Rush is a Band

A blog devoted to RUSH:
Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Fri, Mar 29, 2024

Beck, his 2112 guitar and puppets

Thu, Jun 29, 2006@9:43AM | comments removed/disabled

[Master of puppets]

It seems that Beck Hansen (better known as just Beck) has been utilizing his 2112 guitar in his live shows. During the recording of his last album, Guero in late 2004, there was a picture of him posted on his website playing a guitar sporting a prominently displayed 2112 sticker. Not only has Beck been using the 2112 guitar in concert, but so has his ... puppet. I'll let this excerpt from the OC Register explain:

... It helps to picture the setup. The band spreads out in the usual manner, but behind Beck, where the drums might normally go, sits a miniature proscenium - a stage within a stage.

Draped down onto it by four puppeteers are a series of dolls, exact replicas of Beck and his band. Bassist Justin Medal-Johnson emerges like a Daft Punk robot with a Jewfro; so does the puppet. The troupe's Napoleon Dynamite-esque B-boy dancer dresses like a Mormon missionary; so does the puppet. Beck's guitar sports a circular sticker of Rush's "2112" cover; so does his puppet's.

The puppeteers are nearly unerring in their mimicking. When Beck unstrapped his guitar and prowled the stage with a microphone, the puppet did the same. If his dancer did a handstand, the puppet flopped about upside-down. Every sustained vocal note was accompanied by an open and quivering puppet mouth; every crash of the symbols matched by the smack down of a puppet's hand.

It was as if the "cast" of "Team America: World Police" were filling in for Beck. ...

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