Rush spent several decades touring all over the world, and Geddy Lee has returned from his travels with an assessment: Canadian crowds are more "self-conscious and restrained" than those in other countries. Well, except for in Montreal.
He laid down this judgement in his recent memoir My Effin' Life, which came out in the fall. He wrote, "Audiences in America are boisterous and demonstrative; they've come to party and celebrate, and there's an electric excitement even before the house lights go down. Americans ooh and aah in response to lighting and pyrotechnics."
Lee also noted that Scottish crowds "sang along so loudly, almost louder than me, that it gave us goosebumps."
South American crowds, meanwhile, incredibly sang their own parts: "During 'YYZ,'" they broke out into what sounded like a football song, but one that fit so well into the structure of the song that I thought, Geez, they've written their own parts," noted Lee.
Canadians did no such thing. According to Lee, "We'd have to consciously adjust when we returned home to Canada. I'd never noticed this as a teenaged concertgoer in Toronto, but as a touring performer it was obvious how much more self-conscious and restrained our homegrown audiences used to be (aside from Montrealers, who were so insane that bands sometimes planned their tours to kick off or wrap there)."
So, Canadian fans, take note — when you go to a concert, don't be afraid to make some noise!