Interview: MOOD LIFTERS
We Talk Some Sense with Rocky Kuner & Ben King
from the Californian RUSH Tribute MOOD LIFTERS
RUSH. In the context of the history of rock music, the very name exudes its own enigmatic aura. In the realms of its fandom, this band holds a place so illustrious, so revered, it is untouchable by almost any other band in history. Their history and achievements speak for themselves. Their lifespan edged up towards the half-century mark. They sold millions upon millions of albums, and many times that in concert tickets, filling large arenas all over the world. They were inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. They were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1994. They received a star on the Canadian Walk of Fame in Toronto in 1999. The three members were made officers of the Order of Canada in 1996. They received numerous Juno Awards (The Canadian Grammys) and Grammy nominations. They received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010. I could go on.
And they did all that whilst utterly eschewing commercial concerns and maintaining their own idiosyncratic direction from go to woah.
This band did it all.
Well, except for one thing. They never toured Australia. Not once. Not a single solitary time in almost 50 years of existence. It fairly boggles the mind, doesn’t it.
So the vast majority of the band’s fans here have never seen RUSH’s songs performed in a live setting.
(Not me. I saved my pennies and flew to North America three times just to see them. That’s the kind of dedication and commitment this band inspired in its fans. But, I’m in a minuscule minority.)
So we need something to fill that cavernous gap. Especially now RUSH are no more. And that, my friends, is about to happen. California’s fabulous RUSH tribute act MOOD LIFTERS are set to fly by night to new territories in new hemispheres to change our lives. We are about to welcome these strangers to the Australian limelight like long-awaited friends.
Time, for Australian RUSH fanatics, is about to stand still. And they’re bringing a marathon show.
The Interview
Sense recently caught up with the band’s luminous frontwoman Rocky Kuner and astute lead guitarist Ben (A Farewell to) King(s) for a chat about RUSH and their band’s very accurate take on the music and live performance of the Canadian legends.
“We are so looking forward to this,” King enthuses. “It’s going to be the experience of a lifetime.”
For this upcoming Aussie tour, the band will mimic what RUSH were doing in their live shows in the last couple of decades of their existence. That is, the ‘Evening with Rush’ format - no support act, a full three-hour show with a twenty-minute break in the middle, and a key album to be played in its entirety.
“The cat’s out of the bag,” King says. “The album we’re going to do (in full) is obviously Moving Pictures. Our setlist goal . . . sometimes I think, having seen so many Rush shows, what would RUSH do if they had a show today? Without the limitations of some of the earlier material being difficult for Geddy’s voice later in his career. But Rocky’s soaring, hitting these super high notes. We have freedom in that regard, but maybe we have the limitation of not having a male voice to hit some of the lower stuff that he did later in the career.
“But all eras are on the table for us, and we tried to have a lot of album variety except for the fact that we’re doing all of Moving Pictures. We actually struggled with the set for this particular tour, because we don’t get a shot to go back, two weeks later to play some of the others.”
Some punters rocking up to the shows may possibly miss out on hearing their favourite RUSH song/s, even in a three-hour set, but this is inevitable and unavoidable when covering a band with such an immense body of work behind them. “There are going to be songs that people wanted to hear but didn’t hear because the catalogue is just so large,” King goes on, “there’s no way we can please everybody. But on the other hand, we’re really happy with what we are playing across the board. We think we’ve done a really good job of, whatever you’re into as a RUSH fan, we’ve picked things that are a really good sampling of what the RUSH career was all about.”
So what are you guys’ favourite RUSH song, album and era?
“Song, that’s really hard,” says Kuner. “For some reason . . . can I pick two? I pick Time Stand Still and A Farewell to Kings. Those two songs really stand out to me, a lot, and resonate with me. Album, that’s also really difficult. Hemispheres is really amazing, that one really resonates. But I also really like Moving Pictures, the one that we’re doing. Right now, I’m getting into it, and trying to embody the feel of it. It’s probably going to be very special to me, especially after this tour that we’re doing in Australia.
“And era? Probably when Moving Pictures came out. Right before their transition into: ‘right, we’re just going to do something completely different. I like whatever they did then, I feel like they struck gold at that point.”
King then gives his favourites. “Picking a favourite song is like picking which of my children is my favourite! (laughs) It’s a fool’s errand, but I’m going to say that Natural Science is the most consistently intriguing song. You can’t listen to it and not get into it, and playing it is an amazing experience. You’ve got to be on your toes every step of the way.
“Album, I have a special place in my heart for Grace Under Pressure, because that was the first album to come out new once I was a diehard RUSH fan, and I had the release date in my brain and I couldn’t concentrate on my schoolwork. It’s got a lot of great guitar work. People always give them a hard time for that synth era, but the guitar was definitely there. If I had to pick an era, it would have to be the synth era. People cringe a little about that, being that I’m a guitar player, but that to me is when Alex Lifeson found his own style and lived in a place where no other guitar player was living in. And still hasn’t.
“But I love it all!” He concludes.
This scribe is touched by just a smidgeon of irony about the fact that it’s taking a RUSH tribute band to come all the way out to Australia to play RUSH material live, when the band themselves never did in almost 50 years. But King doesn’t see it that way, or at least is very diplomatic about it.
“We have the luxury of being small,” he says, “they had a massive stage production, and to bring that over and play maybe six or seven cities, is probably not very economical for them. And I think it started a vicious cycle where, they didn’t tour there so the radio stations didn’t play their music so the record stores didn’t stock their albums, and those three things fed themselves.
“For us, we’re a small operation, a tribute band, we’re nimble. So when the opportunity came to go there and play, it was like, ‘oh my god, the idea of going to a foreign land and playing for the first time, music that was never performed live there, music we love so much’, I’m so excited, I can’t wait to see what the reaction will be. What does that look like? You’re playing songs that most of the audience have never seen live, but have been listening to for decades.
“We hope to give people that feeling that they’re at a RUSH concert.”
Rush are known for their complex musical arrangements, instrumental wizardry and interplay, use of odd time signatures, and Geddy Lee’s very high-pitched vocal histrionics (especially in their early days), which begs the question: which is the most difficult/challenging Rush song to play and sing, individually and collectively? Tracks like the aforementioned Natural Science, La Villa Strangiato and Xanadu spring to mind, but it’s good to hear it from the mouths of the people executing it.
“You’ve hit the biggies,” King confirms, “but for me, La Villa is holding a special place in the ‘difficult to play’ category. I’ve never felt like I’ve mastered it, I always feel I could do a better performance, the tonality of it, the emotion you’re going for in that middle section. Rocky’s looking at me like, ‘why are you choosing an instrumental?’ (laughs) Your brain can never take a break on La Villa.”
“I have two that kick my ass at the moment,” Kuner says, “Temples of Syrinx kicks my ass because of how high it is. That one is like, ‘okay, I think I might explode’. I think that’s why that part is so short, if it was any longer than that, surely his head would be exploding!
“And then, Witch Hunt for some reason, kicks my ass because of the timing, when the phrases come in. Every entrance of the vocal is different, and it kicks my ass. I have to really pay attention to it, and think of what kind of pattern I can, while I’m singing this so I know where I come in. Every time I think I’m doing it right, I’m wrong! (laughs) Like La Villa (for Ben), I can’t take a break, because if I do, I’m probably going to lose where I am. That one seems pretty straightforward, but it’s not.
“So those two are the big ones.”
In the end, the distant early warning has been given, and the countdown is on: these modern day warriors will be here shortly, on a mission to finally give Aussie audiences a taste of Rush’s music in a live setting. There’s only a ghost of a chance that this will ever happen again, so get on it.