-80s material.
 

EYEL1NER

Member
Same. I own every album before Presto, but after HYF, they've only had a few good single tracks. I loved Caravan and I hope their next album is worth it. They still kick ass (2010 Time Machine concert was amazing), but you can tell people go just to hear their 70s-80s material.
Eh, when I saw them on the R30 tour, 'Vapor Trails' had come out only a few years before that. I enjoyed listening to a couple songs off of that one, namely 'One Little Victory.'
But yeah, the songs I really wanted to hear were their older songs. And they killed Subdivisions. Still my favorite Rush song...
 
I grew up with Rush - I bought "Signals" the day it came out - but they're really an "introductory" band to more amazing prog rock. Rush is a departing point, but a lot of nerds with limited rock vocabularies stick around.
 

Entropia

No One Remembers
Eh, when I saw them on the R30 tour, 'Vapor Trails' had come out only a few years before that. I enjoyed listening to a couple songs off of that one, namely 'One Little Victory.'
But yeah, the songs I really wanted to hear were their older songs. And they killed Subdivisions. Still my favorite Rush song...

I fucking LOVE Vapor Trails and Snakes & Arrows.

Aside from Counterparts, anything between Power Windows and Vapor Trails is kind of meh.

I'm really looking forward to their new album.
 
Rush would be better if classic rock stations around here didn't play them 20 times a day. That level of overplay kinda kills it.
 

NGAMER9

Member
I saw them on this Time Machine Tour, and instrumentally they are still godly. Geddy Lee still pulls off those crazy bass fills while singing and/or playing keyboard pedals, Alex still sounds great, and Peart is Peart. Plus, hearing all of Moving Pictures live was a religious experience. Geddy's voice struggled at times, but he still sounds decent most of the time.
 

Baraka in the White House

2-Terms of Kombat
If every Rush song was an instrumental, they'd be awesome. Geddy Lee's voice makes me want to punch kittens.

Same. I can appreciate Rush for their musicianship but I've never been able to stand Geddy Lee's vocals and thus grew up hating Rush. Not to mention our local classic rock stations have a habit of playing Closer to the Heart, Working Man and/or Tom Sawyer at least once every 30 minutes.
 

devenger

Member
Saw them for Roll The Bones and Counterparts. I wasn't even a fan, my GF at the time was.

I went from thinking Geddy had a screechy voice and the lyrics were cheesy to considering them God Tier.
 
Rush is extremely overrated. If you're gonna make long progressive rock songs, you need a insane and smart enough lyricist that can pull it off. And a voice too. If you're making standard rock then you need to be more catchy, more formulaic, etc. A few good songs though, for sure (although most of them start to sound the same), but it's bands like Rush that remind me why progressive rock...at least classic progressive rock didn't last very long.
 

Dyno

Member
Rush is extremely overrated. If you're gonna make long progressive rock songs, you need a insane and smart enough lyricist that can pull it off. And a voice too. If you're making standard rock then you need to be more catchy, more formulaic, etc. A few good songs though, for sure (although most of them start to sound the same), but it's bands like Rush that remind me why progressive rock...at least classic progressive rock didn't last very long.

I think you have it completely ass-backwards. You're saying that you should pick your catagory before you make the music and then ensure you're hitting all the right cliches.

Rush instead just does their own thing, creates what they want to create, and have had an amazingly successful and long career in the process.

I think Rush wins this round.
 
God help me, but I have been listening to 2112 on repeat for the last few days. It just gets more badass on each listen. The instrumentation is insane, but I do rather like Geddy when he screams. But when he tries to sing...ugh.
 

lupinko

Member
I saw them this year in Vancouver during the Time Machine tour (I got my time machine tour shirt!), seeing them in person is just unreal. I had no voice after the entire Moving Pictures run through. lol

And omg, Neil Peart's drum solo with all those different drum styles.

<3 Rush.

