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Exit Stage Left audio


jnoble
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Always wondered why ESL sounded so murky echo-ey and muddy compared to the other live albums. I know their respective instruments played a part, especially Lee's fat Ric tone, but did they record that via soundboard or other means because as one person here put it, it sounds like it was done with a mic wrapped in a pillow from the arena parking lot lol
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Always wondered why ESL sounded so murky echo-ey and muddy compared to the other live albums. I know their respective instruments played a part, especially Lee's fat Ric tone, but did they record that via soundboard or other means because as one person here put it, it sounds like it was done with a mic wrapped in a pillow from the arena parking lot lol

 

Bit I highlighted just made me lol out loud (I'm so sorry....! :LOL: )

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Horrible live album. It does sound muddy and not really live. You can barely hear the audience, which to me, is important in a live concert audio or video production.

 

That tour actually opened with 2112, but in the ESL video, Limelight is the first song. So, right there, I didn't like it because it didn't seem like a true concert. Also, no drum solo on the video. I guess they had time issues, but to omit the drum solo in a Rush show? That was a bad choice.

 

Grace Under Pressure live is as good as it gets with a live Rush recording. It's just about perfect.

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They re-recorded a lot of their parts afterwards in the studio so it sounds a lot faker than their other live albums. It's my least favorite for that reason.

 

I still have yet to pick out that parts that were overdubbed because after 27 years of listening to it, I don't know

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Horrible live album. It does sound muddy and not really live. You can barely hear the audience, which to me, is important in a live concert audio or video production.

 

That tour actually opened with 2112, but in the ESL video, Limelight is the first song. So, right there, I didn't like it because it didn't seem like a true concert. Also, no drum solo on the video. I guess they had time issues, but to omit the drum solo in a Rush show? That was a bad choice.

 

Grace Under Pressure live is as good as it gets with a live Rush recording. It's just about perfect.

I guess back then bands weren't as conscious about wanting to preserve stuff for the future as they maybe would be now. The band has expressed a lot of negative feelings about Exit in the years since, both about overdubbing stuff and about the sequencing. If you're going to alter things and cherry-pick, it's much better to do it the way they did it on Different Stages, where it's at least sequenced like a single concert with a beginning and end and keeps most of the important stuff.

 

All the World's a Stage is their best live album to me. Combines a great performance, great sound quality and the authenticity of being an actual live recording. Can't be beat.

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Horrible live album. It does sound muddy and not really live. You can barely hear the audience, which to me, is important in a live concert audio or video production.

 

That tour actually opened with 2112, but in the ESL video, Limelight is the first song. So, right there, I didn't like it because it didn't seem like a true concert. Also, no drum solo on the video. I guess they had time issues, but to omit the drum solo in a Rush show? That was a bad choice.

 

Grace Under Pressure live is as good as it gets with a live Rush recording. It's just about perfect.

 

GuP does sound phenomenal.

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That tour actually opened with 2112, but in the ESL video, Limelight is the first song. So, right there, I didn't like it because it didn't seem like a true concert. Also, no drum solo on the video. I guess they had time issues, but to omit the drum solo in a Rush show? That was a bad choice.

 

Full setlist. If only they could unearth the unused film....

 

2112 Part I: Overture

2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx

Freewill

Limelight

Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part I: Prelude

Beneath, Between & Behind

The Camera Eye

YYZ

Drum Solo

Broon's Bane

The Trees

Xanadu

The Spirit of Radio

Red Barchetta

Closer to the Heart

Tom Sawyer

Vital Signs

Natural Science

Working Man

Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part IV: Armageddon

By-Tor & The Snow Dog

In the End

In the Mood

2112 Part VII: Grand Finale

Encore: La Villa Strangiato

 

 

 

Edited by Lurkst
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I had the boot St Louis 1980 at around the same time as ESL and I remember diving for the volume and eq controls after playing ESL.Given that boot was a soundboard all I can say is what happened.The Sector remaster sounds a lot better.
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The band have admitted ESL was a deliberate attempt to produce something opposite to ATWAS. Polished, less raw, a collection of live songs rather than a concert.

 

In parts it's brilliant but as a project it doesn't have the same resonance as the Massey Hall recording. Not really surprising that my favourite part of it is side 2 from the PW UK tour which actually does sound like a gig briefly.

 

 

Edited by Lurkst
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Horrible live album. It does sound muddy and not really live. You can barely hear the audience, which to me, is important in a live concert audio or video production.

 

That tour actually opened with 2112, but in the ESL video, Limelight is the first song. So, right there, I didn't like it because it didn't seem like a true concert. Also, no drum solo on the video. I guess they had time issues, but to omit the drum solo in a Rush show? That was a bad choice.

 

Grace Under Pressure live is as good as it gets with a live Rush recording. It's just about perfect.

Low crowd noise,gaps between the tracks but hey it worked for the Who Live At Leeds.And there’s the rub,that is a great live album like ATWAS because of the energy.All that seems to have been lost on ESL Edited by grasbo
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They re-recorded a lot of their parts afterwards in the studio so it sounds a lot faker than their other live albums. It's my least favorite for that reason.

 

I've been hearing this for years.

