Pale Facsimile

Laugh away. It doesn't change the truth of things. Why people think Rush aren't already multimillionaires is puzzling. The ONLY reason R40 is happening is because Geddy RAY convinced the band to do it. Fixed that fer ya.... Exactly my thoughts. Moneybags Danniels made it happen.

Natural Science is one of my two absolute favorite RUSH songs (along with Cygnus X-1, Book II: Hemispheres), and love the imagery in the lyrics. One quick question for people...does anyone else think the "art as expression..." part feels way out of place in the song? It almost seems as if they had some leftover "artistic honesty good, commercial pursuits bad" lyrics left over after finishing TSoR, and decided to insert them into Natural Science, for some reason. Might just be me. Fantastic song, especially the faster-paced, T4E tour versions where the aforementioned lyrics get omitted.

I think the fact that the rules of the forum (i.e. the separate section for R40 spoilers) are the way they are, is the reason those of us who want to remain in the dark, still come here in the weeks before our show...so we can continue to talk about RUSH without worrying about accidentally finding something out. If it was all-bets-are-off, of course we would stay away. Us being here prior to our show is a product of that set-up (the R40 section), not the other way around. I mean, jeez, you only have to click the mouse one extra time to get to the area where you can discuss that stuff. As far as age, I'm 32, and it has nothing to do with reliving days of old...being surprised by songs at shows is just more fun than knowing ahead of time. I don't know what makes it better, whether it's the anticipation, or delayed gratification, or a combination of both. But to me it has very little, if anything, to do with aging. Rush is actually one of the few bands I see frequently on tour where the setlist remains largely the same throughout the tour (aside from the few swap-outs). I'm not huge on DMB, Pearl Jam, or Phish, but holy cow...those guys rarely, if ever, play the same show twice. P.S. Foreigner is not Foreigner without Lou Gramm. I'd rather go see Lou Gramm Band for $10 at Jamesville Balloon Fest (which I did when he was here two years ago...would love for him to come back) and get the best of Foreigner and his solo stuff.

The pro-spoil crowd baffles me. It's like going into your parents' closet a month before the holidays and seeing what your presents are. Absolutely no fun in that. And no, it doesn't "ruin" the show, but it does lessen the excitement quite a bit. And sorry to be frank, but if you completely avoid live shows of bands you supposedly really like, just because you don't 'approve' of a particular tour's setlist, then honestly, you're a pretty lousy fan of that band. I saw Kittie (the all-girl metal band, who, like Rush, are also from Ontario) here in Syracuse in 2011. I looked at the setlist beforehand. While they played very little from their first two, more successful albums (which I was much more familiar with than their later work), I wasn't going to miss a chance to meet them and see them play in my hometown. Edit to add: I'd looked up the Kittie setlist because knowing wasn't going to bother me (after five crappy opening bands, I was just glad to see them take the stage), and because a Kittie show is nowhere near the sacred* experience a RUSH show is. Most of the other bands I see on a regular basis change the setlist up from night to night (i.e., Metallica), so I can't know exactly what I'll be hearing.

Yeah, it's all about the surprise...I love the whole experience of standing in the dark after an amazing song and not knowing what's coming next. For me, personally, I was still a RUSH noob when they toured on S&A, so all I knew at the time were the radio hits, as well as what they'd played on the original, abridged version of R30 (a gift from my friend) and the then-new S&A material. Since the first leg of S&A had a bunch of deep cuts, I spent a lot of the time not knowing a lot of what they were playing (but still having a great time). For Time Machine, I'd been on vacation when the tour kicked off that summer, and when I got home about a week later, I ran right to the computer and looked up what they played. The TM shows I saw were still great, but I wished I hadn't looked it up. I forced myself for CA to not look, and it made all the surprises that much more awesome. I have 28 more days until the Columbus show (but computer-wise it's more like 24, as I fly out to C-town on the 4th and will be busy spending that entire weekend with my cousins), so the wait shouldn't be too bad.

War Paint Emotion Detector Half the World Between Sun & Moon Turn the Page

As I grew up in the '90s, I'd started out with Queen and then moved onto Metallica, Green Day, and a lot of the popular rock acts of the time...Pearl Jam, Blues Traveler, Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, etc. Metallica was my favorite, and while I'd listened to a lot of classic rock, my knowledge of Rush amounted to "the guys on the radio with the high voice that do 'Freewill'." Fast-forward to May, 2005. My friend Mike (best friend from college; he'd just graduated, I'd graduated the previous year in 2004) and I took a road trip to my parents' summer cottage on Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada. (Interestingly, Neil has actually stayed in this exact cottage when he and Brutus visited in 1996...he doesn't mention the cottage, but he briefly mentions the visit in his NW&S entry about the Clockwork Angels show in Halifax...the lady who owns the other cottages in the group rents ours out when we're not there.) Anyway, during our 2005 stay, Mike and I had planned to have a big cookout on the deck for Victoria Day. Well, a spring storm made its way across the island, bringing wind and rain. So, we retreated inside, got a nice roaring fire going, did up some burgers...and MIke said "I'm going to get you into RUSH." Well, we started with Chronicles, and worked our way through most of the catalog afterward. Quite simply, the boys had me at "Yeah, ohhhh YEAH!" Since then, I've gotten to see RUSH 8 times (once with Mike, in my hometown of Syracuse in 2010), with three more scheduled for R40. My final show of the three will be in Portland, Oregon, on Geddy's side in Row 9 (non-VIP!), with Mike right by my side. I can't think of a better way to end my live RUSH experience.

