Geddy Lee and Rush rock the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre Tuesday night. (WENN.COM photo)

TORONTO - The moving pictures between songs were a bit hokey, but when Rush decided to perform their classic 1981 album Moving Pictures in its entirety Tuesday night at Toronto's Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, none of that really mattered.

What did matter - in a rather perplexing manner - was how a band that isn't getting any younger seemed to get better the longer their nearly 3-hour set progressed, highlighted by the opening seven songs of the stellar second half. The synergy, talent and musicianship between drummer Neil Peart, guitarist Alex Lifeson and vocalist/bassist Geddy Lee is head-scratching considering they're "1000 years old" as Lee jokingly quipped.

Having played their hometown just last year and with another show slated this weekend for the Air Canada Centre as part of the Time Machine Tour, Rush delivered a 11-song first set which was a bit of old material as well as a loud, edgy BU2B (Brought Up To Believe) from their planned 2011 studio album Clockwork Angels. However, Time Stand Still didn't quite hit the mark, leaving perhaps a few quickly filling every nook and cranny of the venue wondering if it might be a rare off night.

Fortunately that wasn't the case as the trio hit their groove with Workin' Them Angels, the rather rambling jazz-hued nugget Leave That Thing Alone and especially on Faithless. But fans seemed to lap up signatures like The Spirit Of Radio as well as Freewill a tad more.

The first half would also show a number of brief comedic skits made for the tour, beginning with the lengthy intro ("Rash: The History Of Rush") which had Lee dressed as a cook, Lifeson a morbidly obese diner and Peart an Irish cop as a polka version of The Spirit Of Radio was performed by three other musicians. And other little touches - such as "HALFTIME" in lights on a riser during intermission, a second spoof on the history of "Rash" and the odometer working its way up to 1981 - were quirky, odd but funny.

Thankfully though Rush showed themselves to be in finer form for the latter half beginning with Tom Sawyer and YYZ, the latter getting a huge cheer from the hometown horde. Complete with intricate finger-work and challenging tempo changes, the songs from Moving Pictures were brought to life easily. But none compared to the lengthy odyssey entitled The Camera Eye. Here all three musicians seemed to steer the winding song at times, with two of the three often playing off each other as was the case with Peart and Lifeson roughly halfway through.

Following some Nickelback-ish fireballs during Witch Hunt, Rush tossed in another new tune Caravan with mixed results alongside a slightly reworked, tamer and acoustic-fuelled Closer To The Heart. Yet the homestretch wouldn't be a sign the group was slowing down as 2112 Overture and the ensuing Temple Of Syrinx simply dazzled.

Given the quality of the performance considering the quantity of material played and all three being fortysomething-challenged, maybe they actually have a time machine.