IGX

Yeah I am biased, my favorite band still together and all that.

But I will say it was the best I have seen them live, even compared to the first time I saw them and this is the best album they have done since Moving Pictures IMO.

I took my 10 year old son, a budding Rushhead with me.

They were on. Goddamn perfect.

They brought a string section with them as the new album has a good deal of strings but in addition to playing the new stuff the strings handled alot of the synth keyboard parts for songs from Moving Pictures, Signals, Hold Your Fire, Presto, Roll the Bones and Test for Echo, freeing Geddy up to groove on Bass and there was a neat interplay between Alex and the strings. It changed his feel a bit and it was good.

Alex is probably the biggest influence on me as a guitarist next to Page, Hammet, Navarro and Thayell and this interplay plus the clarity of sound that night really got me.

Geddy's voice was the best it's ever been. The way he sings on the new record puts him past " A bassist who sings because some one needs to" and it showed live as well as how he sung older songs, including "Temples of Syirnx". If he sung that way in 76, Rush would have been much bigger.

They palyed for about an hour, took a 15 minute break, played a cool film (My boy loves their little films, he has their type of sense of humour.) and then came on for another hour plus. Then they thanked their string section, noting this was the first time they ever had other musicians play with them on stage in 40 years (other than a 1 song jump on). "Now it's time for us to be a 3 peace again." Geddy said. The lights went low and then the synths from 2112 came on and they went into the first blast of" 2112 Overture" and my boy got excited. When it goes into the clean chords and "And the meek shall inherit the Earth" I watched my boy spellbound singing the words and then he just went nuts with the first chords of "TheTemples of Syrinx" and he kept going nuts into "Grand Finale" and was howling when " Attention all Planets of the Solar Federation! We have assumed control!" came over the explossions."

Other highlight were them playing " Red Sector A". Something about the son of Holocaust survivors singing a song written about his mother's time in and liberation from the Death camps hits you in the heart. " For my Father and my Brother it's too late but I must help my Mother stand up strait." and " I can hear the gunfire at the prison gates. Are our liberators here or is it just too late?" had as much feeling as any blues or love song I ever heard.

They went off stage after saying good night but then came back out and did "Tom Sawyer" and a perfected version of "Working Man". They have started "Working Man" as a Reggae skank for a few year now but they seem to have really honed it in beyond just vamping and it sounded almost like The Police, complete with Alex doing Andy Summers type delayed chords before going old school style.

These guys are my Dad's age and many bands that old who are still together just go through the motions with back up guitarist and keys and are but a shadow of their formmer glory but not Rush. They were tighter, yet more relaxed than I have ever seen them live or on live recordings from their early 80s prime. The new stuff was fucking great.

Neil is still the best fucking living drummer in the World and his feel is way more expressive now. All that swing he's played must have done something.

If your into Rush or were, do get the album and go see them if they hit your town.

My faith in them was totally backed up that night. Unless Doctor Who comes along and takes me back to Zepplin in the early 70s I don't think I will ever see a better all round show by a band I love so much. Soundgarden 92, Paul Weller 95, and Motorhead/Slayer 89 are as close as it gets for me.

I very well might croak one day when I am as old as Andy and probably grooving to " Something for Nothing" or "Bastile Day".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqKKhuurHtc
Drum Solo and "Red Sector A" from the New Hampshire show. 1st show of tour. We were the second.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqvFlokJ ... re=related
"Headlong Flight" From Clockwork Angels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mCiEl8U ... ure=fvwrel

2112 from the 9-9-12 Bristow,Va.show we were at. Not great video but the sound is good and this is about 50 to 100 feet from where Liam and I were at on 2112.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha5zp9vD ... ure=relmfu
"Canies" from Clockwork Angels, N.H show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha5zp9vD ... ure=relmfu
"The Anarchist" from Cloakwork Angels, N.H. show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3ehVBcA ... re=related
"Subdivisions" and opening, N.H. Show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm9E6O7e ... re=related
"Halo Effect" from Clockwork Angels,N.H. show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEjmKZZt ... ure=relmfu
"Far Cry" from Snakes and Arrows, N.H. show.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InJ-w1-3ZhU
"Red Sector A" live in Columbus Ohio, 2012