Rush - Beyond The Lighted Stage

'They’re just one of those bands who have a deep reservoir of rocket sauce,' says Jack Black, attempting to account for the queer phenomenon of Canadian geek-prog-metal-pop sensations Rush, who are duly treated to the protracted hagiography treatment by veteran rock-doc directors Dunn and McFadyen. As robust, well-paced career surveys go, this at least manages to offer appeal beyond the band’s hardened fanbase, which on this evidence includes much of the cognoscenti of US heavy rock who are all on hand to offer their sycophantic two cents. That the band spent much of the 1970s being ridiculed for their bloated concept albums (with lyrics quoting Ayn Rand) is now a key part of their enduring mythology, and the function of the film is not only to rescue them from the dark corners of cultdom but to make people realise that – now more than ever – playing your copy of 'Hemispheres' at neighbour-bothering levels is something to be proud of.