“We’re
only immortal for a limited time.” Those eager to live life to the fullest
live by these wise words from none other than the great late Neil Peart. Roll
The Bones, for some reason, has always remained a relevant album throughout
my life. I love every record Rush has ever released and my all-time favorite is
Power Windows. RTB isn’t to me as strong musically as the one from 1985
and I have others that I prefer out of musicianship and sound. However, this
first Rush-in-the-Nineties work is a great partner, it’s always been there with
and for me one way or another.
On April 29th
2023 LIGHT played live again after a five-year period away from live settings.
It was the first time what is now the official line-up got together for real to
rehearse and perform original material. It was a success (more about it in the LIGHT
live 04-29-2023 entry). The only two covers that night were the opener
“These Walls” by Dream Theater and “Where’s My Thing?” by Rush… Yes, a track
from Roll The Bones. When creating a setlist for a show that has covers,
I always try not to fall for the obvious choices. When it comes to Rush’s
instrumentals those for sure are “YYZ” and “La Villa Strangiato,” two Rock
masterpieces without the shadow of a doubt. But for this very reason, they’ve
been played to death by anyone so it wasn’t the most interesting thing to
present during our show. Eventually I was proven right: more than just a few
who watched the video upload of our live performance on YouTube said they were
surprised -in a good way- by the song choice. Besides it’s got such a great
keyboard-oriented production which justifies being the chosen song given that
LIGHT does have an actual keyboardist. ONE (Marian, my brother) really nailed
it that evening, and the whole band was praised with comments regarding how
tight we sounded.
Tight…
This word left quite a mark on me. It’s as if the actual difference between a
mediocre band and a virtuosic band pretty much lies in how tight the ensemble
is. Mind you, LIGHT isn’t perfect, even Rush isn’t perfect, no matter how much
us fans love to think of them that way (they’ve had their fair share of
trainwrecks, truth be told). Being tight mustn’t be confused with perfection,
it’s something else, there’s a feel to it that people get and appreciate, the
audience is awed by the tightness of a band that actually sounds good whatever
the musical style. And after basically a whole year of preparation, LIGHT had
another chance to prove ourselves.
Many are the potential setlists already thought out, it’s always a matter of choosing the most appropriate at any given time. The Rush tribute concert was first reserved for 2025 to commemorate ten years since their final tour, R40, which ended on August 1st 2015 in Los Angeles, United States. However, it was the one that developed faster and better and once the keyboard sounds were created, it was a “This is it” kind of realization that the year for this had to be 2024. Only then did it dawn on me that it was 2004 the year I became a Rush fan. There’s some celebration for ya… or should I say, me. :P ;)
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On September
7th 2023 ONE recorded a raw demo of “Lock and Key.” That little
video was sent the day after to Nicolas (Jourdain) and Leandro (Galera), and it
turned out that September 8th is the day Hold Your Fire, the
album where “Lock and Key” belongs to, was released in 1987, thirty-seven years
ago to that day. “Where? When? Lol!” was Nicolas’ instant reply to the setlist
I shared with him and Leandro in bold type through WhatsApp, “Lock and Key”
included of course. I set the wheels in motion, turned up all the machines…
So, the live
aspect was still running in great spirits. But there was also a major task to
be concluded before really deep-diving into yet another live act: LIGHT’s third
album, The Engine Of The World. It’d been dragging for years and after
the 2023 live show it was high time we finished it, having been The Miracle
Of Life, its predecessor, released in February 2020 and promoted the hell
out of it non-stop for almost four years. It took several more months but
finally on March 15th 2024 we had the pleasure to premiere TEOTW on
our YouTube channel. It’s been very well received. Some supporters who bought
it agreed that it’s an evolution from TMOL, an album that was already praised a
lot for being very progressive-sounding.
Late April or
early May was the ideal time for the upcoming concert once again. It’s Autumn
in the Southern Hemisphere and those weeks are still friendly weather-wise for
the most part. In the end we had to postpone it for two weeks so Leandro could
properly commit to learning the full set as he should. With just one full-band
rehearsal on May 12th and soundcheck on the 19th, we
faced an audience consisting of seventy to seventy-five people at 5:17 pm that
Sunday in Tigre, my hometown. We literally played in our backyard! It’s the
best place for us to do this kind of gigs, just as it had been the year before.
