TIME MACHINE 2011: LIVE IN CLEVELAND

So, on Thursday last, after a shopping session with the wife, I was asked if there was anywhere I wished to go before picking my Mother up. Yes, I said, let's go to Tangled Parrot (the local independent record shop). Incredibly, she graciously agreed to this suggestion!

At said shop, I purchased this for the princely sum of £13. Even at the time I parted with said cash, I was asking myself; "do I really need another Rush live album?"

I have only seen this great band once, this on the original Moving Pictures tour. Fate, and other disasters, have meant that was the one and only time. So, to get my fix, I have brought virtually every live opus released since. My favourite remains the incredible Live in Rio, which is probably as close to the archetypal later Rush live album as you will get, in much the same way as Exit Stage Left was the archetypal early live document.

The selling point of this, in truth, was the fact it had the whole of Moving Pictures live. That album remains one of my favourite records of all time.

Sitting down to write this review brings a sense of disappointment. Is it a bad album? Well, no. As I have said in my reviews of latter day Rush albums, they are incapable of doing bad. It is, though, disappointing. The production is quite terrible, and Geddy, in particular, sounds quite awful in places. I also get the impression, especially in the period between the close of the Moving Pictures album and the "classic pieces" sequence, that we have a band merely going through the motions. Dare I say it, but Peart's drum solo verges on the boring.

Really, though, aside from the inclusion of a couple of tracks from Snakes and Ladders (which, btw, is by far and away my least favourite album by the band), most of this stuff can be heard elsewhere, and a damn sight better sounding as well.

It is probably heresy to say this, but I will say it anyway. Every single band has a shelf life. On this evidence, Rush are approaching the end of their days. This live album is one for collector's only. People, like me, who really have to have a complete sequence of a career. Otherwise, do not bother. Get the better sounds and releases of a wondrous career.