Rush completely shredded Seattle!!!
Well this one will be tough, how do you put into words an experience that one will never forget? The R40 Tour is an outstanding display of the history of Rush, musically and atmosphere wise. The stage starts out with the Clockwork Angels setup and slowly gets turned back in time to end up as a very basic stage setup, stage hands throughout the show deconstruct the current stage setup to end up with a basic small setup with a couple of amps....so very cool!
The set list was spectacular, both sets. Hearing Main Monkey Business, How It Is (what a treat), Roll the Bones (very good live!) and highlight was Between the Wheels, super heavy, 10 songs in the first set takes you to intermission.
And then Set 2, heavy to what all us Rush fans want to hear and absolutely they did not fail. The whole set was highlights. The Camera Eye is always great to hear, Jacob's Ladder was stunning. I think the last time I heard that one was on the Permanent Waves Tour in 1980ish? Then the Cygnus X-1/Hemisphere parts, absolutely took you back to the late 70's, a main reason was how the stage was setup and Neil's drum kit was the former dbl kick bass, open toms and tubular bells, the sound was thick and heavy, from all three, as it was back in the day, and Xanadu was crazy good!! More tubular bells!!!!
The encore songs were distorted (in a good way), you could tell Geddy struggled singing Lakeside Park, trying to hit those high notes and to finish with Working Man they just ripped and shredded that song away!
There is no prog, progressive, hard rock, metal band (Iron Maiden comes very close) that puts on a show like Rush have been doing these past 10 years. These shows are a complete mind freak, the lights, the lasers, the videos and of course the musicianship are all stellar, top notch and nobody comes close. These are not sit down shows, some prog concerts you go to, people want to sit....BS!!!! Stand up and pound your fist and airdrum your a$$ off is what Rush make you do!
I still am not sure if this was the last time I will see them live...I hope not. I really, really hope not.
Here are some pics my wife took, as you know she takes tons of pics when we go to live shows. As I went thru all the pics she took I noticed not too many in the second part of the show....She said she was simply watching and enjoying the older songs...The songs will never get old!
First song and stage set
The stage tear down begins...
Double bass and tubular bells!!
Stacked amps
The bass and drum play at the start of Cygnus X-1, the lights on Neil like remind me of the Exit Stage Left tour
During Xanadu, the dbl neck attack!!
More tubular bells!!!! and the mini-Moog
The simple HS stage setup
The end....(hopefully not)