EXIT... STAGE LEFT

Exit.Stage Left is the bands last album to fall into what I call their "Mid-Era Progressive" phase. These albums include: A Farewell to Kings (1977), Hemispheres (1978), Permanent Waves (1980), Moving Pictures (1981), and Exit Stage Left "Live" (1981). These albums make up a core group of RUSH's most popular and progressive offerings of all time. Except, of course, for "2112", but it falls into they're early phase.

For over 20 years, from 1976 to 1998, RUSH stuck to a pattern of 3 studio albums, then a live release. Inevitably, each one of those live albums seemed to mark the end of another "musical chapter" in the band's history. Rush ends their progressive phase with Exit Stage Left. A Live album that captures the band's latest and most extensive tour yet, the Moving Pictures tour. This rolled right into the Exit Stage Left tour in October of 1981. Featuring recordings from both the previous Permanent Waves tour and the Moving Pictures tour, Exit Stage Left is Rush's second official live release and is considered by many fans as the band's best ever live offering. The album offers a very nice cross-section of songs from their latest album to selected classics from their progressive era such as Jacob's Ladder and Xanadu, both extended length "sci-fi epics". We also get a couple of the band's best instrumentals: YYZ and La Villa Strangiato, the later clocking in at almost 10 minutes. My only complaint with this album is the recording quality. I have this on vinyl and compact disc, and the sound issue is the recording is very "bass heavy" with little high- end sound. I used to be able to fix this problem with a little bias adjustment on my cassette recorder to create a little artificial treble, but this can't be done with CD's. The remaster sounds a little bit better than the older first issue disc.