A new trend could be started. Bass players unite and pick up some pen and paper.

Geddy Lee – that ‘guy’ from RUSH, was in town last night promoting / talking / answering questions about his book; ‘My Effin’ Life’. The next ‘chapter’ in a life that has been somewhat of a fairy tale.

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If you need someone to sit back and smoke a few joints; Geddy Lee is your guy. If you need someone to watch baseball with – Geddy Lee is your man. If you require a shoulder to cry on, Geddy Lee is the right person. If you need a reality check on the evils of history – call Geddy Lee. A bass lesson or more importantly; how to play bass well within a band? Ghostbusters would call Geddy Lee.

Writer / director / actor and former Montrealer Jay Baruchel hosted the evening in a question and answer format. Baruchel’s questions and humor was the perfect fit in a ‘battery section’ which was rhythmic from the start. Anyone who answers questions in front of a live audience – habitually, has it’s stutters and bugs. Baruchel ( a friend of Lee’s) and Geddy himself spoke as if they were seated at the kitchen table.

Lee spoke of his Mother and Father surviving the Holocaust and setting Geddy up with a mindset that stays with him to this day. Lee explained going to school with another bass player (Steve Shutt) who chose ‘slapping pucks’ over ‘slapping the bass’. Geddy brought the audience ‘into the room’ as Neil Peart auditioned for RUSH which was eerily as familiar (humor -wise) as Lee and Lifeson spending time with Peart in the drummer’s final days. Plus ca change – plus c’est la meme chose.

Geddy Lee – if not the most famous bass player in Rock n Roll – a definitive top five, was not in attendance. Not the guy you would imagine. Instead – a typical Canadian, a typical teenager (who grew up) and a familiar ‘every-man’ sat onstage and told parts of his life from the heart. This was not an event to sell books. The pages seemingly part of a healing process for Lee. The words are there to honor his parents and his roots. The commas and the exclamation points as poignant as his friendship is / was with his band-mate (s).The paragraphs depicting a love and passion for music.

Bass players are united as much as keyboardists and singers. Not everyday you get all three to put pen on paper without writing a lyric. After all – that’s a drummer’s job. A friend’s job.