As long as it doesn’t rain, the show can perfectly take place.
At around
4:10 pm I hit “Play” on my old Dell Inspiron PC and the pre-show playlist went
off:
01 Bastille
Day (live - All The World’s A Stage)
02 Natural
Science (live – Live in YYZ)
03 Turn
The Page (live – A Show Of Hands)
04 Test
For Echo (live – Different Stages)
05 Earthshine
(live – Rush In Rio)
06 Between
The Wheels (live – Snakes & Arrows LIVE!)
07 Witch
Hunt (live – Snakes & Arrows LIVE!)
08 Faithless
(live – Time Machine)
09 Caravan
(live – Time Machine)
10 Territories
(Power Windows)
11 Something
For Nothing (2112)
Without
really pushing for it, there was kind of a theme going on from one gig to
another. The one from 2023 had an orchestra sampler of “These Walls” as a
prelude to the actual Dream Theater cover we performed. This time it was a
great symphonic performance by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of the “2112”
overture that came on right after “Something For Nothing.” It set the mood and
by the time it got to the final E major chord, people clapped and cheered, the
band already onstage ready to rock, getting the audience’s warm support first
hand.
Did we go on
with “The Temples Of Syrinx” then? Nope. :P There was a leap from 1976 right to
1982 with ONE hitting the iconic F# synth bass note to give way to
“Subdivisions,” a really great opener. This one was going to set the stage for
the rest. I’m glad to say it went very well. A couple of friends who were
present during the soundcheck had already told us not to worry one bit. “You
guys be at ease: you’ll give the hell of a concert this afternoon.” That was
nice and we appreciated it, but the real deal is when the gig is on, the
ultimate test.
“Subdivisions”
was immediately followed by “Where’s My Thing?” This time we could’ve chosen
“YYZ” given that the other one had already been played in 2023. Unfortunately,
that show wasn’t properly recorded, Nicolas’ laptop froze and that was the end
of it. The only document of that night is the cellphone recording of “Where’s
My Thing?” in its entirety and a summary with large excerpts from six of our
original songs. It’s decent enough to share and let the world know about LIGHT
but there had to be a comeback. Luckily, this time everything got recorded as
multi-tracks and the final mix of the full concert is surprisingly
professional. Now “Where’s My Thing?” got the treatment it’s always deserved,
along with the rest of the set.
In March 2023
I prepared an acoustic guitar-vocals cover of “Lakeside Park” for a performance
live at Garden Party, the fourth edition of this meet-up of Marillion
and Prog Rock fans in general that happens in Buenos Aires. This song off of Caress
Of Steel (1975) is just too high-registered vocal-wise, way out of my
reach. Geddy Lee has always had a high-tenor range but those early records when
he was in his twenties is unbelievable. But there’s something called Key
change and I don’t mind making use of it, haha! Instead of playing it in A,
I relearned it in E, two-and-a-half steps down. It kept on sounding just like
“Lakeside Park” in its full essence and now I could sing it much more
comfortably. It worked so well that I felt the need to make a full band
ensemble cover of it sometime. The Rush tribute concert was the perfect
setting. Of course, “Lakeside Park” doesn’t have any keyboards. Is that enough
to discard it maybe? No. Again, anything can be adapted. Marian and I worked
together on the additional keys arrangements, namely organ, electric piano and
strings. It’s more than gratifying to listen to the live mix and witness originality
and how rich our version sounds.
In order to
cut the set in two, July Valls was invited for two songs on bass while Marian
and Leandro took a break. It was going to be LIGHT’s one-off Rush gig so the
power trio element had to be there somehow (the covering of all eras was a must
as well). July is a good music friend, really talented as a guitarist first and
foremost. But he’s competent with other instruments too, bass included. At both
Garden Party 4 & 5 we’d played “The Seeker,” that Who
song Rush covered in 2004 for the Feedback album, and “New World Man”
respectively. These two choices were so friendly in the sense that it wasn’t
necessary to painstakingly work on them, they were already there for us to pick
them up again. None of the footage from the events was good enough so all the
more a great excuse to get them multi-tracked on this particular occasion.
