TORONTO — Ed Robertson can thank the guys in Rush for helping him go full-tilt on his pinball machine obsession.
For decades, the Barenaked Ladies frontman has played, collected and repaired the classic arcade games but he’d never had an opportunity to partake in designing a machine until Geddy Lee reached out a few years ago.
The lead vocalist of Rush was kicking off a project with guitarist Alex Lifeson to turn their legendary Canadian band into an epic pinball experience with Chicago manufacturer Stern Pinball.
They hoped Robertson might consider joining as their resident pinball wizard, and explain the mysteries of the classic arcade game and suggest ways they could raise the bar.
“Pinball is kind of like rock ‘n’ roll under glass,” Robertson said in an interview from his Toronto home.
“At the best of times, its kinetic action; it’s lights and sounds.”
Perhaps that’s why so many rock bands have been nudged into the pinball industry over the years. The Who, the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Kiss and the Beatles are only a few of the acts who’ve lent their name to pinball machines.
There’s also Metallica and Iron Maiden, whose pinball games stand among the best, as Robertson sees it.
“I wasn’t a fan of either of those bands but they are among my favourite pinball machines,” he said.
“Because the pinball experience transcends the band.”
Robertson got hooked on pinball in the 1980s, first at the York University campus pub and later when Barenaked Ladies began playing pub shows across Canada.
When BNL finished on stage, Robertson said he would often sneak away to a local coffee shop or laundromat to burn off his energy under the spell of those “magical black boxes.”
Eventually, the hobby became a lifestyle. He started by collecting machines in his basement, and more spread to his cottage and a storage space. Now he has so many machines he’s lost count.
“I can’t even tell you off the top of my head. I’d have to look at my spreadsheet…but 40-ish,” he estimates.
Even before he was a teenager, Roberston was a self-professed “Rush nerd” and the band’s 1981 concert at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto was his first live show. Knowing the ins and outs of their career gave him a unique perspective between the stage and the arcade.
He enlisted Metallica pinball creator John Borg to help take players on a journey through decades of the band’s career — all set to nearly two hours of music and concert footage.
Together, Robertson, Lee and Lifeson sifted through Rush’s extensive music catalogue to pick 16 songs that play on the backbox, the vertical display at the head of the machine. Some of the highlights include “Tom Sawyer,” “Subdivisions” and “The Spirit of Radio.”
The trio also recorded hundreds of lines of dialogue that play throughout the game.
In a tribute to Neil Peart, who died in 2020, Robertson fed his voice through various filters to mimic the late drummer’s interplanetary narrator on the band’s epic 20-minute song “2112” who proclaims: “Attention all planets of the Solar Federation. We have assumed control.”
“To be one of the voices in the game with Geddy and Alex’s blessing was really fun,” Robertson added.
The Rush machine is available through Stern’s website in three versions, a pro, premium and limited edition that’s already sold out, with prices that range from US$6,899 to $11,099.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 23, 2022.
David Friend, The Canadian Press