R40 LIVE

For the celebration of the 40 and plus years of existence of the band, they went on tour in North America. This show was filmed in Toronto, their hometown. The band wanted to make things as usual, different with new visuals. The concept was to get back in time with the technology at first, the presence of the amplifier on stage, to the beginning of the band when they remove those amplifiers to see the band play with a curtain and no light show. Also the use of the screen to illustrate some animated videos on many songs was restricted to the minimum.

The show start with the strait forward hard rock number "The Anarchist" who his a favorite for the Rush fans. This is followed by 2 songs from their last two albums. Then for the first time, "How it Is" is played live, which seems to me like a odd choice considering that "Vapor Trails" contains more interesting songs. But playing "Losing it" for the first time with the original violin player Ben Mink was special, the song is the highlight of this rather disappointing first set list. The second set begin with 3 more favorite tracks before getting to the more progressive and longer tracks. "Natural Science" and for the first time in more than 30 years, "Jacob's Ladder" is played with all the laser effect needed to fit with this atmospheric song. Then the band did medleys of the Cygnus X suite before getting to "Xanadu". The encore brings back another rare song : "Lakeside Park".

The camera work and editing are very pleasant with long shots of each members and there's some nice balance between distant and close camera shots. David Bottrill did a good job compare to the Clockwork Angels DVD with more bass sound and this time Neal's drums are heard a lot more. There's 3 bonus song on the Blu-Ray and 6 on the CD. It's a bit of a of a let down that those 3 extra songs were not available for us to see. Grab this one, could be the last tour for the band and last live recording.