Set #2 began
with “Jacob’s Ladder,” the most progressive song on the setlist. Everyone had
it studied individually beforehand so it didn’t take as much to getting a grip
on it as we were afraid of… Except for a few seconds of one of the most
syncopated drum compositions ever, which by the way happens to be in 13/8 of
all time signatures! Marian and I had been practicing the full set for many
months by playing against custom-made metronomes for each number. We got used
to the 13/8 pattern alright and were at ease with all of that work put into it
for so long. But alas, once Nicolas started playing that wacky drum pattern -learned
identically, I must recognize- Marian really got lost with the melody he had to
play. I was fortunate enough to be responsible for the straight 8th-note
guitar riff so it doesn’t matter how complex the rhythm of the song might be, I
only had to keep on going without much thought and Nicolas and I would
eventually find ourselves once every couple of measures. The keyboard melody is
a whole other thing though, way sparser and that really makes it difficult to
land where it has to.
With only one
week to nail it, suddenly our teeth were on edge. It was as if nothing else
mattered, just those few seconds of “Jacob’s Ladder” had to be nailed and avoid
any risk of a dreaded trainwreck. When I realized we were worrying way too much
it became easier to see the bigger picture and understand that the full show
wasn’t going to be a disaster should that tiny part wasn’t played perfectly.
This doesn’t mean we didn’t take care of it enough throughout the week and
during soundcheck. “Jacob’s Ladder” was the go-to track to test the sound and
meanwhile take advantage of the song to be rehearsed once more, no
exceptions. Everything paid off after all, it was the first song to receive quite a noticeable roar reaction as soon as the final chord faded out.
Then it
finally got to “Lock and Key.” I was really looking forward to playing this
one. The keyboard work is just beauty from top to bottom and the energy of the
whole track is just so intense. The drums really drive the choruses! Hold
Your Fire -and the whole ‘synth era’ for that matter- might be maligned by
certain purist Rush fans but the slick production is art, that’s the best word
to describe it. And the songs themselves are just as rocking as previous Rush
albums. There’s this belief that the music on those mid-to-late Eighties
records is more Pop-sounding and that may be the case, yes, yet the essential
powerful delivery of Rush, that energetic drive that makes their sound so
special, is right there too. Having performed “Lock and Key” live only solidifies
this statement.
Except for
“The Seeker,” a track recorded in 2004, there was still an actual original Rush
song missing from the 21st Century, everything else had already been
taken care of with at least one song to represent each era. I must say it
wasn’t an easy task to figure out which song would be better, something from Vapor
Trails, Snakes & Arrows or Clockwork Angels. These are
ambitious productions with many layers stacked up. I went through most of the
stuff in my mind and when I realized that the main arpeggio in “Vapor Trail”
could be played by ONE on the keys, I’d be free to just focus on singing for
the most part (playing that arpeggio on guitar and singing at the same
time is almost impossible, better leave it alone, haha!). It became the second
track to be looked forward to the most in my book. Plus Rush never played it
live so it was all the more special in that regard.
One trademark
of Rush’s live gigs is medleys, therefore LIGHT couldn’t leave this out,
could we? This is where the acoustic guitar stand proved its full worth. It had
already done it eleven years before when I as a solo artist gave a show with
mostly covers plus some original songs thrown here and there. In fact, the
whole point of having one of these custom-made was a sudden switch from
acoustic to electric between “Discovery” and “Presentation,” parts III and IV
of the “2112” suite. This time both pieces were played again but everything was
on electric guitar. The acoustic end of things was for the intro in “A Farewell
To Kings” and the intro and first verses of “Closer To The Heart” all smoothly
linked together. Leandro played that great bass line in CTTH perfectly while
ONE added some piano and was also responsible for the soft percussion elements
from the original version, along with strings as back-up for the guitar solo,
organ to enhance the distorted electric guitar chords and a lead synth sound
played in unison with the guitar and bass for the post-guitar solo part.
