Wingmaster

Roger that! I completely agree. I'm not sure that many people realize the volume of their tunes. While not perhaps rivaling the Beatles in volume, of good stuff, it's voluminous and far more so than with most other bands today. Think about it for a moment, even a band like Led Zeppelin wouldn't have the options of mixing it up from tour to tour like Rush does, they simply don't have the volume of quality tunes. Then consider bands like REO or even VH to some extent, but most others for sure, they have a brief series of years where not only their most popular stuff, but from a musical perspective also their best written stuff was created, and after that and for whatever reasons, the least of which not being burnout, they put out crap pop sh!t simply to extend their longetivity. Their concerts however are largely based in the tunes from that "10 year period" (if that in some cases) and three or four albums that were successful musically. That right there is why Rush is so different. They're among a very few number of elite bands that had sustainable success over now not just two, or even three, but now four decades and recently culminating with what as an album is certainly in the running for their best of all-time. I realize that it's difficult to compare an album like CA to say Moving Pictures, just as it is to compare The Wall to A Momentary Lapse of Reason e.g. They have such a volume of quality material, charted or not, that renders general topics such as this one, namely how good the set-lists are, as moot and fringing on the absurd. One of the biggest things for me about Rush shows/concerts is that they do change up significantly from show to show. Other bands are simply not capable of doing that w/ quality non-pop crap music. ROFLMAO!!! It really is! Comparing Rush to most bands out there but a select few is equally ridiculous. I wish Geddy would have thrown me some Mydol at the Anaheim show... Talk about bad timing. LMAO!!! BTW, I think that the Greatful Dead analogy is perfect. The only reason why they aren't still doing it is b/c Garcia died. Otherwise they'd have been carbon copies in another genre. JMO

Spot on there!!! I've seen the show twice now and have tix for a third in Baltimore. I read the book between the first and second shows, and for me anyway, understanding the story as well, given that it's a concept album based entirely on that story, made the second show infinitely more enjoyable despite the fact that I liked most of the songs on the album right out of the gate. As well, and I could very well be off here, but as of now IMO this is one of their albums where they showcase more styles of playing than any other as an entirety.

LMAO!! Great post! Reminds me of the Styx/REO/Journey concert I went to years ago in D.C. w/ a friend that wanted to see Journey. I figured I'd go to see Styx. REO was worthless as was Journey w/o Steve Perry, and Styx has been reduced to carnival fair as well. But at one point Kevin Cronin, who's one of the biggest douche bags in the music industry, goes off on this [seriously] 5+ min. story about his "two sons" and how he went to some party at the Playboy Mansion "for them," and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah ... Unbelievable waste of time and so incredibly boring. Some of these assklowns are just so narcissistic that they think anyone cares. Really gotta be careful about which bands one sees as they [those bands] age. One poor geriatric performance erases a lifetime of memories about shows seen in younger years. Kind of like a hot girl you [if you're a guy] used to date, and years later while still single, you see her again but she's fat and fugly. All you can think is wtf happened to her.

Strongly suggest that he go read the book before going to the concert. Believe me when I tell you that all my life I've struggled mightily to get thru any novel as I am a non-fiction reader, but I blew threw Clockwork Angels in a matter of hours. Easily best novel I've ever read or tried to read. I plan on reading it again, which is unprecedented for novels w/ me. Anyway, I'm tellin' ya, and I'm sure those that have read it will agree, but reading the book before the show makes a world of difference!! I started reading it and found the writing to be pretty poor. I will try and finish it before the show in July, but I really didn't like the book much thru the first few chapters. He loves the new album though. The writing is pretty pedestrian TBH but there is a payoff at the end that for me was worth it. That's probably why I enjoyed it so much. But again, the point was that the music takes on a greater meaning and makes more sense re: the performance of the entire album, or most of it, presumably resulting in greater enjoyment of the show. That said, don't you think it enhanced the CA concert experience?

Strongly suggest that he go read the book before going to the concert. Believe me when I tell you that all my life I've struggled mightily to get thru any novel as I am a non-fiction reader, but I blew threw Clockwork Angels in a matter of hours. Easily best novel I've ever read or tried to read. I plan on reading it again, which is unprecedented for novels w/ me. Anyway, I'm tellin' ya, and I'm sure those that have read it will agree, but reading the book before the show makes a world of difference!! I started reading it and found the writing to be pretty poor. I will try and finish it before the show in July, but I really didn't like the book much thru the first few chapters. He loves the new album though. Well, different strokes for different folks, but no matter how you slice it, it tells the entire story of which it's impossible to get w/o reading the book. IMO the songs take on a far greater meaning once one understands the story. Kind of like Pink Floyd's The Wall, w/o the movie the songs, while good musically, make almost no sense whatsoever. FWIW, while I'm a novice novel reader and always have been, again, into non-fiction, two other people I know that can't get enough of novels have both said that it's right up there with the best novels that they've ever read. I must think that your experience, and no disrespect intended in the least, is an extreme minority viewpoint.

