Local Rush tribute band Driven to play benefit for neuroscience research

For local drummer Matt Beeson, Rush was more than just a band, and Neil Peart was more than just a drummer.

Beeson considered Peart — one of rock’s most revered rhythm makers as well as a voracious reader, prolific writer, avid traveler and literate lyricist — a de facto father figure.

“Everything about what he did got me,” Beeson said. “The power, the precision, the control, the work ethic.”

So Peart’s death from brain cancer on Jan. 7, 2020, at age 67 hit Beeson hard, as it did hundreds of thousands of Rush fans worldwide.

Hoping to honor Peart, find some closure and raise money for a worthy cause, Beeson assembled Driven, a Rush tribute band featuring guitarist Joey Pitcher of arena rock cover band Contraflow on lead vocals.

Driven makes its public debut Saturday at Rock ‘n’ Bowl for a Peart/Rush tribute that is also a fundraiser for the Ochsner Neuroscience Institute. Showtime is 8:30 p.m.

After the Brother Martin High School drum corps presents its arrangement of the Rush instrumental “YYZ,” Driven will play two sets. The repertoire spans Rush’s self-titled 1974 debut through “The Anarchist,” a track from the band’s final studio album, 2012’s “Clockwork Angels.”

Driven plans to close with the same medley that Rush used to conclude concerts on the R30 Tour: a sampling of the “2112” saga, “Xanadu” and “Working Man.”

Beeson and Eddie Exposito, another local drummer and Rush fanatic, initially organized a Peart tribute/cancer research fundraiser in March 2020. The pandemic canceled that event, which didn’t involve live music.

Three years later, they’ve planned a far more ambitious evening, with a silent auction plus a live band to animate Rush songs.

“It’s been a lot of work," said Beeson, "and I’ve loved every second of it.”

'I was obsessed, and still am'

The 53-year-old Beeson’s journey into Rush fandom began in 1980, when he was 11. An older brother interrupted his viewing of “The Dukes of Hazzard” to make him listen to the Rush classic “Tom Sawyer."

It was a life-changing moment.

“I keyed in on the drummer. I didn’t know what he was doing, but I wanted to do that.”

As a middle-class suburban kid in New Orleans East, he identified with Peart’s lyrics to “Subdivisions,” a song about suburban teenage angst. From that point forward, Beeson was a dedicated disciple of all things Rush.

“I was obsessed, and still am,” he said. “It should have gotten old, but it didn’t. Everybody who knows me knows I’m a giant Rush fan.”

In the early 1990s, Beeson was the drummer in local alternative rock band Deadeye Dick, but left before the band scored a national hit with “New Age Girl.”

Deadeye Dick sometimes shared a bill with another local alt-rock band, Fresh Young Minds; Exposito was the drummer. They bonded over their mutual love of Rush.

Beeson, who studied audio production at a conservatory, eventually quit playing music.

But after the death of his mother and a divorce, he treated himself to a custom-made, seven-piece drum kit, with built-in microphones, from DW Drums, the company that crafted Peart’s kits from the mid-‘90s onward.

“I wanted it to be as Neil-y as possible,” Beeson said. “It’s the last drum kit I’ll ever buy.”

That’s the kit he’ll use Saturday. He wants to salute Peart just as Peart saluted one of his idols, Buddy Rich, with two “Burning For Buddy” tribute albums. Beeson will try to mimic Peart’s drum parts as closely as he can.

Rush tribute band drummers may hit the right drums and cymbals at the right time, but don’t always match Peart’s trademark power. Beeson tunes his drums tightly, as Peart did, and tries to replicate the master’s intensity.

“I’m aiming to play hard like Neil did. I’m trying to get in his head and deliver the best Neil product I can. His parts are orchestrated. Some people think that’s a weakness. But that orchestration makes his parts so much a part of the song that you can’t not play it like he did.

“Fans expect to hear that. It’s a point of pride for me. It will be an achievement to pull it off. I’m sure it will be full of mistakes.”

Recruiting a band

He’s bonded with the other musicians in Driven over their shared drive to play the music accurately. Years ago he met guitarist Chris Novak while filling in as the drummer in Novak’s band. Based on Novak’s gear and attire, Beeson correctly pegged him as a Van Halen fan. Novak was also into Rush.

When Eddie Van Halen died shortly after Peart, Beeson and Novak considered a dual Rush/Van Halen tribute show. At Novak’s suggestion, they focused on Rush.

Looking for a singer, Beeson approached Contraflow frontman Derrick LeFevre. LeFevre suggested Pitcher, who sings the Rush selections that Contraflow performs.

As a boy, Pitcher was a “Partridge Family” fan who wanted to be David Cassidy, the singing guitarist who got all the girls. The discovery of Alice Cooper changed everything.

Kiss, Led Zeppelin and Rush soon followed. Seeing Rush at the old Warehouse concert hall along the Mississippi River in 1977 “was a life-changer,” Pitcher has said. “Rush was the end-all for me.”

Still in need of a bassist, Beeson reached out to Mike Brown, a Brother Martin classmate of Exposito’s who is fluent on a variety of instruments. Brown suggested Bobby Rodwig, a doctor who is also a bassist.

To master the complex Rush catalog, Beeson, Pitcher, Novak and Rodwig have averaged at least one rehearsal a week since January.

“This is four people who are so into this idea,” Beeson said. “It’s kind of perfect.”

Beeson is the CEO of Swamp Dragon Hot Sauce, which is infused with liquor instead of vinegar. The company’s mascot, Marvin, is a cartoon dragon that could pass for a friendlier version of the dragon that appears on the cover of the “Rush in Rio” concert album.

Marvin the dragon and Rush’s signature red star adorn the kick drum that Beeson will play during Saturday's show.

“Hopefully it’s consequential. I’ve got to do it. It’s the send-off that I need.”