The
transition from “Closer To The Heart” to “Discovery” became all the more
smoother thanks to the waterfall sound FX triggered while the last chord in the
former faded and the clean electric guitar natural harmonics come in. It’s
always a pleasure to play and sing this section in one of the best Prog pieces
ever, actually the first Progressive Metal song in history. The way we played
“Presentation” around two-three minutes later didn’t have any lyrics, just the
main theme for four rounds and that face-melting guitar solo by the one and
only Alex Lifeson; the inception of Prog Metal indeed.
Just a little
bit of “Oracle: the Dream” on guitar and a final symphonic strings chord and
that was the end of our Rush tribute concert to pay respect to the band that
the four of us mostly have in common. It was just the obvious choice if we
wanted to dedicate a full show to just one of our favorite bands. But the show
wasn’t quite over yet…
The audience
evidently had a really great time and didn’t take long for them to shout
“More!” repeatedly. Thank God they did! For ten months a guitar student -who
attended the show by the way- lent me his Ibanez JS100 electric guitar with
Floyd Rose. This was the only way I could properly play “Limelight” as it
should. A song from Moving Pictures can’t be left out of any respectable
Rush tribute gig and its side A closer is one of the best classic Rock songs
ever. And with that awesome ending it has, it was an easy choice, let alone the
emotional guitar solo, Lifeson’s favorite among so many other brilliant moments
of his.
Pablo, this guitar student, told me Floyd Rose guitars are special. As days playing it went by, I could tell they’re like children: they need lots of love and attention, lol. Otherwise, they go out of tune just like that. But if you play them on a regular basis for a pretty long time, they get stabilized. I’m glad to say it worked just perfectly from top to bottom while playing “Limelight” and wrapping up the concert that way, it responded with no flaws at all. And to think of the fact that the performance has been properly captured forever brings a smile to my face. :)
After the
band took some pictures with the audience behind and said thanks and goodbye,
the post-show playlist went off:
01 The
Spirit Of Radio (Permanent Waves)
02 Fly
By Night (Fly By Night)
03 The
Trees (Hemispheres)
04 Tom
Sawyer (Moving Pictures)
05 YYZ
(Moving Pictures)
06 Distant
Early Warning (Grace Under Pressure)
07 Middletown
Dreams (Power Windows)
08 Stick
It Out (Counterparts)
09 Half
The World (Test For Echo)
10 The
Garden (Clockwork Angels)
I was talking
to July Valls and Hugo Lagar, the latter a local Prog Rock journalist, when
“Half The World” was about to end. I politely asked them for privacy when “The
Garden” came up…
Another thing
I was looking forward to was to share that song with Sara, the woman I shared
the purest kind of love with, albeit for only a very short time. Ever since we
got in touch again through WhatsApp in mid-January 2024 (the first of all
contacts had happened in June 2020 through Facebook), the idea of this concert
was a major part of our time spent together. Sadly, that terrible illness
called cancer came back. She’d already told me all about her brave fight against
it since 2021 and how she came on top, that she finally was cancer-free. Sadly,
she ended up discovering in late March/early April that it spread to her
stomach. For all the new surgeries and other alternatives to make it recede
again, she just couldn’t make it and on May 10th passed away.
Sara was such
a good person that she didn’t want anyone to worry. I was never really told how
bad it was what was going on and why is it that she couldn’t remain in Buenos
Aires and go back to her home in San Luis, another province 800 kilometers
away, to seek the much necessary medical attention. When that Friday at midday
I got a WhatsApp message from Mary, her mother, I was inquisitive inside,
pretty much an out-of-the-blue notification on my cellphone. Needless to say,
what I heard when hitting “Play” on her audio came as a shock. She let me know
Sara had been completely sedated not to suffer anymore and that soon she was
going to leave this world, on her mother’s birthday of all days. I grabbed the
cellphone and went out of home for a walk and look for a remote place to answer
back. Words mixed with unstoppable tears and sobs made for that 6-to-7-minute
audio response. Later that night another audio from Mary was waiting for me.
“She flies now, my daughter flies now.”
