courier j

Thoughts on the May 12 Rush concert in St. Paul: A megaton of powerful music, delivered with feeling by three truly original musicians. Nice audio/visual "extras". Nice setlist, IMO we got the best one so far on this tour with the addition of "Natural Science". Impossible for them to play everything the audience would like to hear, although I would have loved to hear them do all four parts of "Fear". Assuming this is the last big tour for them, it's a fitting end to that storied legacy. They clearly still have the musical chops, although playing as they do may be asking too much of their bodies, especially for drumming. I think the only "mistakes" they made (aside from the tech issues that left Alex without an audible guitar for quite a few measures of "Animate") were intentionally thrown in for a little extra fun. Geddy's voice can still hit and sustain high notes, but much of the pre-Permanent Waves material is missing some of the impact it had when he had that striking power to cut through the wonderful noise. Still, check them out this year if you get a chance, and pay attention to the little things you may not have noticed at other Rush concerts.

OK, how's this for a setlist? It's 15-20 minutes longer than the CA setlist, so I built in a second intermission. When looking at the older selections, I looked for songs that could realistically be achieved vocally. It doesn't have much that would make use of an orchestra, since they aren't having one this tour. It does have at least four songs they haven't done on previous tours. What do you think? Closer to the Heart Cinderella Man Entre Nous *Red Barchetta (alternate: Limelight) The Trees Lakeside Park Working Man Tom Sawyer Chemistry Intermission The Spirit of Radio YYZ FEAR Part I—The Enemy Within Part II—The Weapon Part III—Witch Hunt Part IV—Freeze *Mystic Rhythms (alternate: Grand Designs) *Prime Mover (alternate: Time Stand Still) Malignant Narcissism Cut to the Chase The Pass Bravado Half the World Second Intermission Far Cry *The Anarchist (alternate: Caravan) Vapor Trail Headlong Flight Encore R40 instrumedley (2112 “Overture” section, Intro sections of Cygnus X-1 and Hemispheres) Mr. Soul *Rivendell (alternate: “Panacea” section of Fountain of Lamneth) Subdivisions