The renowned guitarist Alex Lifeson is a prolific musician who played electric and acoustic guitars alongside several other string instruments. In 1968, he founded the progressive rock band Rush and performed the backing vocals and guitar during his career with the band. Lifeson’s music career mainly consisted of his work with Rush, and he released numerous albums with the band.
In the 1970s, Rush achieved commercial success with albums such as ‘Fly By Night,’ ‘Caress Of Steel,’ ‘2112,’ and ‘A Farewell To Kings.’ Their popularity continued to grow throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and although they were active in the music scene, Lifeson announced Rush is over after their large-scale tour in 2015. Following the death of Peart on January 7, 2020, the hopes for a reunion were shattered.
When Rush was enjoying their commercial success in the ’70s, they went on numerous concert tours, and one of them was with KISS. There was an amusing incident that took place during the tour when Alex Lifeson triggered a prank war between Rush and KISS.
Alex Lifeson’s Goofy Character ‘The Bag’ And KISS’ Pie Attack Against Rush On The Stage
On June 7, 1975, KISS and Rush came together for a summer tour. Back in those days, Alex Lifeson would impersonate a character called ‘The Bag.’ ‘The Bag’ was a goofy character Alex Lifeson created by taking a paper laundry bag, drawing a face on it, and put it over his head while stuffing his hands in his pants. While impersonating ‘The Bag,’ Lifeson would use a silly voice to taunt the people around him.
‘The Bag’ was probably quite annoying, but it made KISS guitarist Ace Frehley laugh aloud. However, Gene Simmons was not that pleased with it and had no tolerance for these shenanigans. When Lifeson brought the character out to play, Simmons even stormed out of the room.
Following that, it seems Gene Simmons and the rest of KISS looked for some revenge. When Rush was on the stage finishing their final song, KISS invaded the stage. They arrived there with handfuls of cream pies and string cheese and started to launch those at Rush while they tried to continue performing. There were so many pies on the floor that it was very slippery, and that caused Rush to end their performance.
Rush did not want to be defeated that easily, and they fought fire with fire. They bought lots of Limburger cheese and put them in front of the fans on stage, making the air quite smelly. As if that were not enough, Rush wore Native American costumes and shot rubber arrows as well as cream pies towards KISS. During that day, their performances ended in chaos.
Rush members recalled these memories with a video clip from their concert documentary ‘Time Stand Still.’ You can check out that part where Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee talk about ‘The Bag’ incident below.