The only band that I would put a little over them would be Queen, but that's about it.
 

gabbo

Member
Musically, love them. Talented guys and Geddy Lee's voice is a thing unto itself.
I do however find Pearts lyrics to be extremely tepid. You love Ayn Rand, I get it. Please stop making Lee sing about objectivism at every available opportunity.
 
It's pretty rare to see a band with this much talent. And they play what they want, they've never been sell outs or a corporate band.

They're not among my absolute favorite rock bands, but they're pretty high up there.
 
King Crimson > Rush

King Crimson and Yes would be a more fair comparison.

I love Geddy's voice. It's not entirely Rush without his vocals. Anyways, Hemispheres is my all time favorite Rush album. What I love about Rush is that they can get technical, but do so at an admirable level. Whereas something like Yes would take quite a few listens to to comprehend wtf is going on. Rush is pretty straight forward who just happened to be very skilled musicians. I don't understand how anyone can really say they are one of the worst in rock history.

I mean shit, Alex Lifeson is on fire here live for La Villa Strangiato
 
Arise!

Clockwork Angels has been out a month and is absolutely awesome. Took a couple of listens to really internalize some of the songs but wow, amazing stuff from a 40+ year old band.

Got hooked on their older stuff in high school (I think the most recent album they had at that time was Hold Your Fire -- yeah, I'm old =/). Have seen them five times (Presto -- with Primus on the Sailing the Seas of Cheese tour, Roll the Bones, Counterparts, Test For Echo, and Time Machine). First felt my daughter kick during Test For Echo during that awesome part where Peart's drum just booms in.

Favorite song is "Xanadu", there is just something wonderful about it. I enjoy pretty much every period of Rush, but Fly By Night through Hemispheres is probably my favorite.
 

Pre

Member
They have a few songs that I like, but overall I'm fairly indifferent toward them. I don't really like prog-rock in general.
 

Seanspeed

Banned
I just like a lot of their songs. They wrote some great music and I appreciate them more for that than anything. Had an old band with a talented bassist/singer and drummer and while we mainly played parties and did covers of fun stuff like Rage Against the Machine and punk bands and whatnot, we also liked to cover some Rush songs(along with a few Tool songs) once in a while. Spirit of the Radio was one of our favorites.

In terms of ability, they really aren't anything special, but that stems mainly from listening to metal, which raises the bar in terms of technical proficiency to extreme levels, especially if you're listening to death/black/core/etc.

Overall, I cant say I'm a fan of Geddy's voice, but you get used to it, I guess. I remember as a kid, I always thought it was a chick singing.

EDIT: 2112 is their best work, by far.
 
They have some amazing tunes, but "classic rock" radio humps the shit out of them.

Yeah, but sadly only a few songs:

"Spirit of Radio", "Freewill", "Tom Sawyer", "Limelight", "Subdivisions", "New World Man", and "Closer to the Heart" is about it, unless I'm missing one or two.
 

Seanspeed

Banned
Yeah, but sadly only a few songs:

"Spirit of Radio", "Freewill", "Tom Sawyer", "Limelight", "Subdivisions", "New World Man", and "Closer to the Heart" is about it, unless I'm missing one or two.

They still had quite a few good songs that weren't singles.

I think Witchhunt has to be one of their best songs ever.
 
They still had quite a few good songs that weren't singles.

I think Witchhunt has to be one of their best songs ever.

Sorry, I didn't mean that those were their only good songs, just that those were the only ones the classic rock stations played. And, yes, "Witchhunt" is awesome, seeing it on the Time Machine tour was amazing.
 

agrajag

Banned
lol, must be a location thing. I've heard Working Man on the local classic rock station. But 90% of the time it's either Spirit of the Radio or Tom Sawyer.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
While they definitely have some over played tunes they still are a great band with really solid cover to cover albums.

Plus while some of their stuff seems obvious it still amazes me a song like Subdivisions gets radio play. Just sounds sooo different than the normal stuff played on those stations even compared to the other standard Rush goto radio songs.
 
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