Dscrapre

Ok, these days I've been playing with a reduced setup.

 

Gretsch Catalina Club Rock Black Sparkle

18"x24" Bass drum

-Remo Powerstroke 3 batter

-Remo Starfire Chrome Resonant

16"x16" Floor Tom

-Evans Coated g1 (both sides)

 

1970's Ludwig Acrolite 5.5"x14" Snare Drum

-Evans Coated g1

-Evans Hazy 300

 

Armand Zildjian 14" Hi Hats

Avedis Zildjian 20" Medium Ride

 

PDP Snare Stand

Pearl Hi Hat and Boom Cymbal Stand (set up straight)

Tama Iron Cobra Bass Drum Pedal

Tama "First Chair" Throne

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/y498/Dscrapre/DSC_0179_zps0953e7f9.jpg

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/y498/Dscrapre/01e99e90-ca02-4494-8ad6-19e279cbe44f_zpsa4ba7613.jpg

 

I'm a pretty lousy player so I decided to lose all of the bells and whistles so I can focus on grooving more. Besides, I don't really do the big "hero" fills like Neil does, so having only one tom is not much of a loss.

I'm not a huge fan of Limelight. That one and Freewill are the "big hits" that I can take or leave for the most part. I'm not really sure why that is. They are both fine songs, but I just don't really care about them too much.

 

I still haven't gotten sick of Tom Sawyer though. I still really love that song.

I'm beginning to cultivate the impression that TRF has changed a little since 2008...

Joe's Garage is something else. I don't know what else to say about it.

 

I never really warmed up to Overnite Sensation or Apostrophe. I prefer Zappa's instrumentals.

 

Sleep Dirt is a great album.

 

Haven't really heard much else.

Now, back in 2012, I was just as geeked as anybody else about this. I checked the web everyday for updates, feverishly speculated about the album, just in general went nuts for this thing. I got the leak as soon as it dropped and later went on to buy 3 copies of the album (for some reason ). So it is with a very heavy heart that I say....

 

CA seems like a backwards move for the band.

 

I know that Snakes and Arrows isn't the most popular album around here, but I've recently grown very fond of it. The thing I enjoy about SnA is it's textural qualities. Alex especially utilizes some very lovely guitar textures throughout the album. It's not their best album ever, but to me, it's a very mature album that manages to really play to the band's strengths and show a new side of Rush that had previously only been glimpsed at.

 

Clockwork Angels on the other hand really seems lacking in all of those regards. Sure, there are some really great songs on there (The Anarchist being chief among them), and two of the band's best ballads are featured as well, but I still get a "what's new?" sort of feeling from this one. Much of CA just feels like Rush trying desperately to be the band that they were in the 70's, and not really succeeding. This album marked the return of the Science Fiction/Concept themes of 2112 and Hemispheres but unfortunately included little of the inventiveness that made those albums exciting.

 

Alex, again, is the one who really makes this album what it is. Unfortunately in this case, what he ends up making is a undefined sonic mess. Many of the tracks feature layer after layer of shapeless, muddy guitars that transform potentially good songs into sludge. The title track suffers from this worse than any other, with the guitars forming this impenetrable wall of noise that grinds the track's momentum to a halt.

 

That is not to say that there are not great elements at work here too. While some of the lyrics are a tad on the unwieldy side (Wish Them Well) most of them range from good to down right excellent. Geddy's bass playing just keeps getting better and better. He is definitely the best he's ever been right now. While I do have reservations about the guitar on the album, even that has some really great moments. Alex's playing on Carnies is a particular highlight.

 

It's just that, to me, this isn't the "total package" Rush album that many people seem to regard it as.

 

All of this of course is strictly my opinion.

Either way, IMO the best music is (most of the time) not defined by time, but by how frequently you can hear it on the radio (inversely proportionate)

 

So Rihanna, Pitbull, Miley Cyrus, and Nickleback are equal to scientifically proven perfection?

 

Emphasis on the term "inversely proportionate".

