Pale Facsimile

I went to both Columbus and Buffalo and Buffalo was by far the better show. At least I thought so. Alex acted like he was feeling better and smiled and moved around a lot more. I certainly thought all three shows were phenomenal. One major difference I noticed between Columbus and Buffalo was that the volume was WAY louder in Buffalo. I don't bring earplugs for RUSH because, despite the intense music, it almost never gets too loud to hurt my ears...but I sure wish I had a pair at the Buffalo show! I remember in Columbus during the second set, an older guy two rows ahead of me with a scraggly white beard got hauled out of there for lighting a joint (he wouldn't have had that problem in Portland, that's for sure!). I'd avoided the setlist leading up to Columbus, so almost everything was a surprise to me. I almost couldn't handle Jacob's Ladder/Hemispheres Prelude back-to-back. My cousin was probably thinking "What's WRONG with this guy?" He had a good time, though. He was mesmerized by the guitars, the drums, and the light show (but wasn't a huge fan of Geddy's voice...understandable for a kid who's used to current pop and rap, I suppose). The hardest part was lasting all the way until Portland in late July without telling my friend Mike about the setlist (he wanted to be surprised, too, and it took all I could muster to not tell him every single detail).

I did three, Columbus, Buffalo, and Portland. In Columbus, I took my 15-year-old cousin who had never been to a live rock concert before, and in Portland, I went with my best friend from college (who had gotten me into RUSH in the first place, ten years ago). Was in Row 23 center on the floor in both Columbus and Buffalo, and in Row 9 on Alex's side in Portland. Also got to meet Howard Ungerleider and have him sign my R40 program. Couldn't think of a better three shows to (most likely) end my live RUSH experience.

Red Barchetta on S&A Live and Middletown Dreams on CA Tour are way up there.

Mine always vary a little, so I am glad for this question coming up often. 1. Cygnus X-1, Book II: Hemispheres 2. Jacob's Ladder 3. Natural Science 4. The Camera Eye 5. Middletown Dreams 6. Prime Mover 7. The Spirit of Radio 8. The Garden 9. In the End 10. 2112 (Different Stages live version) Lots of honorable mentions (Xanadu, Workin Them Angels, Carnies, Grand Designs, LVS...way too many to count), and as I'm sure with most fans, it varies from day to day. For instance, I was sick to death of Witch Hunt for the longest time, but have been listening to it a lot the past week or so.

Love PoW. Didn't embrace it right away when I first started liking RUSH in 2005, but it grew on me a lot over the years. There really isn't a bad song on there. Middletown Dreams is one of my all-time favorite RUSH tunes.

MP obviously was released in the 1980s, but when people refer to the term "'80s music," one tends to think of cheesy bands like Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, Berlin, B-52s, etc...which would also include Rush's output of Signals through Hold Your Fire (Presto, meanwhile, to me feels more like that almost equally-tacky early-90s era of MC Hammer, Zubazz pants, 'Bo Knows' Nike ads, etc. which also obviously includes Roll the Bones). A lot of famous albums were released in the 1980s that obviously don't fit in that specific-feeling term of "80s music"...Master of Puppets...Reign in Blood...Among the Living. All 1980s albums, but clearly not "80s music." Also, for what it's worth, I always use the 0-9 approach at the 'decade' level (I mean, come on...to say that 1980 is not part of a period called the 1980s?...ridiculous), while with centuries and millennia, it's 1-100/1-1000. The 21st century (and Third Millennium) began January 1, 2001. The year 2000 is part of a segment of time known as the 2000s, but technically is still the final year of the 20th century.

Overrated: Fly by Night, Tom Sawyer, YYZ, Losing It Underrated: In the End, Middletown Dreams (except on CA Tour DVD), Prime Mover, War Paint, Color of Right, Ghost Rider, Carnies, Halo Effect ...a third category... Invulnerable to any criticism whatsoever: :7up: Hemispheres, Spirit of Radio, Jacob's Ladder,.Natural Science

Caress Your Fire A Farewell to Presto Test for Windows Permanent Echo Hold Your Pictures

