Beyond the Lighted Stage

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Attention All Planets of the Solar Federation

If you recognize that quote, you’re a Rush geek like me.  If not, I really can’t help you.

There may be no other band in popular music that has so sharply illuminated the divide between critics and normal folks.  On one hand, cool guys like Robert Christgau and JD Constantine despise them.  On the other, they’ve sold 40 million records and they continue to fill arenas worldwide.

If it were my career, I’d take the opinion of millions of loyal fans over some guy who gets paid to write witty boilerplate any time.  I’ve always wondered how the guys in Rush felt about all this, and now we’ve got the answer.

Beyond the Lighted Stage is a documentary produced by the same guys who did last year’s great Iron Maiden film.  For a band that’s been around for nearly four decades, it’s well past time we got something like this.

And fortunately, it’s marvelously done.