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Rush has been one of my favorite bands since the Moving Pictures album, and for one reason or another, I have never been able to see them on any of their many tours. I was so excited to finally see them in Greensboro, NC on the time machine tour, where they would play Moving PIctures in it's entirety, as well as many other songs. Still love their music (up through mid '80s), but the show was a HUGE disapointmeint.
First and foremost, the sound quality was aweful. You could not tell what Geddy was playing, his voice was somewhat muddled, and Alex's guitar depended on which song as to wether I could hear it or not. (His accoustic on Closer to the Heart sounded GREAT). I am sorry, but a band with this much touring experience has not excuse for bad sound. I spoke to several other people who agreed. We all thought they just tried to run it too loud and ended up distorted, but whatever.
In addition to that:
Every song sounded identical to the album ('cept the bad sound quality). Zero improve. C'mon guys. The entire show was 100% canned.
Same Set list for over a year, no modifications. Again, canned.
The screen was so big, and right behind the stage that when it was on, you could not see the band in front of it. So I basically paid a lot of money to see what looked like a big video. LItterally. (I liked it better when the screen was off and I could watch the band and the light show.
Geddy Lee actually asked the audience what they wanted to hear next. How fake is that when they are playing the same set list every night!?!?!?!
Litterally, the entire audience sat in their seats 90% of the time. It was that bad.
I will say that I could tell that they were playing excellently. Even thought it was rehearsed, it was done well, if only the sound was not bad. Alex Lifeson is one of the best guitarist ever. Geddy is an incredible basist, and I don't think anything needs to be said about Neil Peart. AWESOME!!!
So I'm not dissing the band, just the show. Anyone else seen them recently and either care to disagree, or confirm?
(In contrast, I saw FURTHUR in NYC a week earlier. They are remaining members of the grateful dead. They played from 715 to 1150 with only one break. Improved EVERY song, brought guests on the stage, and they NEVER play the same song two nights in a row. Often they change the set-list mid show. It was a stellar show. Certainly not the calibre of technical skill of Rush, but they came to create music, and delivered.
Flame away! (Really, I LOVE Rush, and this hurts to post.)
I haven't seen Rush in a few years but here are a few thoughts which may or may not be relevant:
Their shows are WAY, WAY better indoors. They need to either quit doing these summer shed tours, or revamp their show to accomodate the fact that the sun is out until their show is halfway over. What's the point of lasers if the sun is still up? Generally, indoors the lasers, pyro, videos, etc. enhance the show. These things just look silly and confusing when they play outdoors, especially if you're sitting on the lawn. Also, I think they sound better in indoor venues, although to be fair, I've never seen a show where the sound was less than adequate.
Rush has rarely if ever improvised, with the exception of the goofy breakdowns they sometimes do in La Villa Strangiato where Alex does a little monologue. Neil Peart meticulously crafts every detail of his drum parts, and for good and ill, this takes the possibility of improvisation and/or jamming out of the question. The only time Peart improvises is in one section of his solo, which he claims he keeps open ended. But, you'd be hard pressed to detect any significant difference in his solo from night to night.
Rush rarely if ever changes their setlist. I think this is to accomodate their extensive use of pyro, lasers, etc. That stuff has to be carefully timed or the whole show could fall apart.
Rush needs to bring some fun back into their music, and not just their stage props and videos. Just about all of the music they've done for the last 20 years is gloomy, dark and plodding. They're good at gloomy and dark sometimes (Witch Hunt, for example), but they were once just as good at fun, bouncy tunes (see Signals and Grace Under Pressure).
Rush needs to bring some fun back into their music, and not just their stage props and videos. Just about all of the music they've done for the last 20 years is gloomy, dark and plodding. They're good at gloomy and dark sometimes (Witch Hunt, for example), but they were once just as good at fun, bouncy tunes (see Signals and Grace Under Pressure).
That's funny that you mention "Grace Under Pressure" as an example of an album full of "fun, bouncy tunes." I always thought of "Grace Under Pressure" to be the band's darkest album. Although, I guess you could argue that album does have moments of levity as well.
That's funny that you mention "Grace Under Pressure" as an example of an album full of "fun, bouncy tunes." I always thought of "Grace Under Pressure" to be the band's darkest album. Although, I guess you could argue that album does have moments of levity as well.
I mean musically, and not lyrically. Signals is a better example than Grace for what I'm trying to say.
I don't pay all that much attention to their lyrics, but even when the lyrics were dark they used to be good at upbeat sounding songs. Now, it all sounds like a huge bummer, musically AND lyrically.
Basically, all you need to know about Rush is that from their beginning up to the late '80s they used to cite very cool bands as influences, and you could hear the influence. Nowadays they name-check lame bands as influences, and you can hear it.
Rush has been one of my favorite bands since the Moving Pictures album, and for one reason or another, I have never been able to see them on any of their many tours. I was so excited to finally see them in Greensboro, NC on the time machine tour, where they would play Moving PIctures in it's entirety, as well as many other songs. Still love their music (up through mid '80s), but the show was a HUGE disapointmeint.
First and foremost, the sound quality was aweful. You could not tell what Geddy was playing, his voice was somewhat muddled, and Alex's guitar depended on which song as to wether I could hear it or not. (His accoustic on Closer to the Heart sounded GREAT). I am sorry, but a band with this much touring experience has not excuse for bad sound. I spoke to several other people who agreed. We all thought they just tried to run it too loud and ended up distorted, but whatever.
In addition to that:
Every song sounded identical to the album ('cept the bad sound quality). Zero improve. C'mon guys. The entire show was 100% canned.
Same Set list for over a year, no modifications. Again, canned.
The screen was so big, and right behind the stage that when it was on, you could not see the band in front of it. So I basically paid a lot of money to see what looked like a big video. LItterally. (I liked it better when the screen was off and I could watch the band and the light show.
Geddy Lee actually asked the audience what they wanted to hear next. How fake is that when they are playing the same set list every night!?!?!?!
Litterally, the entire audience sat in their seats 90% of the time. It was that bad.
I will say that I could tell that they were playing excellently. Even thought it was rehearsed, it was done well, if only the sound was not bad. Alex Lifeson is one of the best guitarist ever. Geddy is an incredible basist, and I don't think anything needs to be said about Neil Peart. AWESOME!!!
So I'm not dissing the band, just the show. Anyone else seen them recently and either care to disagree, or confirm?
(In contrast, I saw FURTHUR in NYC a week earlier. They are remaining members of the grateful dead. They played from 715 to 1150 with only one break. Improved EVERY song, brought guests on the stage, and they NEVER play the same song two nights in a row. Often they change the set-list mid show. It was a stellar show. Certainly not the calibre of technical skill of Rush, but they came to create music, and delivered.
Flame away! (Really, I LOVE Rush, and this hurts to post.)
I probably can't give you a good answer regarding the things in the sound crew's control. Regarding the band, they're capable of still "bringing it", but those guys are not getting any younger. That's just the reality of old-time bands these days with people the age they are. The voice loses capacity for high notes after some time, and people do slow down. I've even detected some slowdowns for Neil Peart, but he's still one of the finest drummers ever.
I saw Rush (and Van Halen as well) when they were both more or less new bands (Actually Rush had gotten big - the Hemispheres tour in the late 70's...Van Halen was brand new though)...and by the mid-1980's neither sounded the same in concert. While Rush was still good, it was somehow not the same...Van Halen sounded like crap live by the Diver Down tour.
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