11 times... 7/4/07 - Darien Lake Amphitheater, Darien Center, NY 7/5/08 - SPAC, Saratoga, NY 7/23/10 - SPAC, Saratoga, NY 9/2/10 - NY State Fair, Syracuse, NY (the last time they played my hometown before this was the Signals tour, when I would've been six months old) 4/8/11 -Giant Center, Hershey, PA 10/10/12 - Webster Bank Arena, Bridgeport, CT 10/26/12 - First Niagara Center, Buffalo, NY 6/25/13 - SPAC, Saratoga, NY 6/8/15 - Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH 6/10/15 - First Niagara Center, Buffalo, NY 7/21/15 - MODA Center, Portland, OR (with my best friend from college who had gotten me into RUSH ten years ago)

At the moment, it might look something like... 1. Cygnus X-1, Book II: Hemispheres 2. Natural Science 3. Jacob's Ladder 4. The Camera Eye 5. 2112 (Different Stages version , or really any T4E Tour version) 6. Middletown Dreams 7. Prime Mover 8. The Garden 9. In the End 10. Between Sun and Moon

Prime Mover and Turn the Page are criminally underrated.

I think it really all comes down to (pardon the pun) circumstances, not just in the MP vs. Hemispheres debate, but with any piece of music. If you'd asked me before June 2014, I would've said MP was better, by far. I'd been a RUSH fan for 9 years at that point, and while I liked the songs on "Side 2" of Hemispheres, I hadn't yet come to appreciate "Side 1." However, by mid-2014, after enduring the failure of two relationships within the first half of the calendar year (the first of which had lasted 8-plus years; the second, a stupid two-month rebound), I just happened to listen to Side 1 one night, and the whole "heart vs. mind" theme totally clicked with me, and seemed to enhance the music itself. It was like, "Oh, holy s---, THIS is what everyone's been raving about all these years!" Now, Hemispheres is my favorite RUSH album (MP is no slouch, even though it's behind PeW and PoW for me these days as well). You can't just sit down and "try" to like songs or albums. If they click with you, they just do. Some might be the first time you hear them, others may take years or even decades. But it's just so cool when it happens. So for me, the answers are "Hemispheres" and "32."

RUSH clearly aren't fans of condoms. They prefer to use The Rhythm Method. :Neil:

Before I mention my brief Stryper story, I must preface it by disclosing that I am a full-on atheist...can't stand religion, don't like being proselytized to, absolutely don't want it in government/public policy, etc. etc. I'd always just sort of lumped Stryper in with those typical '80s hair bands (an era in which, while I had been born, I was definitely not old enough to get into as it happened...and wasn't huge on Poison, Ratt, Warrant, etc.)...fast forward to this past Friday. I'd gotten home from work and sat down to find something on TV. We have this channel called AXS, which shows a lot of random music programming. So after seeing nothing else was on, I noticed AXS was showing a relatively recent Stryper DVD, called Live at the Whisky. I decided what the heck, I'll check out a few tunes. I was absolutely blown away...so much so, that I ended up watching the entire 90-minute airing. While I wasn't crazy about the message, I couldn't deny the vocals, the guitars...these guys can REALLY rock, and more than that, they can really PLAY. I was especially impressed by Michael Sweet and Oz. So, while I still have my own feelings about life and the universe, Stryper really opened my eyes to some amazing music, even though I don't care for a lot of the lyrical content. If they come anywhere near me on their next tour, I'll definitely go see them.

Having avoided the setlists until my first show of the tour (Columbus), and although I'd heard rumors of a couple of songs being played, actually hearing Jacob's Ladder literally had me tearing up. I think my 15-year-old cousin (who had never seen a live rock show before) looked over and probably thought I was weird for being moved to tears by some random song he'd never heard before. Hemispheres Prelude was absolutely fantastic. In my 3 shows, I never caught setlist C, which in a way was unfortunate because my three favorite RUSH songs are Natural Science, Jacob's Ladder, and Hemispheres (in no particular order), but after stopping and thinking about it, I realized it probably was good I didn't get C because my head probably would have exploded by getting all three favorites right in a row.

Wasn't TCE one of the alternates that got left out in Toronto? Hopefully they shot it professionally somewhere else. Maybe KC was it.

Almost all of the ten RUSH shows I've attended (all since 2007), have listed a 7:30 start time, and pretty much ALL have started right at 7:45, and ended almost exactly at 10:45. Getting out of the venue and/or parking lots, however, is a different story...anywhere from 10 minutes to well over an hour, depending on where the show has been...

