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Least favorite setlists/tours


fraroc
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Clockwork Angels. I skipped that tour because of a boring setlist, actually.

 

Let me guess, not a fan of the synth era?

Actually, yes, from an album standpoint. Live, especially in these later years, they are just a concert buzzkill. The songs are relatively unknown, then they down-tempo them to the point of :zzz: .

 

One or two peppered in a set are great...but CA was just too much.

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I've only seen the Time Machine Tour, Clockwork Angels Tour, and R40. Out of those, the Time Machine tour was my least favorite, but it was still freaking awesome!!

 

I saw TM........and the crowd was pretty dead during that awful first set run of Stick it Out to Faithless. one of the WORST run of songs Rush has strung together.

 

Mick

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Out of the tours since Vapor Trails, I'd rank them in this order setlist-wise:

 

6. Time Machine Tour - Overall strong 2nd set with whole of Moving Pictures but slightly lacklustre 1st set due to the song choices from Stick It Out to Faithless. Also felt Far Cry wasn't a great choice for main set closer and that the silly intros detracted from the encores.

 

5. R30 Tour - Nice to see such a wide variety of songs from different eras but I feel the setlist recycled too much from the Vapor Trails tour and none of the songs brought back from before were particularly surprising, with the exception of Between the Wheels. The show also had too many cover songs, making for a disappointing encore.

 

4. Snakes & Arrows Tour - Overall, I like the setlists from this tour a lot as they had some interesting choices bringing back a lot of quite rare material. I'd say maybe the album showcase in the 2nd set dragged a bit with a lot of slower songs in a row. Also for me, the end of the main 2nd second set doesn't quite climax as much as some of the others.

 

3. R40 Tour - I think the 1st sets were generally a bit weak song choice-wise on this tour - too predictable for me. But that was more than made up for by the show's killer 2nd half which delivers on every level! Also, the whole chronologically backwards element to the show I thought was very cool and something I think other bands should have a go at.

 

2. Clockwork Angels Tour - Really love this setlist. Loads of great 80s songs brought out of the vault that contrast very nicely with the heaviness of the Clockwork Angels material. My only criticism is that maybe there were better opening song choices than Subdivisions, which I think lacks the punch slightly. Swap Subdivisions and The Big Money round and it would be perfect for me.

 

1. Vapor Trails Tour - Don't think I can fault this one! It flows flawlessly, has a great range of songs from different eras and just feels really cohesive, like it was thought through really thoroughly. Great stuff all round.

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Of the three I've seen, I'm not entirely sure. Time Machine and Clockwork Angels pale in comparison to the majestic R40 setlist.

 

Tentatively, I'm going to say Clockwork Angels because there was no Limelight or Freewil, and a couple weak '80s songs (I'm looking at you, Territories) lost me a little bit. It was a really good setlist—it had almost all of CA—but Time Machine had all of Moving Pictures, and I think we can all agree that R40 kicked serious a**. So, by process of elimination…sorry, Clockwork Angels Tour. I still love you, though!

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Discounting the first too tours for lack of material, I'm going to say R30 and the Presto tour.

 

Presto seems to be the mid-life crisis tour. Went to four shows during that tour and the performances I saw myself and on video weren't very inspiring to me.

 

The bunnies were great and so were the songs from Presto, but the rest of it was uninspiring. They completely emerged from that funk on the Euro-leg of the Roll The Bones Tour and it's been stellar ever since save for the R30 hiccup.

 

What's wrong with R30???

 

Weaker set than the rest of the no opening act shows for starters. Not a fan of the R30 medley to kick things off. The Spirit Of Radio should have been the opener if it was that early in the set.

 

Things really didn't start humming until Animate.in the first set and Secret Touch in the second set.

Worst encore ever.

 

Even R40 was better. Except for Heart Full Of Soul, they played NONE of my favorite Feedback tracks which was pretty much the rest of the album.

 

That said, the arrangements of Subdivisions, Earthshine and Red Barchetta were awesome as were Secret Touch, Between The Wheels and Mystic Rhythms. The arrangement of Red Sector A and The Trees (Beatles!) were equally good. That Darn Dragon was also one of the better shorts I thought.

 

Fortunately, R30 was book-ended by some pretty sweet sets.

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During the CA tour, you'd swear Set 1 of the show would be everyone's answer. It was ridiculous how much hate the 80's heavy set got to the point of being comical.

 

And that part of the show was one of my favorites ever.

