Ultimate Rush Tribute

Not surprised by #1-4. But to #5’s one word comment I reply, “Holy shit. ‘Lazy’?! Rush?! They were like three hyperactive bees for their entire career.” I am not saying they are lazy. Just that that one song seems like a lazy effort. It is not Rush-like to me at all. My drummer loves that song for some reason and wanted to play it and I just couldn't understand why. Nothing challenging about it, and just bleh. It really seems like, uh we need one more song for this album, do a little jam, eh ok record it. But overall, Rush lazy absolutely not.

Even the Beatles had a few clunkers. Everyone makes mistakes. What were Rush's top 5 worst songs? 1 ) Roll the Bones (has to be the worst I can think of with the horrible orchestra hits and the "rapping" if you can call it that. Why are we here? Because we're here. Really? 2) I think I'm going bald - Cheesemania 3) Face Up 4) Dog Years 5) Leave that thing Alone - Lazy

Lots of drummers are technically better than Peart: Bruford, Giles, Bozzio, Wackerman, Minnemann, Mangini, T. Lang, among others. (Although, unlike the others, Lang doesn’t strike me as a musical drummer.) I would’ve thought that Peart/Lifeson would be roughly the same in terms of accolades/being held in high regard. Both are gifted players and very smart arrangers. And as many have said, Alex is a musical guitarist, more in line with Page/Howe than 80s 6-string wankery. Maybe his guitar solos should have had cowbells in them. I remember reading a letter in an old Modern Drummer mag. Something along the lines of “When I want to listen to a musical drummer, I’ll listen to Ringo (or whoever). If I want to listen to something fast and on time, I’ll listen to a Japanese bullet train.” Simon Phillips and Dave Weckl man! I wouldn't leave Portnoy off that list. The difference between Neil and the rest of these guys is that he incorporated his great playing with real songs. Most of these others play instrumentals for the most part or songs that can be only appreciated by a few. RUSH has legendary "songs"! Alex has the talent to be a "great" guitarist but I agree his riffs are not in the overly flashy category. He chose to go the more tasteful route in most cases and yeah the albums after Signals did not help his case. ;c)

I have played in many tribute bands recently; Led Zep, Pink Floyd and I have played in many cover bands that have great guitar players. The Rush tribute band I am doing now is my most challenging and most fun. One thing about Alex and Rush, if you don't know it exactly you can't just jam in a key and fake it. You really have to know it. Many of his solos are actually very choppy and very bizarre, its definitely a unique style. Older stuff like Working Man was great classic rock chops but solos like Tom Sawyer are very choppy and all over the place. Then when you add in all of the different timings 7/8 for Tom Sawyer, Jacobs Ladder alternating between 5/4 and 6/4 and the different scales he uses its very complex. He is in a similar category to Steve Howe in my opinion. Very complex, yet it sounds melodic and not just blinding speed. Then when you add-in when he was doing all of this and how long he has lasted and the amount of material, it really is crazy. But did he have that changing effect on guitar playing i.e. Hendrix, Van Halen, and some of those guys no. I love playing them all, but I love playing the overall Rush catalog the most. It is very rewarding when it all comes out right.

I was a sophomore in high school in 1980 and was at a sleep over with a couple of my band mates and this live video of La Villa came on and it was like a punch in the face.Went out and bought Hemispheres and never looked back. Amazing!

Hyperspace Kingdom

That was awesome. There are still kids with good taste and talent. The video that came up right after it was awesome too.

I need a third set to make us a traditional Rush 3 hour show! I need to incorporate more of the "newer music (after signals). I would like to see your proposed 3rd set for us. Here is 1 and 2 again for convenience... Three that we have sort of assembled are Dreamline, Leave that thing alone and Distant Early Warning. They don't necessarily need to be. I am not a big fan of Leave that thing alone. Keep in mind the new songs would be spread out through out the sets. But we need 8-9 songs 10 max. Set 1 Spirit of Radio Subdivisions Limelight Entrée Nous* Camera Eye* New World Man XYZ Jacob’s Ladder Set2 R30 Tom Sawyer Closer to the Heart* Broon’s Bain* The Trees* Xanadu** Analog Kid Freewill Red Barchetta Overature/Temples (Encore) La Villa Strangiato*

8 track tapes (smh)

I agree with this one. I was blown away at the Clockwork Angels tour when they did losing it live. I wasn't a huge fan of that song until then and that brought it way up for me.

I know I am new here so I apologize if I brings up things that have been discussed a million times but this video still maybe one of the best videos I have ever found on youtube. Hopefully it will be new to some and if not hopefully it will bring back fond memories...

I didn't really like the Xanadu too much. But I saw a link to this Subdivisions interpretation that I thought was pretty well done...

This album in my opinion was the start of Rush. The first Album was great but was really Lee, Lifeson and Rutsy. Introducing Neil on drums and lyrics was a paradigm shift. Hemispheres La Villa 2112 Xanadu Natural Science Cygnus X1 Jacob's Ladder The Necromancer By Tor Fountain

What in particular do you think needs work? Not too much in this video. I am the guitar player and with the excitement, the lights distracting me, etc... I missed a couple chords that I can usually play in my sleep, and I didn't have time to set up the wah effect for the solo before this gig. But with a few gigs and reps and time these things will get tighter. Further in the show, there were some timing issues with Xanadu and Jacob's Ladder. A few blown solos (again mostly from excitement) lol.

Hey all, I am new to the forum. Long time Rush fan. My first concert was the Moving Pictures tour in 1981. Saw them at Madison Square Garden and was totally blown away. I have been in bands since seventh grade and have played everything from standard rock classics to tribute bands. I was in a Pink Floyd tribute band, Zeppelin tribute and my latest and my favorite project is a Rush tribute band. We simple go by Ultimate Rush. We have been practicing for about 6 months and just had our first gig last Sunday. Was fairly happy with it although we have a long way to go. I will be posting some videos from the show as we get them edited and put together. We pretty much focus on 2112 to Signals but we are open to expanding down the road. Here is our set list from the show: Set 1 Spirit of Radio Subdivisions Limelight Entrée Nous* Camera Eye* New World Man XYZ Jacob’s Ladder Set2 R30 Tom Sawyer Closer to the Heart* Broon’s Bain* The Trees* Xanadu** Analog Kid Freewill Red Barchetta Overature/Temples (Encore) La Villa Strangiato* Here is a video of Spirit of Radio - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoMY2_lzqvo I know we still need work, but I think once we tighten up and get some reps we can do them justice. Now that Rush is officially not touring any more. How many of you will seek out tribute shows? Are you generally for or against band(s) trying to carry on the tradition, We had about 140 Rush fans at the first show and had a lot of great feedback, so I think we are on the right track. I look forward to engaging with you all on many subjects, but just wanted to give you a quick intro. Thanks.