I can see Van Halen introducing the marching band w/ David Lee Roth as the band leader.

Dream Theater's probably the closest thing to Rush in terms of level of talent. Portnoy and Petrucci are excellent. Portnoy perhaps second to Peart. Unfortunately their songs are infinitely less well known.

Honestly, I wouldn't even classify someone that goes to Rush shows to hear their top-10 favorite tunes by them a fan per se. I mean who doesn't like the most popular songs of most bands? Rush hasn't become successful by catering to the pop masses and the mainstream. To the contrary. So there's a huge degree of self-fulfilling prophecy in here.

Strongly suggest that he go read the book before going to the concert. Believe me when I tell you that all my life I've struggled mightily to get thru any novel as I am a non-fiction reader, but I blew threw Clockwork Angels in a matter of hours. Easily best novel I've ever read or tried to read. I plan on reading it again, which is unprecedented for novels w/ me. Anyway, I'm tellin' ya, and I'm sure those that have read it will agree, but reading the book before the show makes a world of difference!!

LMAO!! Spot on! Agreed w/ your entire post!

Simply due to the volume of their hit material over the years, again, an issue that neither VH, Aerosmith, nor most other bands for that matter have. Even if Led Zeppelin sprung back to life, they're limited too, they simply didn't put out the volume, much less quality volume, of material. Rush, in that way, can be compared to the Beatles.

You hit on something very interesting here. Most people go to concerts to hear their favorite songs. And bringing this into the context of the thread briefly, that's much easier to do for VH and Aerosmith and still, I dare say that fans will hear filler at their shows still if they play for as long as Rush does. I don't know I haven't been to either and don't ever care to see VH at this point as they've screwed too many people (Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar) over. But otherwise, as I see it, and correct me if I'm wrong, most Rush fans seem to be more enamored with the general level of talent and musical capabilities of the band than with an aging collection of songs from yesteryear. But too, with every album that they put out new favorites are developed, and usually more than one per album, sometimes many more than one per album. My 11-year old son loves Rush, his favorite band already by a long shot. But he thinks that CA is their best album. I cannot argue because as a complete album, it may very well be. Either way, as I said, IMO Rush would fill an arena if they said simply, "hey, our tour this time will be a spontaneous jam along with some assorted songs as we feel like playing them." Rush can do an hour of instrumentals, some made up on the spot, and be highly watchable. Neither VH nor Aerosmith can even approach that and other than for Joe Perry and EVH, no one's going to want to listen to any other solos and even those two aren't good for long alone. They don't have the support from one much less two other extraordinary musicians. As well, I think it's pretty clear that Rush puts a whole lot more, from several angles, into creating their music than the others do.

Amen to that. Both of those bands fizzled out back in the late '70s and mid '80s in VH's case, who didn't even start 'til what, '79. BTW, largely due in both cases to rampant and uncontrollable drug use by their two most prominent and relevant band members respectively. Rush focused on their music and family and lo and behold left the others in the dust from a "how many songs to choose from for concerts" perspective. If Rush played all the fans' faves, the show would be 10 hours long.

Part of me is incredulous and doesn't even know what to say to this, so allow me to start with some facts. As well, I've not read any of the comments to your post prior to having written this. For starters, Van Halen has half the material that Rush has so it's much easier to play their "favorites," eh. In terms of charting singles, they have a fraction of what Rush has, so ditto there. Thirdly, VH had only three or four great albums as albums go and their second best was w/ someone that isn't even in the band anymore and who they've shunned from any involvement, Sammy Hagar. IMO their best album was II, their next best 5150. Their best charting albums were Hagar's, period, not even close. As to singles, any comps w/ Rush are laughable. Aerosmith is similar but has more content and even less charting success. Those are the facts altho you can go look at the details yourself. On to this tour ... Have you read the CA book? I highly recommend reading it as it makes the tour that much better. Either way, this album for them is very different in several ways. If you know Rush, then there is no explanation necessary. It makes little sense to play only small portions of this album. But most fans come to see Rush for their talent, not necessarily for their set/song list. I would pay the same to watch them jam for 2-3 hours as would most it not all here. All three of them have achieved or are near the pinnacle in their careers at their respective instruments. Few would argue that there's a better R&R drummer than Peart and those that do have precious little ammo to the contrary. Getting back to the point, it's tough keeping everyone happy when you have so much material to choose from but so little time for a show. Unfortunately for your analogy, VH and Aerosmith don't have that issue, particularly VH who can't do material from Hagar's albums properly. Le'ts face it, DLR is not Sammy Hagar, regardless of which you think is better. AHEM, SH. IMO this is the best Rush show ever. And I call it a show, not a concert for a reason. The inclusion of the guest string musicians was a major and unprecedented change of pace for Rush, another fact. You can't find two Rush fans in this forum to agree on a manageable number of songs for a setlist, so how is what you're saying even possible? They simply have too much material. Also, you talk about them going to their roots and "dancing w/ the gal that brung them," but in large measure they do that. Moving pictures was their best album according to many, and certainly by its popularity, and they always play a bunch of songs from that least of all not being Tom Sawyer, arguably one of the R&R world's core anthems, not merely one of Rush's core tunes. The Time Machine tour was the entire MP album. This album is highly popular for a reason, ... it's fantastic, in several ways. IMO it's very similar to Pink Floyd's The Wall in some ways, but a cleaner more literary version of it. The whole steampunk theme is unique and original. Anyway, I'm just not sure that you've thought thru your opinion very well. Moreover, Geddy's voice, not being the same as DLR's or ST's, simply would do injustice to many songs, say Fly By Night et al. What a disaster that song would be today. Lastly, this perceived smugness that you see on their parts I viewed, independently, as something completely different. I view it as their A, just having a good time, and pardon them while they do as they sing and play to every last ounce of energy at their ages to try to make you happy and content, and B, that look that you refer to I interpret as them still somewhat incredulous themselves that they have this popularity and have achieved the level of success that they have as a result of it. I could be wrong, but so could you, but it's funny our diametric perspectives, eh. Anyway, your opinion is your opinion, but there's a big difference in asking for a collection of Robert DeNiro's best movies in a 5-DVD set and one of Charlie Sheen's. . Honestly tho, if you think that it's that bad, then don't go. Problem solved. A whole bunch of people can then "move up a seat."