 

It seems like a lot of people on this forum are okay with people loving Signals and GUP.....

 

BUT DON'T YOU DARE ENJOY POWER WINDOWS AND HOLD YOUR FIRE.

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I've seen every tour since T4E and of the set lists after Vapor Trails, I'd have to take the Snakes and Arrows tour as my favorite because of some of what they brought back that tour (Natural Science, Entre Nous and Circumstances) AND I liked how the S&A tunes came across live!

 

Vapor Trails ran a close second again because of some of the older stuff they pulled off. (Encore set was top notch, the acoustic set, La Villa)

 

I loved the concept of the R40 tour! Granted...you aren't going to please everyone with the song selections, and I really thought that EVERY album original album should have been represented by at least one song, but what can you do. The first set was pretty decent, and the second set had some amazing choices...

 

Time Machine was interesting because they did the whole Moving Pictures album, but cut some of the better Snakes and Arrows tunes and brought back Time Stand Still (ugh!)

 

The R30 set had some nice stuff, but lacked because of the cover tunes...I thought that really detracted from an otherwise decent set list.

 

I only liked the Clockwork Angels tour because they did a good majority of the album, and had the string ensemble backing them up, not to mention pulling some of the stuff out that they recorded previously using strings...but was disappointed that they DIDN'T pull out Losing it on that tour.... The mid 80's stuff was ok to be re-hashed...but not my favorite stuff.

 

 

 

So with those thoughts... I'd have to say that it's a toss up between R30 and Clockwork Angels for my LEAST favorite setlist!

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What are your guys' favourite tours production wise, i know, i know we all go in for the music absolutely but I always loved the additional element of their live show which makes the experience even better I think. I'm watching the time machine blu ray now and even though that first set is really strange and the fact they decided to play this exact same set for 80+ shows straight is a little mind boggling. But the whole light show, pyro and visuals for this tour may be the best for any tour. Even compared to R40. No doubt the first set has some lacklustre choices, mainly Workin Them Angels? It kind of felt like each tour they were doing the production got bigger and bigger. On Clockwork can't really tell that well since the blu ray visuals weren't shot great. But I would say that TMT and R40 had the best live production. No doubt R40 had everything both setlist and visuals to clearly make the best set in years.
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I've seen every tour since Moving Pictures. I was disappointed at the Grace Under Pressure show because the show was only an hour and 45 minutes long and they opened the exact same way as the previous tour but played little of my favourite 70s songs. But oddly enough I love the video from that tour shot at the show that had disappointed me live.

 

The Hold Your Fire show made me happy because the show was back over 2 hours and they brought back LaVilla but the show had a tired unenthusiastic feeling to it. I didn't like the guitar sound on La Villa and Alex didn't bother to use the pedal.

 

If they had replaced the covers on the R30 tour with almost any if their own songs that tour would rank as first or second to me.

 

I really enjoyed the Snakes & Arrows tour but would have dropped Armour & Sword and Spindrift for something else.

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I've seen every tour since Moving Pictures. I was disappointed at the Grace Under Pressure show because the show was only an hour and 45 minutes long and they opened the exact same way as the previous tour but played little of my favourite 70s songs. But oddly enough I love the video from that tour shot at the show that had disappointed me live.

 

The Hold Your Fire show made me happy because the show was back over 2 hours and they brought back LaVilla but the show had a tired unenthusiastic feeling to it. I didn't like the guitar sound on La Villa and Alex didn't bother to use the pedal.

 

If they had replaced the covers on the R30 tour with almost any if their own songs that tour would rank as first or second to me.

 

I really enjoyed the Snakes & Arrows tour but would have dropped Armour & Sword and Spindrift for something else.

 

Those are both highlights of that album imo and its a shame neither have been played since that tour.

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yeah both songs are pretty strong for what has started to become my least favourite rush album. far cry, way wind blows and especially working them angels are tedious to go through now, which is surprising for me to say as i love the band and am not a very inpatient person when comes to even their lesser appreciated work.
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I've seen every tour since Moving Pictures. I was disappointed at the Grace Under Pressure show because the show was only an hour and 45 minutes long and they opened the exact same way as the previous tour but played little of my favourite 70s songs. But oddly enough I love the video from that tour shot at the show that had disappointed me live.

 

The Hold Your Fire show made me happy because the show was back over 2 hours and they brought back LaVilla but the show had a tired unenthusiastic feeling to it. I didn't like the guitar sound on La Villa and Alex didn't bother to use the pedal.