RUSH is #1 for me...but my other, not-too-far-behind favorites are... 2. Metallica - been a fan since age 10 in early 1993. Sadly, like many kids, I got into them through the Black Album, but eventually worked my way backward to appreciate the albums that came before it. Favorite songs range from Metal Militia (from Kill 'em All) to The Outlaw Torn and Wasting My Hate (both from the highly-criticized Load). 3. Queen - the first rock band I ever got into, at age 9. For almost two years (until I discovered Metallica), Queen was the only band I listened to. Back then I was into mostly just the hits, and then through the years discovered just how diverse their whole catalog is. My favorites always vary, but lately I've really been digging Ogre Battle (from Queen II) and Innuendo (from Innuendo). Favorite albums these days include A Kind of Magic and Sheer Heart Attack. Freddie is still the greatest rock frontman of all time. 4. Green Day - the Dookie/Insomniac/Nimrod/Warning era was the soundtrack to my teenage years, and that, to me doesn't even represent their best work...American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown make for an amazing one-two punch...those, as with several RUSH albums, are two albums I can't listen to just one song from; I have to listen to the whole thing.

One of my favorites, Natural Science, sounded slow as heck on the S&A tour (at least, on the DVD...I don't remember how it sounded at the two S&A shows I saw). To me, it always sounds better as played on the T4E tour (i.e., Different Stages, the 1997 Toronto footage, etc.).

I'm going to hold out for the entire month between Opening Night and my first show of the tour (Columbus). I was able to hold off for the CA Tour until my first show in Bridgeport, and the surprise of each song was amazing. (Except I had known TS/2112 was the encore, because the RUSH Facebook page posted a pic of the encore of the printed setlist...I still don't know why they did that.) I get to see consecutive shows in Columbus and Buffalo, so if there are any swap-outs, I'll get to see them this time. On CA tour I ended up with Night A all three times, so the only variable was whether the fifth song would be Body Electric or Limelight.

I think that between the alternating nights, and with the use of a medley, each album will be represented at least once. I would think we'd see very little from Power Windows and Clockwork Angels, but at least SOMEthing. Heck, if they want to whittle down HYF, Presto and RtB as well, that'd be fine... let's just make it Emotion Detector, Headlong Flight, Prime Mover, Presto and Roll the Bones, respectively, from those five...BOOM! 5 albums out of the way in about 27 minutes! Also, regarding the song count debate... 2112 is one song made up of seven different parts. Not multiple songs.

You calling the band a dumbass? Them's fightin' words there Willis. I'd say that it's 99% the venue... Hershey has that printed on all of their tickets, and it's a hassle to get stuff into shows where the band even allows you to tape! I was at a Dave Matthews show a few years back, and the dude collecting tickets was giving the guy in front of me a hard time because "you can't bring that stuff in here!" Um...yes you can! I know the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Atlanta wouldnt let people take bottled water in on this last tour. Most all of the tickets I've gotten the past few years say no cameras. Hell, Hershey gives you grief for drinking beer in the parking lot because they want you to buy THEIR beer's inside...God help ya if you tried to take a water in and not buy theirs! Hershey is all about greed...bottom line! (Assuming you're talking about Giant Center) They have to pay for that cockamamie road into the venue (that takes you completely around the entire building to where you pay to park, which then takes you back around to the lots by the main road you came from) somehow!

I'll be able to...I forced myself to wait for the CA tour (had to last until Bridgeport, just over a month in), and it was awesome to be surprised. This time around, I have exactly a month to wait between Opening Night and Columbus, so I'm confident I can hold out again. I can manage to avoid this site and places like setlist.fm. My only concern is the official RUSH FB page posting a pic that has a portion of the setlist in it (which they did last tour, posting an image of the piece of paper, where you could clearly see Tom Sawyer and 2112). And when Columbus is over, I get to fly home and get ready to do it all over again two nights later, "just down the Thruway" from home sweet Syracuse, in Buffalo.