 

I've also listened to bootlegs from this tour and always thought that ESL sounds pretty close to the sound at the time.

 

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Geddy once said it was a product of that particular time, and that it sounds really sterile. For me it's still my favorite live album for sentimental reasons

 

Maybe sterile differs from person to person but I'd name ASOH as sterile more so than any of the others

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They re-recorded a lot of their parts afterwards in the studio so it sounds a lot faker than their other live albums. It's my least favorite for that reason.

 

I've been hearing this for years.

 

I've also listened to bootlegs from this tour and always thought that ESL sounds pretty close to the sound at the time.

 

 

Thanks for the link.

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I was a huge fan of ATWAS, and was excited to hear another live Rush album. On listening, it was all so close to the studio versions I wondered what was the point? Live Killers, Wings Over America, Budokan, If You Want Blood... They all offered significant variation from the studio tracks. ESL, not so much, so I was never a fan of it.
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That tour actually opened with 2112, but in the ESL video, Limelight is the first song. So, right there, I didn't like it because it didn't seem like a true concert. Also, no drum solo on the video. I guess they had time issues, but to omit the drum solo in a Rush show? That was a bad choice.

 

Full setlist. If only they could unearth the unused film....

 

2112 Part I: Overture

2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx

Freewill

Limelight

Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part I: Prelude

Beneath, Between & Behind

The Camera Eye

YYZ

Drum Solo

Broon's Bane

The Trees

Xanadu

The Spirit of Radio

Red Barchetta

Closer to the Heart

Tom Sawyer

Vital Signs

Natural Science

Working Man

Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part IV: Armageddon

By-Tor & The Snow Dog

In the End

In the Mood

2112 Part VII: Grand Finale

Encore: La Villa Strangiato

Oh man, that would probably be the crème de la crème of all their concert videos, just based on pure nostalgia alone. Much less the fact that it's the full Moving Pictures Tour and set list. Just seeing some of the songs on the video that were not on the album is a tease that there probably was a lot more footage originally shot from those shows. They should dig it up and put it together. I'd certainly buy it and watch the hell out of it!

Edited by Cmutt
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Based on what I've read from past discussions about it, whatever unused film footage from the ESL shoot in Montreal is long gone. Ditto the GUP tour

 

Btw, did anyone ever notice how opposite ESL and GUP are visually? Where ESL was grainy and dark and underlit in many places giving it a nice atmosphere, GUP was seemingly recorded under the brightest spotlights ever invented. Its TOO well lit! I need to wear a welders mask to watch most of it lol

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Always wondered why ESL sounded so murky echo-ey and muddy compared to the other live albums. I know their respective instruments played a part, especially Lee's fat Ric tone, but did they record that via soundboard or other means because as one person here put it, it sounds like it was done with a mic wrapped in a pillow from the arena parking lot lol

 

Guys and gals!

 

This could almost make me cry, but I won't!

 

I remember buying "Exit Stage Left" on cassette in the 8th grade.

I put that sucker in my old Pioneer two in one stereo and pressed play.

Even then at that young age I was saddened by the sound quality.

But what really killed my young soul was that to my young ears, YYZ sounded way too slow!

But then the shock to my heart came quick when all of the sudden there was a drum solo magically inserted into YYZ.

I became obsessed with that solo guys. I think didn't even know about "All The World's A Stage" yet so when I heard that solo I was completely blown away and I had to learn it!

But yes, the sound quality is shit. It was really an album I was totally in love with bak then as a kid, but now today I get it. Yet I still have a soft spot for that solo.

It changed my life.

I still do the cowbell bit in my own solo just for some good ole homage.

Neil changed my life in a positive way.

When I met him I blew it. I had my 20 second window of time to thank him for being a major influence in my life. Yet it was like a Mexican Standoff instead. Two souls staring into empty eyes like two deer in headlights.

 

I get it guys.

 

I met the man.

 

I never get starstruck.

 

I was great with Geddy and Alex in Toronto with my friends.

 

But Neil looked angry. He stared at me all dressing black like Johnny Cash. Greasy long wavy black hair. Red bloated face. Guy had "All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes." Yep that's a my favorite Pete Townshend album. Just trying to be PC on a public forum. A first for me? LOL! FUCKKK IT!

 

It is what it is.

 

I was so pissed off when that "EXIT STAGE LEFT" video vhs came out and fukking Neil talked over an edited version of the drum solo. I cried.

 

I wanted to see the entire solo damnit!

 

Then of course "A Show Of Hands" came out and the edited the damn solo again! KILLS ME!

 

All good!

 

I'll live!

 

RUSH FOREVER!

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The more expansive stuff - the Trees, Xanadu, Jacob's Ladder - sound killer on ESL. It works when there's more space and band dynamics.

 

But with SOR, and CTTH, YYZ, and Tom Sawyer - everything is bogged down in mud. Alex's guitar is the culprit - mid rangey yuckiness.

 

---

 

There's a Police boot on youtube where the band recorded their life set in a rehearsal space to be used on a future "Live" record. They didn't record vocals for the purpose of doing those in the studio.

 

 

I believe it was the same deal with ESL.

Edited by chemistry1973
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