 

If they had replaced the covers on the R30 tour with almost any if their own songs that tour would rank as first or second to me.

 

I really enjoyed the Snakes & Arrows tour but would have dropped Armour & Sword and Spindrift for something else.

 

Those are both highlights of that album imo and its a shame neither have been played since that tour.

yeah both songs are pretty strong for what has started to become my least favourite rush album. far cry, way wind blows and especially working them angels are tedious to go through now, which is surprising for me to say as i love the band and am not a very inpatient person when comes to even their lesser appreciated work.

 

Yeah, those were two of the better live version from that album....

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I've seen every tour since Moving Pictures. I was disappointed at the Grace Under Pressure show because the show was only an hour and 45 minutes long and they opened the exact same way as the previous tour but played little of my favourite 70s songs. But oddly enough I love the video from that tour shot at the show that had disappointed me live.

 

The Hold Your Fire show made me happy because the show was back over 2 hours and they brought back LaVilla but the show had a tired unenthusiastic feeling to it. I didn't like the guitar sound on La Villa and Alex didn't bother to use the pedal.

 

If they had replaced the covers on the R30 tour with almost any if their own songs that tour would rank as first or second to me.

 

I really enjoyed the Snakes & Arrows tour but would have dropped Armour & Sword and Spindrift for something else.

 

I have the opposite opinion. Alex's guitar tone on the Lerxst In Wonderland part of La Villa on ASOH had a very ethereal tone to it.

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We all have our favorite tours, our favorite setlists for whatever reason....But what setlists just don't do it for you?

 

In my honest opinion the setlists for the Presto, Roll The Bones, and Counterparts tours all suffered from the same issue. Cutting hits in favor of new songs. For the Presto tour, The Spirit Of Radio was literally cut from the setlist for first 24-25 dates of the tour. Yes I know, they put it back in the setlist not even a quarter into the tour, but it still bothers me. TSOR was their first REALLY big radio-friendly hit and that song in conjunction with Tom Sawyer immortalized Rush in the mainstream music industry.

 

Roll The Bones tour completely cut Subdivisions out of the setlist towards the end of the tour and Counterparts and the second leg of the Test For Echo tour had no Subdivisions AT ALL. Now I know, Subdivisions is a hit but not a Tom Sawyer hit, but they really should have found a way to keep it in.

 

Vapor Trails, R30, S&A, Time Machine, CA, and R40 really fixed this problem by keeping the main hits (Tom Sawyer, The Spirit of Radio, Subdivisions), save for a few like Limelight and CTTH, but we can't win it all.

 

Counterparts tour wasn't bad due to Hemispheres being in there alone.

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We all have our favorite tours, our favorite setlists for whatever reason....But what setlists just don't do it for you?

 

In my honest opinion the setlists for the Presto, Roll The Bones, and Counterparts tours all suffered from the same issue. Cutting hits in favor of new songs. For the Presto tour, The Spirit Of Radio was literally cut from the setlist for first 24-25 dates of the tour. Yes I know, they put it back in the setlist not even a quarter into the tour, but it still bothers me. TSOR was their first REALLY big radio-friendly hit and that song in conjunction with Tom Sawyer immortalized Rush in the mainstream music industry.

 

Roll The Bones tour completely cut Subdivisions out of the setlist towards the end of the tour and Counterparts and the second leg of the Test For Echo tour had no Subdivisions AT ALL. Now I know, Subdivisions is a hit but not a Tom Sawyer hit, but they really should have found a way to keep it in.

 

Vapor Trails, R30, S&A, Time Machine, CA, and R40 really fixed this problem by keeping the main hits (Tom Sawyer, The Spirit of Radio, Subdivisions), save for a few like Limelight and CTTH, but we can't win it all.

 

Counterparts tour wasn't bad due to Hemispheres being in there alone.

 

Yeah, and I was totally bummed because I wasn't able to get to any of the local-ish dates on that tour! When I heard they were slipping some Hemispheres in, I was really peeved!

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We all have our favorite tours, our favorite setlists for whatever reason....But what setlists just don't do it for you?

 

In my honest opinion the setlists for the Presto, Roll The Bones, and Counterparts tours all suffered from the same issue. Cutting hits in favor of new songs. For the Presto tour, The Spirit Of Radio was literally cut from the setlist for first 24-25 dates of the tour. Yes I know, they put it back in the setlist not even a quarter into the tour, but it still bothers me. TSOR was their first REALLY big radio-friendly hit and that song in conjunction with Tom Sawyer immortalized Rush in the mainstream music industry.