I think that for some people, one needs something to TRIGGER a pivotal listen to Hemispheres which changes their life forever. Take me, for instance. I've been a huge RUSH fan since May 2005, when a friend from college got me into them. Over the next nine years, I'd gotten to like lots of songs from lots of different albums. I'd already liked The Trees and LVS, and the S&A Live disc helped me enjoy Circumstances...but I still wasn't really into "Side 1". Then last June, after having two relationships end abruptly within 5 months of each other (the second of which was especially bad; the girl had a LOT of issues), I happened to listen to the live 1994 version of Prelude on Youtube...which was awesome, and I decided to give the full studio track another fair listen. I had lyrics open in another tab, and was following along with the whole "struggle between heart and mind" theme, and was like "THIS SONG IS ME!!!" (you know, except for the whole traveling through time and space and ending up with a bunch of warring gods). So, instantly, Hemispheres became my favorite album, and Cygnus X-1 Book II became tied for my favorite RUSH song with Natural Science.

Got my tix for Columbus and Buffalo yesterday (Monday). Just waiting for Portland now.

Hemispheres Natural Science Prime Mover Jacob's Ladder Turn the Page

If having seen the tour is a prerequisite, then I say Clockwork Angels (my first tour was S&A). Among the 8 live Rush shows I've ever seen, the first of my three CA shows (10/10/12 in Bridgeport, CT) was the most amazing. If I don't have to have seen the tour, then I'd say R30.

Bought tix for Columbus, Buffalo, and Portland...nothing yet as of this weekend.

I find it very unlikely that, especially if this really is the last big tour, they would omit RtB. They'd played it every tour from RtB through R30, and gave it a three-tour rest. It's light-hearted and catchy, and they have fun with it. I just wouldn't be so quick to bury it...you'll likely be disappointed if you're hoping to avoid it. Plus, I'd like to hear it live at least once (I became a fan in early 2005).

I love Different Stages, especially the first two discs. Best commercially-released live versions of Natural Science, 2112, and Analog Kid. Awesome examples of Dreamline, Limelight, Driven, Test for Echo, Resist, TSoR, and even Tom Sawyer. The sound is really clear, Geddy sounds great, and you can hear the instruments separately.

If they REALLY wanted to go for a "live souvenir for the fans" type of cash cow, they should record the soundboard of every show and release it online a few days later for $9.95 MP3 and $12.95 FLAC files, the way Metallica does (and HAS done since the beginning of the 2004 Madly in Anger Tour). Now, granted Metallica's setlist changes on a nightly basis (usually half of the 18 songs stay the same and they mix up the other nine...from what I understand, Lars takes suggestions during the Meet and Greet and then the guys decide just before they go in the tuning room to jam/warm up). If RUSH did this, despite the setlist staying the same, or only swapping out a few songs, I still would have bought all 8 shows I've been to since 2007, and probably would have bought a few from the CA Tour where they played Middletown Dreams.

I'm in TOTAL agreement with this...I had to wait about a month between the beginning of the CA tour and my first date of the fall leg (Bridgeport). I was able to stay away from the message board and other fan sites. The only snafu was the RUSH Facebook page posting a picture of the bottom of the setlist, revealing Tom Sawyer/2112. This time around, it's EXACTLY one month between the first show, and my first of the tour (Columbus). So, aside from any FB "setlist malfunctions" on the part of the official RUSH page, I should be able to last a month. It's just so much more fun to be surprised. At least with a band like Metallica...they do 18 songs in just over 2 hours. 9 of the songs usually get played every night (Sandman, Sad But True, Master, One, Nothing Else Matters, Seek and Destroy, Creeping Death, a couple others...) but then the other 9 get changed up every show. They keep you guessing. Other bands change it up even more. But with a band like RUSH who keeps it mostly the same, it takes some serious patience and willpower to not look. I SHALL NOT LOOK!!! :D

The "yes" people baffle me. How could you not want to be surprised??? Especially for a band that for the most part, keeps the same setlist throughout a tour? I don't get it. It's like sneaking into the closet in the spare room a month before X-mas to see what your presents are...what's the fun in that???

I don't mean to be Buzz Killington here, but opening up the setlist to the public is a bad idea. The general populace will always choose the most famous songs. Last year (or maybe it was 2013), Metallica did a bunch of dates outside the US (mostly Europe I think) where the fans got to choose most of the setlist, and it was almost alllllll hits, except And Justice For All (which still got picked a lot) and that new song they were playing (which the band chose themselves). You get a big enough crowd and all you're gonna end up with is the Enter Sandmans and Sad But Trues (or in our case, the Tom Sawyers and Limelights) of the catalog. I think there was one country that was desperate for The Frayed Ends of Sanity (which had never been played live), which was pretty cool. I remember thinking "this was a really cool idea in theory, which REALLY backfired."

I hope you're right, there, Sea Captain...Prime Mover is my fave from HYF, and I love hearing the ASoH version. I kid you not, I always literally put my hands up when Geddy gets to "alternating currents/force a show of hands"!