Amen dude...I hope that they stick around long enough for my oldest to see them...he's just 7. I've taken him to NASCAR races but they noise was too much for him even though I did everything possible to make it bearable for him. He really likes "Caravan" and HF...he's gonna be a drummer...it's in his bones NASCAR's louder than a Rush show?

People that stand in the good seats area and not up front for the entire concert annoy me. I pay for a seat and have bad knees so that I can sit and enjoy the show. At the VA show there were three drunk people in front of us in the 300s that would constantly stand up and change seats so that we couldn't permanently position the family to achieve maximum visibility. We politelly asked them if they wanted to swap seats w/ us one row back and they were rude about it. It wasn't even the front row. If people want to stand for more than the first bunch of songs or whatever, then get floor "seats" where you have to stand anyway. Like Europe, they outta have standing sections.

We "splurged" just for seat seats vice lawn seats. I drove to the box office to save like $40 in fees, still, it was like just over $400 for all five of us. Obviously we can't do that often. For some people $500 for a single seat is nothing, for us it's notable. I'm going to try to get us all to be able to go see them again at Hershey, but not sure about that either. Don't have the scratch now, so we'll have to wait and see. We may just hit the park for the day and see what comes up at gametime at the box office.

These days, in most arenas, there is no "funky smell" as you'll get booted for lighting up even a cigarette. ... unless it's outdoors, even then I'm not sure the laws anymore in this police state.

please don't ever think about taking your three year old to a concert like this.... ... btw, my kids hate rush with a passion, i mean hate them....they get upset if they are on my tv in any shape or form, and you know what? I am totally fine with that....i don't need my kids to like rush, maybe its selfish, but i am good going to the shows without the rest of the family... I agree, three is too young, but 5+ is fine. We brought those headphone hearing protection for them tho. My kids all love Rush. You should get yours to a shrink. : D

I took my family of five, wifey and son (11) and two daughters 7 and 5 last year to the VA show outdoors. A great time was had by all except the girls got a little sleepy after bedtime. My son prefers the newer Rush songs as well, particularly CA.

Agreed. La Villa is probably my favorite tune, shame that it isn't in the CA set(s)

BTW, I'd pay good money to watch those guys jam for two hours!

Yeah, agree FOH! Also, the cruising motorcycling is far less dangerous than the city and metro riding. He seems to be a cruising type. I have to say, they're also perfectionists, at some point they may feel like they're simply not performing to some arbitrary minimally acceptable level that they have in mind, and I wouldn't blame them for that. I have some pretty horrid memories of some bands that I saw when I was a kid and younger and again after the lead singer's voice was lame. It becomes difficult to erase that "last memory" mentally, and these guys don't strike me as the types that would risk that. I'm going to go thru song by song at some point on some late evening and compile a list of all of their instrumental songs. I really think that a tour featuring all or most of those would be really, really cool. And at the risk of getting thrown out of here by my ear, I also thought that it would be fun for them to mix things up with say another song or two as a cover, like Stairway to Heaven, I'd love to hear how they would do a song like that live. I think it could blow the pants off the original. Maybe even change up the lyrics somewhat to incorporate no doubt Neil's thoughts. Don't worry, I'm packing as we we speak. LOL

Yeah, I agree, maybe even consider an instrumental, or mostly instrumental, album at this stage. Might keep the pop-riff-raff out too, although ticket sales are ticket sales, eh. I really wish they'd consider playing much smaller venues like my backyard as well.

You should have just kept tapping on alternate shoulders of his throughout the show. When he finally turned around and asked you if you were doing that and why, ask him if he thought it was annoying, then tell him no, that definition has been taking for a billboard hanging directly in front of your face.