Beyond the Lighted Stage

If the mark of a good documentary is its ability to hold one's attention despite a lack of interest in the subject matter, then the Rush documentary Beyond the Lighted Stage deserves a spot in documentary pantheon of any music enthusiast, especially anti-Rush music enthusiasts.

I was never the biggest Rush fan. I've consumed less than a quarter of their entire collection and mostly stick with the hits. I had never been exposed to the geek culture associated with the band and I'd never really done any thoughtful analysis of their literary lyrical content. From afar I've simply admired the sound they can produce with just 3 members. To be honest, I have always assumed that their talent must be accompanied by an obscene amount of Canadian pretentiousness. And yet, every time Palladia runs this film I watch it. I can't help it, these guys are cool.

The truth, as this documentary points out, is far from my assumption and yours. Specifically worthy of your attention is the career arch and mind of Neil Peart, arguably the world's greatest drummer. The guy is absolutely fascinating. Despite his fame he is a fiercely guarded and infinitely neurotic person scared to death of the spotlight and social interactions, a true anti-hero of the rock and roll world you might be used to hearing about.

Drumming and Singing

As someone who dabbles in guitar but is hardly proficient enough at the instrument itself to even contemplate singing and strumming at the same time, I had to ponder the level of Mikey Erg's skill to be able to drum (punk drum, no less) and sing at the same time proficiently (I've seen the Ergs! live and he was excellent). Drumming seems impossible, so I can imagine singing at the same time being something of an inhuman feat. I've seen others like Steve-O from Sum 41 do it too, but never exclusively like Mikey Erg. and there are certainly a whole host of others who do both to varying degrees. Well, wonder no more about the more famous of these skillful musicians, here is a blog which rounds up the top 10 men (and women) who successfully combined these duties. I think the list could better serve by listing these drummers in order by how often they sang, and I suspect at first glance that Levon Helm would have been #1 regardless of how it was compiled.

The B-List: 10 Singin' Drummers