Apollo

What the hell people, I came to this thread to slam S&A and everyone's talking about OLV. To help the thread return to topic, I will say that I hate S&A, I think it's their worst release ever next to Roll the Bones and Hold Your Fire and I don't ever listen to it. It all sounds very lethargic to me, I don't like the music and the lyrics are relentlessly negative, whereas I associate Rush with positive energy. To show I am not a hater of all new things, I loved CA and thought it was their best album since the glory days of the '80s. Now back to bashing Geddy's OLV live singing (and I agree, they should have played Freeze or a deep cut from Vapor Trails instead).

For people wondering about timelines, mine arrived at the Seattle venue the Friday before the Sunday show so it was about as late as you can send it. It only got signed by Geddy so I have no idea if the lateness had something to do with it but I wouldn't think so seeing as the band couldn't have been in Seattle before Saturday anyway. Because I am a lazy procrastinating jerk, I got my wife to do the packaging, mailing and note writing. No idea what she wrote, but maybe it really offended Alex and Neil? :D

This I believe. He definitely didn't seem his usual fun loving self in Salt Lake City and did look like he might have been playing through pain.

Aw man...that sucks. I wonder why? Hard for them to sign shirts? That's what I would guess, has anyone successfully got a shirt signed?

I don't understand why only Geddy signed yours and all three signed mine. Why wouldn't they all sign your CD booklet? No idea, I'll take a picture of it tonight and post it when I get home from work. I am guessing the signature is Geddy's based on other pictures in this thread. I'm trying not to be bitter, I still have one more Rush member's signature on something than I did last week. Why don't you send it to Phoenix (I'd say Las Vegas, but I don't know, it might get lost there) with a short note explaining that you sent it to Seattle but only Geddy signed it, and would Alex and Neil please sign as well? I am tempted to take your suggestion but I'm afraid it wouldn't get there in time and I'd hate to lose the one signature I have now. Any word yet on whether Irvine or LA are accepting these? Anyhow here's the pic, Geddy's signature does look a little lonely but I am still thankful even for this. http://i.imgur.com/Gk7zooWl.jpg

I don't understand why only Geddy signed yours and all three signed mine. Why wouldn't they all sign your CD booklet? No idea, I'll take a picture of it tonight and post it when I get home from work. I am guessing the signature is Geddy's based on other pictures in this thread. I'm trying not to be bitter, I still have one more Rush member's signature on something than I did last week.

Got my CD booklet back from Seattle today, looks like only Geddy signed it. That's still pretty cool though! Coincidentally, today Geddy became my favorite member of Rush :D Really wish I would have planned this better and sent an LP.

Nobody's complaining so I'll throw a couple out for fun. 1. Reissuing of old material - Their forgetting to throw Lock and Key back in with A Show of Hands when the Replay DVDs came out I found quite poor. Somebody really dropped the ball on that, admittedly I don't know if it was the band or management but their name is on the stuff. It also left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths that they didn't issue the R40 bonus disc separately for people that had already bought all the videos. It would also be nice to see some old live soundboards officially released, hopefully they will start doing that when they officially retire and not forget about them like Genesis did. 2. I don't think I am alone in saying that the R40 setlist got better as it went along and it was great seeing all the original instruments and looks and lasers of the '70s/'80s. It's fun to think of how they would have sounded by keeping things simpler on their shows and not getting so crazy with the videos and special effects stuff. Sometimes simpler is better. 3. Too much touring and not enough new albums. The R30 tour, Time Machine tour and this last tour were all greatest hits type shows. With how great CA was, I would like to see more new material. Although if the new material is like S&A, then maybe we're better off without it. :P Not saying I don't love them, it is hard to think of a group that does everything exactly right. I do think they appreciate their fans and I think the last couple of tours have shown they are aware of a lot of the deep cuts that people want to hear. Switching to an evening with format was great for fans as well. There are many more good things to list than bad but the thread title wasn't asking for good things...

Is there a summary available, I would hate to listen to Eddie Trunk.

I think Rush will have to fully retire before this will happen and it may not happen then. There was a lot of expectations that Genesis were going to do this after their reunion tour but there has been nothing and that was seven years ago now.

Hoping for mine tomorrow, didn't come today.

Exit Stage Left, Rush in Rio, Clockwork Angels and Clockwork Angels Live would be my list of things to remaster. To actually say something nice, their 12 months of Rush vinyl reissue series this year has been fantastic. Got Caress of Steel, All the World's a Stage and Hemispheres and those albums have never sounded better!

Me too, which is sad because it was obviously a fantastic show but terribly recorded. Reading the booklet made me mad where they were saying how they were basically throwing everything together at the last minute, why didn't they properly prepare? They're supposed to be professionals here. Sounds like a bad bootleg, Geddy is completely drowned out in the mix. Was it like that at the show, people who attended this concert?

I noticed Vancouver crowds were quiet (for Rush anyway) back in '97 when I saw the TFE tour there. Probably not long after you were born lemonycake :D I think I was actually lucky that my brother who was going to go with me decided to drink in Seattle instead so I ended up going solo. It was really cool and maybe my favorite of the 11 shows I have seen, I could totally focus on the music and not worry about other people at all. Even though crossing the border is a huge hassle, you might want to go to Seattle if Rush ever tour again, I saw the CA tour there a couple of years ago and the crowd seemed nuts the whole time. You would want to avoid Salt Lake City where I saw this tour last week, lots of old people like me. I am 40 something and I think I was one of the younger attendees. And I love lemon cake, my favorite cake flavor and I hate all other cakes Great name!

You can't trust anyone who lives in north Idaho, they're like their own separate state of weirdos up there. Beautiful area though.

I disagree, I have one of those fancy sound setups with the DTS-HD and it sounds just like you describe, a muddy wall of sound. They need to hire back whoever recorded All the World's a Stage or at least the Show of Hands people, their live releases have been terrible for a long time now.

Hoping for the best for my Hemispheres CD booklet sent to Seattle this weekend, I know it got there Friday morning. Would have liked to get an LP signed, but since I forgot about this until the last possible day and was at work, I had to beg my wife to do all the packaging and figured I would make it easy on her. A friend of mine would like to do this too, is there any consensus on the best remaining building to send something to?

I probably missed the boat on this but I sent my Hemispheres CD booklet priority mail to Seattle yesterday. I'm hoping I'm safe since the band can't get there until Saturday anyway and I'm relatively close to there.

I think you're right, looks like A for Salt Lake City and I was hoping for C.

Glad you liked it, you got the setlist I wanted. Looks like A for Salt Lake City Monday which was probably my least favorite.

Unfortunately it seems like nobody knows how to put out a good concert video anymore. Rush certainly don't judging by their last few efforts.

So can anyone recommend what venues to use for the rest of the tour to try this autograph thing? I have an old Hemispheres album cover I can take chances with now since I just got the new release of it.

I would disagree, shirts are always a crapshoot. I have good and bad bootleg shirts and good and bad official shirts. I just wish groups would make more non-black shirts. Bought the official red CA tour shirt just because it wasn't black.

Yea the parking lot is the way to go. Got a $8 Judas Priest shirt from their last tour when they were selling for $35 in the arena. You can even see the equivalent of parking lot shirt sales at a lot of club shows now.

Ha, I did that too, left off Halo Effect and everything after Headlong Flight.