DueReflection

this thread has been so full of win.

most excellent, thanks fellas...

much to my chagrin i haven't caught them live since they opened for GD back in '95 -- wondering if anybody who's seen them in recent years can tell me if they still cover "Pimper's Paradise" or was that a one-tour thing?

do they have a deadbase/wilcobase? (crowbase?)

either way, i gotta get caught up...

Presto tour was great, back before the days of Internet spoilers, i thought for sure i was getting another TSOR opener but instead got hit with Force Ten.

the current and last tour's show openers have been ho-hum but i really liked hearing Limelight following YYZ, just like on the LP.

i feel the same way about Overture>Temples of Syrinx that you do about Working Man... out of the tours i have attended, i think there was only one year where they didn't go to the well, again. (technically two tours, leg 1 of S&A they were alternating Summertime Blues/DEW).

when they brought back Overture>Temples for leg 2 i felt like leaving... i hate to use the word ubiquitous because i sound like some hump but j.h. christ.

good thing my leg 2 ticket was a comp -- those shows were a total downgrade, essentially they swapped out Entre Nous, Secret Touch, Circumstances, and DEW for A Ghost Of A Chance (i like it a lot but why not have replaced The Larger Bowl instead?), The Trees (ditto but have seen it often) and Overture>Temples.

found a peculiar link on the archive.org from the day of the '81 St. Paul, MN show we've been discussing

Jerry getting interviewed by mutants

The China Doll-> UJB (tale end) transition is one of my favorites from this ^ show.....

i've been enjoying this show, thx for the recommendation... how often did we get post-drums/space UJB??

I wish they'd drop this song and Working Man. They've both become bathroom/beer break songs.

i was late getting to Shoreline and didn't care all that much when i missed TSOR... Working Man i'm cool with because i never caught it before and they cut loose.. was so irie'd up the reggae intro was a'ight by me.

i've had several rush stages with the classic albums. my first show was presto. i'm kind of revisiting the classic stuff and will then dive into power windows and hold your fire with more attention. there's got to be some good stuff there. for some reason hold your fire seems to be more memorable to me b/c of the singe and force ten. however, i couldn't hum one tune from power windows.

 

 

btw-the first album is great. it's kind of in a category all its own. it's a competent 70s hard rock album as far as i'm concerned. it's funny to me that rush classic rock staples are working man then spirit of radio and tom sawyer.

right, you know live you're guaranteed to get TSOR and TS, it's a lock... early on in the Presto tour, they had dropped TSOR (played it every tour since Permanent Waves came out) but mid-tour they began encoring with it (early tour first encore was The Big Money)... i think that's the closest they came to veering away from trotting out ALL the classics on a given tour.

i doubt they'll ever do a rarities show but if they did i'd probably do backflips (and i mean a setlist like A Farewell To Kings, Lessons, Making Memories, Cinderella Man)... they seriously should do a show like that, with the first set being all go-to songs, get the meatheads out of there early, then reward the sophisticated ears.

all chest-puffing aside, my first concert wasn't until the Power Windows tour (i believe that was the last tour where people 'camped out' overnight for tickets, an era long past us) but i think the first songs that hooked me in middle school were Closer To The Heart then Freewill, then Limelight -- those same songs i claim to be passe'.

one thing i'll give Rush credit for in their more recent tours is how they've gone away from the corny medleys they fell back on for years (R30 intro excluded because that was fuckin' great) and instead play entire songs during encores (A Passage To Bangkok; La Villa, Working Man).

my best guess is that next tour will be another LP-length set -- 2112 most likely. (which means i'll get the tune "Lessons" then?), though a more logical/easier on their age choice might be Permanent Waves as they've already played it all live except for Different Strings.

On your recommendation I got this from Netflix. Definitely some funny scenes and worth watching, but overall I thought they dragged out numerous jokes and storylines that weren't funny and/or they didn't milk the ones that had potential.

late to the dance on this one, sorry re: Electric Apricot.

agreed on all fronts, certainly some dry spots but there are a few scenes that are pissers:

-of course the Burning Man song

-the dude who made up "the cube" dance at Earth Day in Modesto

-Gordo's Jimi incense

-Claypool's glass-blowing segment

-Aiwass treehouse scene

-the tapers arguing about the Schoeps MK4 mic no longer being the best

after the first 20 mins or so it tapers off until Gordo repulses Warren Haynes.

Time Stand Still from Hold Your Fire.

this is dated, not sure if this has already been posted up in this thread:

CONGRESS DEBATES COOLNESS OF RUSH

August 9, 2000 | ISSUE 36•27

WASHINGTON, DC–Continuing its long-running debate on the subject Monday, members of Congress argued the merits of Canadian power trio Rush. "'The philosopher and the plowman, each must play his part'?" asked House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX). "C'mon. Neil Peart must be the most pretentious lyricist in arena-rock history. Gentlemen, forget these bloated, overrated '70s dinosaurs."

Countered longtime Rush loyalist Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR): "Keep talking, man, the tunes say it all: 'Passage To Bangkok'? 'By-Tor And The Snow Dog'? That part in 'Red Barchetta' where [Rush bassist/vocalist] Geddy [Lee] sings about the gleaming alloy aircar shooting toward him two lanes wide? Look me in the eye and tell me that doesn't rock, motherfucker!" The deliberations are expected to continue throughout the week.

Was that the tour Primus opened? I missed that, but I might have been at that Dead show.

yes, what a double bill THAT must have been...

i second what jff said above. for me personally, i love everything from fly by night (2nd album) to grace under pressure. early albums have more of a hard rock bent where as the latter 70s and early 80s have a cleaner prog sound. just my 2 cents.

that being said, Hemispheres is my favorite rush album. one long, compelling epic, 2 tight rockers, and a nice instrumental.

live Rush is where it's at (i mainly fiend on their bootlegs these days).

i hate to say this because i love them but (and a few people i know will disagree) don't go near any albums after Roll The Bones.

a good starting point, like what VH said -- Fly By Night thru GuP but i'll amend that an LP further and include Power Windows; that spans 11 years or so. Hold Your Fire ('87-88) is a bit of a fall off and marked the end of electronica Rush (which i actually like a lot of)... but hell, the eponymous debut is a good starting point too, Finding My Way? that might be one of my favorite songs of all time, by anybody.

FBN, Caress of Steel & 2112 are one 'era' of sorts; A Farewell To Kings with the Cygnus X1 continuation to Hemispheres is the next; Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures is an ambitious time (and widely considered the band's peak) with the final cut on MP, Vital Signs, a foreshadowing to the 'new'[at that time] Rush sound. Signals, a phenomenal album, i'd put it in my top 3 or 4... they went full-blown electronic with Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows and Hold Your Fire -- the synth-saturated albums that alienated most hardline 70s rocker types but it's the era i grew up on and still love.

Presto ('89) is a strange album, produced by Ruppert Hine (The Fixx) but i think it has two of my favorite Rush songs of all-time, Show Don't Tell (which was sorta the 'back to riff rock' Rush track) and Superconductor (friend of mine who is a Rush stalker and has literally seen them over 100 times ended up in that video).

Roll The Bones was an LP i didn't care for much when it came out but lately i am FIENDING on a bootleg from that tour. Counterparts and Test For Echo followed, but i didn't much care for those albums and still don't to this day -- in fact, i'd mark this era as the time i stopped subscribing (didn't catch a tour again from Presto until S&A first leg, 17 years!). Neil's wife and daughter tragically died after the T4E tour and they didn't do anything for 7 years until Vapor Trails, which was a bland effort but spelled the triumphant return of Peart.. as mentioned previously, i think S&A is meh.

so basically, '74-'75 thru '92 and you can't go wrong. : )

as somebody poignantly added earlier on, bouncy songs like New World Man are a thing of the past for whatever reasons...

sorry so long-winded : (

thanks for the info. i've heard times were tough between steel and 2112. didn't really know the whole story though.

 

btw-i need to check out some 92 shows. i like to hear deep cuts from not so famous albums live.

i can hook up you or anybody else who'd like copies of some good SBDs... i'm not the guy with a trillion boots but what i do have is "top notch, top notch!"

thanks for the info. i've heard times were tough between steel and 2112. didn't really know the whole story though.

 

btw-i need to check out some 92 shows. i like to hear deep cuts from not so famous albums live.

were you at the Omni in '92, when the stars aligned (see signature)?

Grateful Dead was 3/3/92, Rush 3/4/92.

i think i was in FL at the time and theoretically could have made it but i blew it.

in my defense though, post-Brent Dead was [for me]... not so good.

they don't understand, these are NEW Pornographers.

nobody's gonna burn in hell far as they know.

I was at this one too. Wild stuff.

 

That '82 St. Paul; I was listening to it last week. Very solid show. Iirc Bobby makes an announcement paging some dude in the audience.

 

The '81 St. Paul is fantastic, as well. In particular the UJB-> Playin->China Doll->UJB->Playin out of Space.

Supreme.

i'm gonna check out that '81 on the archive right now, hadn't heard it yet...

(*edit* looks like Charlie Miller remasters AUD tapes too??)

1981-07-10 St. Paul, MN

yeah, there's some dude on the '82 tape getting paged urgently, doesn't sound like good news -- then they launch into Lost Sailor.

"We called it the 'Down The Tubes Tour', we joked about it among ourselves. By the end of the that year we were unable to pay our crew's salaries - or our own." - Neil Peart, Classic Rock, Oct. 2004

Tour recap

love that site, so many tidbits:

Setlists

 

The only confirmed setlist is Rush's supporting set for KISS on Nov. 15, 1975; any other published setlists are false or unsubstantiated.

Before 1999, when a recording of the Nov. 15, 1975 show first began circulating, fraudulent recordings of this tour were circulated, which accordingly led to the circulation of false setlists. In addition, for many years rumors spread regarding the setlist of a rumored soundboard recording, supposedly in the possession of a Jean Weinrib, aka Geddy's cousin, of Rush headlining in Toronto on January 10, 1976. However, the existence of this recording is believed to be nonexistant and its setlist unsubstantiated, as Ian Grandy, a former member of Rush's road crew from that period, has stated that he never heard of any such cousin, and that the rumored soundboard recording does not exist.

 

November 15, 1975 (supporting set [note, no authentic headlining setlists have surfaced])

Bastille Day

Anthem

Lakeside Park

The Necromancer

By-Tor and the Snow Dog

Working Man->

Drum Solo

In The Mood

my first show

4/18/82

earthquake space

 

I was like WTF was that

not sure exactly when drums/space became a nightly staple but during the aforementioned 8/6/82 St. Paul show they did so much jamming out of Saint of Circumstance that they just sorta shredded through drums (partial lineup) into space... pretty wild 2nd set.

I don't need that.

 

I believe the song has been played a few times since then.

yeah, i should clarify, i meant The Necromancer in its entirety... Geddy said they were all 'really high' when they wrote/recorded Caress of Steel and the three of them were in love with it -- until the ensuing 'down the tubes' tour.

I could go for that, except for The Necromancer. I have never cared much for that epic.

you just need mescaline and a red-eye transcontinental flight.

i'm not a complete-ist by any stretch but i try to grab up 1-2 decent boots per tour + shows i've attended; Necromancer is one of those songs they only played for a handful of shows waaaay back in the day; a while back i found a boot that has a full show, Necromancer included, but since it's 1975 i didn't have my hopes up... the sound is surprisingly ok and the boot actually listenable at first until -- there's a shit ton of talkers nearby the taper... at first i was irritated but they end up being a hilarious sidebar... during the Necromancer's dreary serious fade in all you can hear is the one kid chortling, "HAHAHA, LOOK AT HIS NOSE!!"

then two mins later the head douchebag who was making fun of Geddy is telling them all to STFU, total comedy.

i'm with you. i think they are kind of in a rut. it seems like all minor riffs and melodies. what happened to the uplifting melodies of...well...roll the bones.

ironic you bring up RTB as i'm absolutely hooked on the 6/14/92 Charlotte, NC soundboard i just DL'd recently.

i hope Clockwork Angels will be better than S&A, lord willing.

i guess after 35+ years their best songwriting chunks are well behind them.

plus they're fat now (except for Geddy, who's actually kinda fit for a geriatric).

[pic from Irvine 8/13/10]

82 is one of my favorite years for dead shows

summer and fall '82 are ripe... first SBD a friend ever gave me still remains to this day to be one of my favs:

1982-08-06 St. Paul, MN

greatest Lazy Lightning>Supplication, ever.

When I first read this I thought you were wrong about the "centerpiece song" thing, but the more I think about it, the more sense it makes (although I disagree with you about them using Jacob's Ladder as part of a ticket sales ploy). There aren't any other rarely played songs that come to mind that could serve the "cenetrpiece" role, except for maybe Hemispheres or some of the Caress material, and they've never seemed too keen on playing that material.

 

They could continue pulling the full album gimmick if they're looking for carrots to dangle in front of their fans. I'd be more likely to go see aFly By Night themed show than Moving Pictures themed show. I would definitely go to a Caress of Steel show since I've never seen them do any of those songs (aside from the intro to Bastille Day during the R30 tour).

who'd have thought one would find such refreshing Rush discourse on a Wilco forum, i love it.

i can't and won't go near any Rush forums -- the first thing that jumped out at me during my only recent perusal of the Counterparts board was some dickhole posting up "NEIL PEART KILLED IN MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT!!"

thing is, i'm really embarrassed for most Rush fans and in some circles don't openly proclaim fondness for the band... who wants to be lumped in with that lot of troglodytes? on the way down to Irvine, a female acquaintance said, 'wow, you might be the 1 in 10 guys at this show who get laid tonight' and i was like, "riiight, more like 1/150"... she's a good egg, i kind of turned her on to Rush; thought she was one of these women who only liked a bunch of bands i never heard of then she brought me by her office one time and there it was -- a framed picture of the Grateful Dead, on the floor/corner of her office!

sandbagger...

i'm digressing.

enjoying your posts buddy. so, do you like the Presto album? how about the most recent stuff?

 

i'd forgotten that alex spilled the beans about jacobs ladder. i think there was talk of them doing perm waves before the idea to do moving pictures was decided upon. that may have been where the jl comment came from.

 

these guys are pretty nice about throwing a bone to big fans. they always seem to play some random tune from the 80s as well as recent bust outs like entre nous. they also gotta keep the classic rock crowd happy with tom sawyer etc:)

thanks dude... the Presto album has some dry spots for sure and i wouldn't consider it 'great' but good, and a most excellent tour.

as for the more recent stuff... i'm mixed; during the S&A tour i liked how they played Secret Touch and One Little Victory from Vapor Trails LP (liked the placement of OLV too, as first encore, kind of a big F-U we already played all the hits) but VT is not a very good album.

and the S&A album, meh... i like a couple tunes from S&A (Workin' Them Angels, 'moving picture' is mentioned in the lyrics so naturally they included it this tour, and i like Faithless) but talk about another big F-U last tour, the way the first FIVE songs of Set 2 were all from S&A was a bit much to digest... during that tour i was ok with the songs but it's not like i've listened to S&A since.. it's just not a very good album.

was NOT a big fan of either of the newest tunes BU2B and Caravan but by the time i got to Irvine they really grew on me...

("no new stuff, play Takin' Care of Business... now get to the 'workin' overtime' part!!!")

I really like the studio version of Fire on the Mountain. It has sort of an "icy" quality to it which could never be recaptured live. In fact, as many great Scarlet > Fire combos as there are out there, I've never really heard a great vocal performance on a live Fire.

i like this one:

Jamaica '82

hilarious! 'their saint stephen.' they're a great band with some of those classic songs that make me want to pump my fist in the air and just jump up and play air guitar. there was a pretty strong rumor that they were supposed to play jacob's ladder this tour. no luck. i too could do without the goofy movies, medley, and the messing with la villa. oh well. still not sure i'm gonna hit the show in atlanta in a few weeks.

 

fyi-i'm pretty sure the mr. incident was on the presto tour. saw that tour with mr. big opening.

yep, that was 5/1/90 at the Omni (i have a fantastic DAT master of that show, the crowd is on the verge of fainting the entire time they're so into it, but not in a way that's obtrusive to the recording).. Presto was a GREAT tour.

these days their shows are attended predominately by stiffs who sit on their hands the entire time and meatheads.

Jacob's Ladder wasn't just a strong rumor, there's an Alex Lifeson interview where he came out and said they'd be playing it; was kinda miffed that they didn't end up including it this tour and that Alex fully mis-repped, for ticket sale purposes i'm surmising.... my other guess is that they didn't play JL because they needed a centerpiece song for next tour and didn't want to wring the lemon dry.

most fans were likely pleased enough to have caught the The Camera Eye.

as for Analogman's desired setlist additions, hey, you never know, in recent tours they seem to break out a never-before-played-live gem (Entre Nous in 2007; Presto in 2010).

i'm a big fan of Caress of Steel... have strange memories tied to that tape in my Walkman... as a 16-yr old stoner i flew to Calif. with my parents to visit my brother, and only had CoS and Pink Floyd Animals to listen to.. oh, i took a micro-dot just before boarding, like that was some swell idea -- sure, who doesn't fly, w/ their parents, tripping on mescaline?

Studio Dead is largely ignored, but "Shakedown Street" is a really good single.

indeed, i like that Lowell George had his pawprints on that entire LP, really lent a slickness to it... "From The Heart Of Me" sounds real sweet too, with Donna singing in key (or pitch modulated?) ; )

i don't mind hearing something like Workingman's Dead once in a blue moon, it's a brilliant LP but they'll always be known for their live work; and hey, who am i kidding?

i live at the archive.org site.