Lotus Land at the Met, Pawtucket, RI – April 9, 2022

On Saturday night, I got to catch the second set of the World’s Greatest Rush tribute band, Lotus Land. That’s not a title I came up with myself, but Lotus Land was actually featured on AXS TV’s World’s Greatest Tribute Bands. For this New England-based trio, playing at The Met in Pawtucket, RI was almost a hometown appearance for them.

While I missed their first set, word is they played some great Rush classics like “Freewill,” “Red Barchetta” and “Limelight.” I can say first hand, however, that their second set was phenomenal from start to finish.

The band instantly got the crowd back off their feet with 1982’s “Subdivisions.” Once they were standing, they blew everybody’s mind with the instrumental classic, “YYZ.” Rush is a band whose fans tend to be musicians, and fans who appreciate the complexity of the songs, and nowhere is that better shown than with “YYZ,” which they finished off with an epic drum solo.

After playing Part 1 of “2112,” they transitioned into “Tom Sawyer.” If you’ve ever wanted to see a room full of people playing the air drums, go see the audience at a Rush tribute during “Tom Sawyer” – you know the part I mean. The classic hit “The Trees” came up next, followed by a real showpiece, with “Xanadu.” For Xanadu, guitarist Bob Chartrand and frontman Chris Nelson each picked up a double necked instrument – Bob a double neck Epiphone SG, and Chris a Rickenbacker doubleneck bass/guitar.

Lotus Land closed the set with the song that got it all started for Rush, “Working Man,” followed by an encore the crowd loved, of “Spirit of Radio.”

It takes a lot of talent to be able to pull these songs off well, and Lotus Land does it successfully. You need a great guitar player, an amazing drummer, and a third person who is a great bass player, keyboard player and singer. The loss of Rush left big shoes to fill, but nobody does it quite as well as Lotus Land.