 

Roll The Bones tour completely cut Subdivisions out of the setlist towards the end of the tour and Counterparts and the second leg of the Test For Echo tour had no Subdivisions AT ALL. Now I know, Subdivisions is a hit but not a Tom Sawyer hit, but they really should have found a way to keep it in.

 

Vapor Trails, R30, S&A, Time Machine, CA, and R40 really fixed this problem by keeping the main hits (Tom Sawyer, The Spirit of Radio, Subdivisions), save for a few like Limelight and CTTH, but we can't win it all.

 

Counterparts tour wasn't bad due to Hemispheres being in there alone.

 

Yeah, and I was totally bummed because I wasn't able to get to any of the local-ish dates on that tour! When I heard they were slipping some Hemispheres in, I was really peeved!

 

That was actually the first time I ever even heard Hemispheres, live at that concert in CT back in 1994. I wasn't all the way through their catalog at that point and didn't realize the gravity of how awesome that experience really was!

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Just looking purely at setlists first, I'll divide my picks into discrete categories:

 

Setlist from before I saw them (pre 1984):

Favorite: Permanent Waves (Still had all of Hemispheres & Cygnus and added Jacobs and Natty Sci)

Least Favorite: Rush tour (Just because it had the fewest song choices and was short set.)

 

Setlist from Keyboard-era, after I'd first seen them (1984-1988)

Favorite: P/G (all of fear! Good Vital Signs, though all of these tours were thin on pre-MP material)

Least Favorite: HYF (no real effort at Pre-MP material. Had La Villa though - traded for The Trees from PoW tour. Overall weak)

 

Setlist from 90's (Presto - TFE)

Favorite: TFE (evening with was necessary! Finally some homage to their full career! 2112, Natty Sci, plus lots of cool newer stuff.)

Least Fav: tie Presto & Rtb (the shortened Xanadu to go into Superconductor was perhaps the biggest buzzkill in setlist history. At least the Rtb Summer tour brought back a little bit with Analog Kid, Trees, and Vital Signs! War Paint instead of title cut clinches it for Presto)

 

Setlists since 2002

Favorite: R40 (Xanadu, Jacobs, Natty Sci, 2112, What you're doing, Anthem, Lakeside, and some interesting choices in newer eras. It just flowed right and won me over.)

Runner up: S&A 07 tour (Entre Nous, Circumstances, Witchhunt, Analog, Bangkok - all interesting choices that balanced the new song heavy set.)

Second Runner up: CA (Some great stuff from PoW Grand Designs, Middletown, enjoyed everything with strings)

Least Favorite: Time Machine (I'll always think that R40 is what TM should have been. Even with all of MP, some really blase choices. Only a couple very obvious choices from before PeW.)

Runner up for Least fav: R30 (some cool stuff, but didn't care for so much Feedback covers, and acoustic Resist again? The R30 Overture medley was neat, but overall a weak attempt to represent all those albums.)

 

Sound-wise:

Favorites: PeW, MP

Least Favorites: HYF, Presto (I though Alex's guitars sounded like ass, and the "surround" keyboard effects were never mixed well)

Least Favorite drum-sound, in this drummer's opinion: everything since Neil went to DW. Only downside to the cool "El Darko" kit was the concert tom sound was terrible and a shadow of the awesomeness that it once was - recall the ripping attack of concert tom runs on the P/G tour! Comparatively, El Darko sounded like ass. Also, least favorite drum sound in a song - Red Sector A on the V drums on VT tour. I have V drums at home, but they were terrible for RSA (especially constant velocity high hat.)

 

Production- wise (84 and after):

Favorite: R40. They just got the stage show right. Lights/lasers/pyro were all excellent. Video presentations were excellent. Moving back in time gear and stage props were cool.

Least Favorite: Presto (just didn't care for the stage set, the videos, etc. Scars was an interesting idea, with the curtain in front, but it never really worked for me. Bunny balloons were cheesy. I was happy when it was shot on later tour..)

 

Personal nostalgia wise:

Favorites: TFE (first tour I experienced the build up in an online community, opening night in my hometown, saw 11 shows), P/G (first tour I saw), HYF (First time I saw multiple shows, including a front row), CA (great trips with friends), R40 (last time?)

Least Favorites: Presto (blah period of my life, to go with a blah tour)

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