RUSH, UNHURRIED

I watched the Rush documentary Beyond the Lighted Stage last night on VH1, and it was everything the rapturous reviews I'd read in advance said it would be...and less. The home movies and stuff from their early days were fun and charming, revealing the quiet Canadian suburban existence and high school geekiness that fueled bassist Geddy Lee's and guitarist Alex Lifeson's lifelong friendship and creative partnership, and the inner life of hyperliterate, introspective drummer Neal Peart. The stories of their gradual rise to U.S. stardom following the recording of their debut album were interesting, especially (credit where due) the parts about their touring with KISS.

The movie made me want to listen to a lot more Rush than I've heard to date. All I own by the band is Gold, a two-CD compilation that's weirdly sequenced (it's not chronological, nor is it thematic as far as I can tell) but offers a pretty solid overview of what they do. Now I'm thinking I need to hear their whole string of '70s and early '80s albums; I'm not quite sure where I'll stop, but it'll probably be somewhere around Presto.

I'll admit it; the valentine aspect of the movie (and it's a valentine, top to bottom), while it made me interested in the music, also disappointed me. I would like to have seen more discussion of their working methods, and more in-depth discussion of each album's musical differences from the one before. But that would have required a six-hour film, and it would have had about one-sixteenth the potential audience of this one, with its good-natured jibes at the male-dominated nature of their fan base, its interviews with celebrity fans (Jack Black, members of Metallica and Tool and Primus and Smashing Pumpkins and Dream Theater and Rage Against the Machine), and all the rest. This is the kind of documentary every band wishes someone would make about them—a celebration and an ideal introduction. And who knows? Maybe the ultra-nerdy stuff I want is on the home version, which is a two-DVD set.

IRON MODERN

Iron Maiden launched their latest U.S. tour in Dallas, Texas last night, and since it's 2010, the set list and some video were already out before the night was even over. Here's a clip of the opening number:


And here's the set list:

01. The Wicker Man (from Brave New World)
02. The Ghost of the Navigator (from Brave New World)
03. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns (from A Matter of Life and Death)
04. El Dorado (new song, from The Final Frontier)
05. Paschendale (from Dance of Death)
06. The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg (from A Matter of Life and Death)
07. These Colours Don’t Run (from A Matter of Life and Death)
08. Blood Brothers (from Brave New World)
09. Wildest Dreams (from Dance of Death)
10. No More Lies (from Dance of Death)
11. Brave New World (from Brave New World)
12. Fear of the Dark (from Fear of the Dark)
13. Iron Maiden (from Iron Maiden)
Encore:
14. The Number of the Beast (from The Number of the Beast)
15. Hallowed Be Thy Name (from The Number of the Beast)
16. Running Free (from Iron Maiden)

Eleven of the sixteen songs they'll be performing every night are from the last ten years. As someone who thinks their last three albums have been really, really good, and is absolutely looking forward to the new one, I'm very excited by this.

Others don't share my enthusiasm. But you know what? Maybe the MetalSucks guys haven't seen Iron Maiden play their classic songs ("The Trooper," "Aces High," "2 Minutes to Midnight," "Flight of Icarus," "Powerslave," etc., etc.) enough times yet. I can understand that. The thing is, I have. I've seen Maiden four times in the last eight years—at Madison Square Garden in July 2003, doing a greatest hits set; at Hammerstein Ballroom in January 2004, celebrating the release of Dance of Death; at Ozzfest in 2005, playing only songs from their first four albums; and in June 2008 at Madison Square Garden again, on the "Somewhere Back in Time" tour, which focused on material from Powerslave, Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. So yeah, I've had my fill of the old songs. And I think it's great that they're celebrating their last decade. I guarantee you, Bruce Dickinson—already one of the greatest frontmen in rock history—is gonna sell the living fuck out of this material.

When I saw this set list, I wasn't instantly sure it would work. So I put together an iPod playlist of the studio versions. And you know what? It's an hour forty of some of the best metal of the 2000s. Seriously, this show's gonna kick ass. (Assuming you get there late enough to miss Dream Theater, of course.)