Geddy Lee (left) and Neil Peart (on drums) jammed out at the acoustic-friendly Nokia Theatre Thursday night

BY MALLORY GRAVES >LA.COM

Rush needs a new planet to inhabit. Or at the very least a glass elevator around Neil Peart’s drum set. At the Nokia Theatre on Thursday night for their Snakes and Arrows Tour, the progressive rock trio from Toronto managed to do everything except disappear in a plume of smoke after their set was over.

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Thick green lasers, fireworks, stage-swallowing pyrotechnics, leering spotlights, an evil baby carriage on a path of doom, Cartman and the gang trying to sing ‘Tom Sawyer’, an amplifier-sized oven of rotisserie chickens on rotating spits. You know, the usual concert accoutrement.

It would seem that after about 40 years of steady rocking together, Geddy Lee (vocals, bass and keyboards), Alex Lifeson (guitar) and Neil Peart (drums) might need to be wheeled onstage and let the laser show do most of the dirty work. But this is hardly the case. The fantastic eyesore that is a live Rush show is surpassed by the band’s stamina (the show went over the three hour mark), Lee’s onstage multitasking, Lifeson’s understated strumming and a nearly hidden Peart’s dreamboat drum festival.

The opening number “Limelight” flattened the crowd with neon lasers, followed by “Digital Man,” a reggae infused track from the 1982 album Signals. “Freewill” got the fists in the air, and the four jumbo-screens showed a split of Lee and Lifeson’s fingerpicking side by side for the entire venue to see. At one point Lee’s signature timbre became unbearably shrill at which he cringed, adjusted his mini sunglasses and carried on. The triple-wide oven with the rotating chickens seemed to be Lee’s backdrop for most of the show.

“The Main Monkey Business,” a song off of their newest album, Snakes and Arrows (released one year ago) paid homage to the instrumental tracks heard on 2112 and managed to mix the dreamy, hollow guitar sound with the plucky mandolin and some George of the Jungle drums. For an added bonus, King Kong joined us all for a big screen howdy. At the end of the song, Lee knocked on his head as though saying “We just blew our own minds.”

The fan favorite “Red Barchetta” featured a bright red light center stage and race car-themed images then, for “The Trees,” Lee fingered his trusty synthesizer and went to town like we imagine he did in the 70’s when those nifty foot pedals weren’t around.

After a short intermission, the band returned to play a few tracks from their new album, most of which had a sedating effect on the crowd. Though “Working Them Angels” was a powerful (if not a bit misguided) song, the enduring theme might have been a bit heavy. The significance of images of telemarketers hunched over their cubicles wearing angel wings eluded me. “Armor and Sword,” also from the new album, was every Zelda geek’s wet dream.

During “Subdivisions,” the crowd woke up a bit when Lee rode his guitar like a broomstick, and then Peart stole the show with his seven minute drum solo. Thanks to those jumbo screens, we got a bird’s eye view of every solitary surface, every tom, snare and Harry of this man’s red gilded drum display. Peart could indeed hold his own in that little octagon, and his expression while he wailed was one of a semi-effected soccer dad making sure his kids were running the right way down the field. He never even broke a sweat. Mini-cowbells and a glockenspiel added a unique touch to the solo.

After “2112” and “Tom Sawyer,” the trio came back for a three song encore including “A Passage to Bangkok” and “YYZ.” Three hours of a Rush show and it was safe to say that the chicken was probably done. Though sadly, we not offered any of their tasty refreshments. Maybe next year.