Yes I am a fan of Rush, a huge fan for as long as I can remember.......
But I am also a fan of great live shows. I love everything about a concert. Getting to the venue, seeing all the people in line and making their way into the venue, all the talk about the artist playing, the new album, what they are expecting, what they want to hear and see. The "cigarette aroma" that floats by in your seat every once in awhile......then just settling in, as curtain time approaches and the fever pitch of the crowd begins.....and then the lights dim.
When this happens at a Rush show, you are taken to another world almost, a musical world of wonderful sounds and sights, for 3 hours nothing else matters. The crapp day you just had at work, seems a million miles away, as it should. All that is a Rush live show will make you forget the bad and bring a huge smile to your face and fill your body with great vibes.
The opening video is OK, not as good as say Snakes & Arrows or Time Machine, in fact all three intro, halftime and outro videos are just OK. A bit on the dark side but that seems to fit with the theme.......Who is the Watchmaker? My kids prefer the funny videos of Time Machine.
Subdivisions to start the show is brilliant....for 3/4 of the song the Seattle crowd was screaming, it was so hard to hear the intricacies of the playing, but the screaming was cool. Then Big Money started and the crowd went bananas again. After that as we all know they went into an 80's flashback with mainly Power Windows and Hold Your Fire material. Getting the Analog Kid from Signals was a treat, such a great song from a great album.
Geddy's voice sounded really, really good......he was hitting all the notes spot on, his tone was very good. Some of his bass lines he was doing was really good, he is such an excellent bass player.
Alex was well...Alex. His playing was very precise, I have never complained about Alex live, he is a fantastic guitarist and always a crowd favorite.....at times he is such a goofball, especially as the show winds down.
What I did not care for much at all was his solo before Halo Effect.....I did not like the sounds he was creating, it was kinda a mess to me, I am sure it was meant to be that way but I did not like it......Even on the drive home my wife brought it up as we talked with the boys about their fav parts of the show.....I was a bit surprised she had the same reaction I did.
Neil.....what can you say. The pillar that he is back there just keeping everything in time and the key to the start of most songs. How can someone keep getting better and better at what they do, we all know he is a perfectionist but this playing is on another level somehow, almost effortless...very fluid. I really enjoyed the separate drum solos, rather than one long 8min solo, he breaks it up, I like that better. the spinning drum throne during Clockwork Angels was cool too! He did mess up, once......he dropped a stick on a flip toss, I can't recall the last time I saw him do that...OMG!!
The CA String Ensemble was a treat for sure.....That was a lot of fun, I do wish their volume was a bit higher on some songs. Chicks with tattoos playing the cello and violins........sweet! The strings helped with the female audience also, Rush is not the most female friendly band, but this helped I could tell.
Overall I think the experiment worked.....It was better than some bands that have done the full orchestra backing, it was just enough but not too overwhelming to the Rush sound.
I was very pleased with the CA songs played, Halo Effect was a bit slow as was The Wreckers, I don't see those two
being a part of future shows. Two songs that for me are just OK on the album are Carnies and Headlong Flight...but I have a new appreciation for them now, those two songs live were killer!! Headlong Flight was a big crowd favorite too, the drum solo in the middle was perfect.
And to end with The Garden was brilliant......Geddy's vocals were album like, very good!
The last few songs and encore material were all fan favorites, as they should be.....These songs bring you back up, get your blood going again and finish you with a bang with 2112......
Rush is putting togther and bringing back the big concert rock shows that maybe some of us experienced with the likes of Genesis and Pink Floyd. Rush put on a show with all the bells and whistles, they spare no expense with the magnificent lighting, pyro and the multitude of big screen monitors floating in air, let alone the huge HD jumbotron monitor......makes you feel you are front row. The shows are getting better and better with each tour, I have said this before, you get your money worth when you see a Rush concert, I never feel cheated or that I paid too much.
At least another year of touring and then who knows what they will do next. I still have this wish that they will do a 70's Tour, and one last time play the songs we all know and love from those early albums....Who knows.
I highly recommend attending this tour if you can.....As always it is good to see Rush in concert, they do not disappoint, its one reason I am such a big fan, for as long as I can forsee.
Here are some pics my wife took....Enjoy!
All the stage props are pretty cool too.....although I prefer the sausage machine to this popcorn machine
CA String Ensemble
Alex solo...
The Garden, along with all the lights and screens, very cool!
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Rush CA Tour Seattle Nov 13
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bigballz wrote:
