[atlantaprog] Re: Rush Review...?

Hi, Bill!
Yeah, Sean, Derik, and I went. Didn't see Wade, though--I guess he's gigging or something.
(Strange--I didn't see any of my old friends there. Thank goodness for my newer ones!) 


That being said...anybody care to discuss the concert?
A good show, as usual, with an *un*usual set list. They played at least two songs, maybe three, that I thought I'd never get to hear live. Four tunes from *Moving Pictures*, four from *Permanent Waves* (!), exactly two from before then, exactly four tunes from the entire stretch from *Signals* to *Test For Echo*, and not always the ones you'd expect. Two from *Vapor Trails*, *eight* from *Snakes & Arrows*. Eight albums entirely unrepresented. You can't say they don't have a pretty solid idea of what their core repertoire is, even if we may disagree. ("Closer To The Heart" is still missing; I thought they'd had a long enough break from it to put it back in. Maybe next time.)
A relatively mellow solo (like the show, actually) from Neil (which ain't saying much), but quite inventive. A progression from the previous ones, but not much that we've actually heard before.
They opened with "Limelight", and the bit of trouble Geddy seemed to have vocally worried me a bit, but he was fine for most of the rest of the show. One tune got transposed down, and even there he found himself having to sing a few lines an entire octave down. 

Oh, and for one song, Geddy *played the Rickenbacker*.  Yessss!


I haven't even picked up the new Rush platter yet!!! Can you believe that!!!
Well...It's a Rush album. About as good as all the others since *Moving Pictures*. As someone else said, more a next step from *Test For Echo* than from *Vapor Trails*. It's not knocking me out, but there's something that keeps drawing me to it--really weird. Three instrumentals, including a two minute 12-string acoustic solo from Alex called "Hope", a slightly longer jam called "Malignant Narcissism", and a six-minute quasi-workout called "The Main Monkey Business"; they were all played at the show. Did you at least get to hear "Far Cry" streamed from their Web site? 

Also played from the new album:
"Working Them Angels" (directly following "Far Cry", where it should be, darn it!) 
"The Larger Bowl"  (introduced on film by two old friends)  ;-)
"Spindrift"
"The Way The Wind Blows"
"Armor And Sword"

SPOILER ALERT
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Also played:
"Circumstances"
"A Passage To Bangkok"
"Entre Nous"
"Mission"
"Dreamline"
"One Little Victory"
"Secret Touch"
"Tom Sawyer"
"YYZ"
"Witch Hunt"
"The Spirit Of Radio"
"Natural Science" (with the by-now-usual edits)
"Freewill"
"Subdivisions"

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