Does anybody REALLY care that much? PeW has elements similar to Hemispheres (a '70s album), and elements similar to what would become Moving Pictures (an '80s album). The songs were written, and the album arranged, recorded, constructed, etc. in 1979, but 99% of people didn't get to hear it until early 1980. You could make valid arguments on either side. Just be glad it's an amazing album you get to listen to anytime you want. As far as how people refer to periods of time, I'm okay with decades being referred to as the years ranging from 0-9 (for the '80s, 1980-1989). It really all depends on how you word it. For example, the term "the 1900s" refers to the 100-year period beginning January 1, 1900 and ending at the end of December 31, 1999. The "twentieth century," meanwhile, runs from January 1, 1901 through December 31, 2000. The "New Millennium" began on January 1, 2001.

That's a really cool story. I hope you hear back from Neil ! Thanks! The funny thing is, when the woman who runs the other cottages, including ours when we're not there, first told us that Neil and Brutus had stayed there (I think they visited in 1996 and she told us in about 1999), I wasn't yet a RUSH fan (was big into Metallica at the time). It wasn't until the spring of 2005, when my best friend Mike from college, who had just graduated (a year after I had) and I went to Grand Manan for a week of relaxing and drinking Schooner, that he said "I'm going to educate you on RUSH." Fittingly enough, it was on Victoria Day (as referenced in Lakeside Park), and I fell in love with the music right away. Been a die-hard RUSH fan for the 10 years since then.

Glad to see lots of folks getting their stuff back. I got them on an 8x10 during the Time Machine Tour, and was contemplating sending my copy of Hemispheres this time around, but instead decided to send Neil a copy of my poetry book as a gift (a lot of the poems take place at Grand Manan Island, NB, where Neil and Brutus apparently once stayed in our summer cottage, so I thought he might find it interesting). Hoping for maybe a quick thank-you note after the tour (I asked him what his thoughts of the island and my family's cottage were, and those answers would mean a ton more to me than getting the guys' autographs a second time). Hope everyone continues to get their successes back!

At least they won't go in and completely re-record vocals a la Dave Mustaine.

I saw Night A in Columbus and Night B in Buffalo. I think the changes I would make would be... Night A: -I'd get rid of Clockwork Angels and insert Prime Mover after RtB -Replace Distant Early Warning with Enemy Within -Replace One Little Victory with either Ghost Rider from the same album, or possibly Test for Echo to get T4E represented Night B is pretty darn good as it is. As someone who doesn't listen to VT that much, I actually enjoyed How it Is. Between the Wheels and Camera Eye are AWESOME. I know a lot of people are down on The Wreckers but I like it. I think Carnies rocks harder and might keep that heavy rock feel going between Anarchist and Headlong Flight, but I like the darker sort of mood created by Anarchist and Wreckers before Headlong Flight snaps us into positive thinking.

I always sort of knew them as "the guys with the high voice on the radio that did 'Freewill'" throughout my younger, Metallica and Green Day-laden years, but it wasn't until May 2005, when one of my best friends from college, Mike, and I, took a road trip from Ithaca, NY (where we went to school) to my parents' summer cottage on Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick (where Neil and Brutus actually once stayed in the mid-90s), for a week of post-school relaxing, brews, and good food. There, during a very rainy/foggy Victoria Day, we did up some burgers indoors and listened to RUSH (starting with Chronicles, and working our way through most of the catalog over the next couple days). Needless to say, I was hooked, and have now seen them live 8 times (soon to be 11). The two best shows among the 8 so far were October 2012 in Bridgeport on the CA tour, as well as April 2011 in Hershey (about a week before they filmed the Time Machine DVD...Ged's voice sure didn't sound ragged THAT night!). Also, seeing them at the NY State Fair in my hometown, Syracuse, in 2010 was pretty special, since they hadn't played in the Salt City since the Signals tour. That Syracuse show was the only one I got to see with Mike, as he moved to Oregon shortly thereafter, but, in what will likely be my final RUSH show, in Portland on July 21, I will get to see with him. If we won't be seeing RUSH again after that night, at least I get to see my final show with my dear friend who got me into them.

Anyone get their Portland tix yet? I got my Columbus and Buffalo tix a while ago, but no Portland yet...

Take that back. Fixed for better accuracy.