Posted on 10/10/2021 11:51:50 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A specially extended lineup of the Ohio State Marching Band covered a selection of Rush classics during their half-time show on Saturday.
Designed as a tribute to late drummer Neil Peart, the 14-minute performance featured arrangements of “The Spirit of Radio,” “Fly by Night” and “Tom Sawyer,” among others. The show can be seen below.
“To honor the early 2020 passing of one of the greatest drummers in history, Rush’s Neil Peart, the Ohio State Marching Band added a little more percussion to the mix for the halftime show Saturday,” the university said in a statement. “To help recreate Peart’s sonic impact, the percussion section was expanded by 20 toms and 20 extra cymbals mounted on four racks. They were at the front of the formation and played by the band’s five percussion alternates for this week.”
Responding to the performance, a tweet from Rush read simply: “We’re speechless!” followed by three applause emojis.
Guitarist Alex Lifeson emphasized in July that he and Geddy Lee had no intention of reviving the band name without Peart. “There’s no way Rush will ever exist again, because Neil’s not here to be a part of it,” he said. “That’s not to say that we can’t do other things, and we can’t do things that benefit our communities and all of that. I have lots of plans for that sort of thing.”
He added that he had no current plans to work with Lee, saying: “Geddy and I started writing together when we were, I don’t know, 14 years old, I guess. We are best friends. I love the guy so much. He means so much to me. ... We had such a great history and did so much great stuff together. It’s not really a big deal if, for the rest of our lives, we’re just best friends.”
OK, so I was thinking our guy Rush (as in Limbaugh). I saw “Ohio”, and I was thinking of his opening song, and then...
time to get to bed!
Thought that meant they would be playing classics like "Back to Ohio", "Movin' on Up", and "Born Free".
well.. That was pretty awesome!
He was the Spirit of Radio for quite a while...
Wasn’t Rush a Canadian band?
They were pretty anti-totalitarian government in some of their themes. Check out Red Barchetta.
Yes, The Best Band I ever saw Live !!!
RIP Neil, You can play the Golden Sticks for God.
𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪-𝘵𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘴. 𝘊𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘙𝘦𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘢.
I didn’t pay much attention to Rush until I heard Andrew Wilkow referencing the lyrics to The Trees.
...𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘬𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘭
𝘉𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘵, 𝘢𝘹𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘢𝘸.
I was seriously thinking Limbaugh. Which probably woulda gone over pretty well
My daughter is a freshman at thee Ohio State University...was at the game Saturday with friends...probably had no clue what the band was doing (and she’s a dance major!!!)
btw- here’s their performance of The music of Queen a few years ago- pretty awesome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHT_y09RIEQ
Incredible!
I was in high school band and did some marching, that was one impressive show. All of that is numerial, you have to not only remember the notes of the songs, but how many steps to your next turn, etc, and the circles and curves are very difficult. The guy in the lead has to get it just right for those. That last section where they marched through the existing lines to spell out Ohio was incredibly difficult to put together and do. Your timing and length of step have to be exact.
I’m really impressed. Not to mention playing all that Rush music...Our band did some of the most difficult halftime shows in our state, and we did nothing even close to this...
Saw Rush in 1976, they opened for Blue Oyster Cult. Felt bad for the Cult, excellent band with a long standing reputation for a great onstage show, and about 5 songs into their set, half the audience had left. It was just a let down after watching Rush do a 90 minute show, including the entire 1st side of 2112, which had just been released about 3 or 4 months earlier. Rush was an incredible onstage band, one of the best I’ve ever seen except for Styx and Jethro Tull. (saw Tull 3 times, THE best 3 shows I’ve ever seen.)
BOC still did an excellent show, I stayed till the echoes of the last note faded away. Don’t Fear the Reaper was probably the best song of their show, Godzilla didn’t exist yet so they didn’t do it. But Rush just did such a great show it was a let down to see BOC, which was a great band...I don’t think many bands could have followed their show, maybe Kansas, Styx or Tull...they should have been headliners, and after that probably were.
RIP Neil...the great gig in the sky now has 3 top notch drummers...Moon, Bonham and Peart (pronounced peert by the way, rhymes with pier, not perch)
Man, I wish our band had done some Rush, best we ever did was Asia. (Which was still pretty good, I think)
If you read their lyrics, they’re definitely one of the more thought-provoking rock bands to ever be successful in the mass market. Neil Peart flirted with Objectivism early on and ended up calling himself a “left-leaning libertarian” in his later years.
}:-)4
I remember the irony a few years back of the Penn State band doing a tribute to Michael Jackson.
They played the Rush Limbaugh Show Intro Song “My City Was Gone”?
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