The following
day she sent another audio and showed a lot of strength, considering these
devastating circumstances. She was making her best to honor Sara’s wishes: to
be strong, that she and her father, Héctor, didn’t have to regret anything as
they’ve done absolutely everything that was humanly possible to treat and save
her. “She loved you and your music, so keep on making and teaching it because
music is the most beautiful thing there is.” I answered back saying I was going
to do that indeed, for her of course but one must never allow oneself to forget
that each of our lives is our own. Respect yourself as much as the rest.
As individuals we must take care of our own essence, to know ourselves and
never get caught in a maze of confusion when any kind of emotion is running
wild, specially when something like this happens. It’s this kind of
self-cultivation -Sara’s recurrent words- what she admired in people, and to
live life to the fullest by being self-aware through nurturing and respecting
the self is the way to honor her ultimate wish.
This is how
and why the concert wasn’t canceled or postponed. On Sunday 12th
LIGHT rehearsed and I just did the work I was supposed to do. I thought it was
better not to bring the news to my bandmates saved my brother, who obviously
already knew, nor July Valls, who showed up to rehearse those two tracks he was
featured on. It was a wise decision after all given that they didn’t know Sara,
not even the fact that I was in a relationship. Telling them all about it
would’ve deviated us from what we had to really focus on and we only had one
rehearsal the five of us together to make this thing work. Eventually they
learned about this and brought their condolences and showed support, which was
most kindly received and appreciated.
The day of
the concert I messaged Mary and told her both the opener and closer,
“Subdivisions” and “Limelight,” were specially for Sara now. When we met for
real on January 23rd, she said she was really into working on a
Metal version of “Subdivisions” (Sara played guitar and violin). I had to make
a huge effort not to open my mouth, I didn’t want to reveal the setlist to
anyone, and she’d already said she wanted it to be a surprise. Almost one month
later, on February 20th when we had our second chance to meet face
to face, we were walking towards Tigre’s train station so she could go back
downtown where she was staying for the time being. A rehearsal with Marian was
imminent and I couldn’t help saying, “Once I’m back home I’ll call him and say:
‘Marian… time for Limelight!’.” With a playfully ironic smile she said,
“Thankssss!” I was quite clueless, she could tell it by the look on my face.
“You said ‘Limelight’” she had to clarify. “Oh, no!” was my inevitable
reaction. It just slipped out of my mouth, hahaha!
The next day
I couldn’t hold it up inside any longer and sent her an audio explaining that
she’s now gotten on another level and that it was only right for her to know
the set. There was so much sincerity between us that keeping it a secret was
evidently getting harder so why not. She agreed and received an image of my
handwritten setlist right after. “AHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGG!!!!!!! (plenty of stars for
emojis) I’m jumping inside and exclaimed ‘woooooaaaaaaa’. What a way to kick
off!”
“Subdivisions”
is so meaningful now because of this. And “Limelight” happened to be her
favorite song and that me accidentally spoiling it wasn’t a problem because she
already had a strong feeling that it was going to be part of the show. And lo
and behold: it’s always been thought as none other than the final song. But for
all this, two other songs were actually the ones to seal the deal…
I shared the
link to “Ghost Of A Chance,” track #8 of Roll The Bones, with Sara three
days after my initial message inviting her to the already planned LIGHT concert
and many great conversations back and forth with unmatchable flow. I told her
this song was making so much sense to me now. She replied saying that she felt
something powerful in her heart when she saw my message. It turns out “Ghost Of
A Chance” has been such an important song to her forever, and that it was
incredible that out of millions of possible songs to share, that was the one I
unknowably chose at the right time.
I
began this entry saying Roll The Bones is a constantly relevant record
in my life, didn’t I? I can’t imagine anything more perfect, how it is that somehow
we found each other through all that masquerade and have stayed in a state
of grace.
Sadness for
her passing? Of course. Anger towards life itself? As well, inevitably. But
what I shared with Sara Elisa Acosta, aka: Arien Lune, was lived in peace, it
was real love given that it was based on the serene connection of our spirits.
The synchronicities stopped being a matter of awe after so many "coincidences;"
the flow, like a river of crystal-clear waters that runs non-stop.
What I have
only left now is to honor her memory and that pure love that we shared
authentically. In spite of the injustice of her untimely departure, I am and
will always be grateful for both having been born and crossed paths.
I love you,
Sara. ❤️🔥☀️🌙🌳
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