I think that a lot of this has to do with the fragmentation of the listening audience. People who actually care about music aren't listening to the radio anymore, so the radio has been overtaken by the crappiest forms of pop. That's why it seems like music isn't as good as it used to be, because genuinely artful music isn't being broadcast anymore. There is a whole world of exciting music out there if you're willing to look for it.

 

Or, you can turn on your classic rock station, listen to "Bad to the Bone" for the 9 Billionth time and complain about how music these days just can't compare.

I love Vapor Trails! Just a beautiful album.

?

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/juwbCxpfmaY/maxresdefault.jpg

 

You can see the extra guitar on a stand to Alex's right.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juwbCxpfmaY

 

I saw Rush 4 times during the CA tour....I missed that song every time.... :(

 

That bites. Did you get the "B" setlist every time? I saw them twice and I got the exact same "A" setlist both times, so I missed out on Dreamline, The Pass, Wish Them Well and (personal favorite) Middletown Dreams.

This is something that I've been wondering about for some time and I'm sure it's been discussed but I got no results from searching.

 

For live performances of Seven Cities of Gold, Alex had a second guitar on a performance stand. On the DVD he goes up to it and strums the open strings during the outro, but I really can't hear it. I also remember him using it at the first Chicago show, to similar sonic effect. I noticed that by the Milwaukee gig in 2013, he stopped bringing it out.

 

Does anybody have any clue what the point of the second guitar was? I can only guess that it was some kind of weird experiment that didn't really work out the way that Al wanted, so he ditched it.

I would be very, very happy if they did this.

 

Never ever gonna happen, but I would be freakin' ecstatic!

I can't even settle on a first favorite band these days. Rush will probably always be near the top for me, I just keep going back.

 

Right now, I'm unhealthily obsessed with St. Vincent. Next week, who knows?

It seems I recall Geddy said something about The Main Monkey Business being pretty challenging live.

Yeah, for the audience...

 

I always found this performance cool to watch..i dig it

 

 

I used to be cold to this song but now I really love it.

 

I've also heard Geddy say that it's one of the most difficult songs that they do. That bass is super intense.

 

I'm a non-musician, but I would have guessed 'Malignant Narcissism' to be more technically difficult for Geddy than 'Main Monkey Business'. Both are awesome songs in my book though.

 

I would have assumed so too, but I recall hearing it from the man himself. I think it was during the Wall Street Journal Fan QnA Geddy and Alex did about a year ago.

So long as Far Cry never gets dropped, I'm ok with any S&A related setlist changes.

 

In fact, could they just play the S&A live setlist again? I'd be fine with that.

"Although a best of album for a band like this is kind of pointless. Each song is merely a part of the greater whole of the albums."

 

Good point; how would you make a "best-of" Zeppelin album? My best-of Zeppelin album would be to line up all their albums end-to-end.

 

It's easy to make a "best-of " of a mediocre band. I could do a Foghat best-of pretty easily I bet. "Slowride," "Fool for the City," ... um... if I knew their songs better that is.

 

It's like if you bought a "Best of Quentin Tarantino" DVD that has selected scenes from his movies. What would be the point?

 

I stopped buying Greatest Hits albums a while ago when I realized that real albums are artistic statements in their own right. If I want a compilation-style package, I'll pick up a live album.

Ok, so Radiohead's best of album is over ten years old and it's pretty out of date by this point.

 

Creep [Pablo Honey]

The Bends [The Bends]

Just [The Bends]

Street Spirit (Fade Out) [The Bends]

Talk Show Host [Non-Album B-Side]

Airbag [Ok Computer]

Paranoid Android [Ok Computer]

Karma Police [Ok Computer]

Lucky [Ok Computer]

Everything in it's Right Place [Kid A]

The National Anthem [Kid A]

Optimistic [Kid A]

Idioteque [Kid A]

Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box [Amnesiac]

Pyramid Song [Amnesiac]

The Amazing Sounds of Orgy [Non-Album B-Side]

2+2=5 [Hail to the Thief]

Go to Sleep [Hail to the Thief]

There There [Hail to the Thief]

A Punchup at a Wedding [Hail to the Thief]

15 Step [Hail to the Thief]

Bodysnatchers [Hail to the Thief]

Weird Fishes/Arpeggi [Hail to the Thief]

Reckoner [Hail to the Thief]

Bloom [The King of Limbs]

Little By Little [The King of Limbs]

Lotus Flower [The King of Limbs]

The Daily Mail [Non-album Single]

Identikit [unreleased Live track]

True Love Waits [i Might be Wrong: Live Recordings]

 

Although a best of album for a band like this is kind of pointless. Each song is merely a part of the greater whole of the albums.

It seems I recall Geddy said something about The Main Monkey Business being pretty challenging live.

Yeah, for the audience...

 

I always found this performance cool to watch..i dig it

 

 

I used to be cold to this song but now I really love it.

 

I've also heard Geddy say that it's one of the most difficult songs that they do. That bass is super intense.

I've wanted to make a mix CD called "Bravado: Another Side of Rush" for a while.

 

Tears

Different Strings

Losing It

Second Nature

Mission

The Pass

Available Light

Bravado

Resist (Studio Acoustic Version*)

Hope

Halo Effect

 

*Yeah, I know that it doesn't exist.

He should do the whole show in David Byrne's big suit from Stop Making Sense.

I'm doing another one just to see what happens.

 

Dao Zai Fan Ye - Christopher Tin

Sleep Dirt - Frank Zappa

Guaranteed Nightlite - The Polyphonic Spree

Reverse Running - Atoms for Peace

Caught By The Light - The Boxer Rebellion

Ghost of a Chance - :rush:

Gallows Pole - Led Zeppelin

A Smart Kid - Porcupine Tree

Halleluhwah - Can

Force Ten (from "Mirrors" Roll the Bones Tour Bootleg) - :rush: (again)

Undenied - Portishead

Reptiles - Them Crooked Vultures

Time Stand Still (from "Nuts and Bolts" Counterparts Tour Bootleg) - :rush: (really?)

Anthem - :rush: ( )

Get all you Deserve - Steven Wilson

Horrible song

 

 

 

 

 

 

...to exclude from the setlist. I NEED to hear them play this live!

I have some work to do.

Man, I thought this thread was an outlet where I can freely admit that I like a band, that most people would not like, safely here without getting bagged on it and this is the reponses I got? I'm a bit disappointed.

 

Yeah that's some shit man. I don't like Avenged Sevenfold either but it's really lousy of everyone to be jumping down your throat about it.

 

At work I'm pretty much ashamed of 90% of the music I listen to. It's a factory job and the popular music around there is rap or metal. When I took the day off of work to go see St. Vincent and people asked me who I was going to see I tried to keep my answer vague. It would be hard to explain that I was going to be spending the evening rocking out to a girl who looks like this: http://www.nashvillescene.com/binary/8d6d/1394468160-stvincent.jpg

 

But here in internetland I can very freely and openly admit that she put on one hell of a show. Probably best overall concert experience I've ever had.

The Enemy Within - Rush

The Butcher - Radiohead

Fly from Here Pt. 3: Madman at the Screens - Yes

The Nostalgia Factory - Porcupine Tree

Circumstances - Rush

Eclipse- Pink Floyd

Jones Crusher - Frank Zappa

The Happiest Days of our Lives - Pink Floyd

Chloe in the Afternoon - St. Vincent

I Know I'm Not Wrong - Fleetwood Mac

Trains - Porcupine Tree

Countdown - Rush

Circle of Manias - Porcupine Tree

Dead End Friends - Them Crooked Vultures

Before and After - Rush

 

I may need to deversify...

I don't know if this would be helpful or not.

 

http://www.onemotion.com/flash/drum-machine/

 

Probably not exactly what you're looking for, but you can program it to play whatever rhythms you want.