Bhawk2112

The Roland Fantom X-7 is used more as a controller than a synth. Those dots are more indicative of sample triggers than assistance with actually playing the parts.

They certainly have streamlined the pedals and triggers and such. Individual notes that used to be played with the feet are now "played" by pressing the pedal once, but that sets off a sequence of several notes.

They could have pulled the vocals back a bit in the mix. Not much else they could do unless they try to mask it. That's what I meant. I know they want to deliver an "authentic" experience; but it just sounds bad in spots (the same is true of the Clockwork Angels DVD). What would the harm be in making it sound better. I get the whole integrity thingg, but this is same band that list Alex as "backing vocals" even though it's obvious, he's not the voice you hear. Authentic? I think it was time to give up that hope decades ago. Seeing R40 one has to suspend disbelief with all of GEDDYS background vocals and synths, all performed while neither of them are anywhere pedals or mics. Eagle is spot on about CTTC or TTP. Woulda been nice to have CTTC live once, its a good tune. For that reason, HII was a worthy addition, for the 1/3rd rotation it got this tour it was worth hearing live once in the grand history of Rush. As much as I like Animate, its been done before a few tours, I'd put CTTC in that slot instead and leave that HII thing alone! . I don't get the comment about them not being anywhere near pedals for the background synth/vocals. They're always triggered by one of them. He probably means why Alex is pretending to sing into his mic, but the backing vocals are all pre-recorded samples of Geddy, probably triggered by Neil. There are lots of subtle background vocals and synths, especially on the newer material, where G n A are not near the synths nor peds. Definitely could be triggered by Neil, but that dudes got his hands and feet full! . Which songs are you speaking of?

Just did a KC boot in one ear and R40 album in another ear side-by-side for TCE four times...that's KC for sure.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that's noticed that Geddy's playing has gotten better with age. Regardless of what happens with Rush, it's a damn shame that time is going by and that guy isn't playing the bass somewhere in front of somebody.

Nobody's Hero. Duh.

To this day I have no idea why, but my first listen to Different Stages, the outro jam of Bravado made warm alligator tears spill out. Maybe it was the beauty of the music plus really thinking at the time the band was done. Haven't a clue. The choir during the outro to Marathon gets to me, especially the ASOH version. The first time I heard the piano interlude in The Garden.

17 6/16/84 - Kemper Arena, KC (Grace Under Pressure) 4/29/85- Kemper Arena, KC (Power Windows) 4/7/88 - Kemper Arena, KC (Hold Your Fire) 3/3/90 - Kemper Arena, KC (Presto) 6/20/90 - Civic Auditorium, Omaha (Presto) 11/6/91 - Expocenter, Topeka (Roll The Bones) 5/23/92 - Kemper Arena, KC (Roll The Bones) 6/12/92 - Riverport Amphitheater, St. Louis (Roll The Bones) 5/4/94 - Kemper Arena, KC (Counterparts) 6/7/97 - Sandstone Amphitheater, Bonner Springs (Test For Echo) 7/20/02 - Tweeter Center, Tinley Park (Vapor Trails) 6/13/04 - Sandstone Amphitheater, Bonner Springs (R30) 8/23/07 - Sandstone Amphitheater, Bonner Springs (Snakes & Arrows) 6/7/08 - Starlight Theatre, KC (Snakes & Arrows) 7/1/10 - Starlight Theatre, KC (Time Machine) 8/4/13 - Sprint Center, KC (Clockwork Angels) 7/9/15 - Sprint Center, KC (R40)

Perhaps this is best measured by Freewill, the high part after the solos. Signals tour, all was well, solos begin around 13:40: Dropped from the setlist for a while, didn't return until the Presto tour, but, alas, on that tour as well at the RTB tour, they went into Distant Early Warning out of the solos, so he didn't sing the high part. Not played on the Counterparts tour. Returns to the T4E tour, the final rehearsal the night before the tour opener (which is a delightful listen in its own right, since he was saving his voice a TON of the entire recording is instrumental, soundboard!) he didn't bother to sing it, just played through it. Around 1:40:40 Opening night T4E tour. Solos begin around the 16 minute mark here, he sings the high part and, um, yeah. https://www.youtube....h?v=ozvutM9M3hQ Vapor Trails tour, (not linking to anything from Rush In Rio, that terrible sound, ugh) a good sample would be the smoking version of the song from the SARS concert: Not played on Feedback/R30. S&A Live, he sounds pretty good during the high part: Time Machine, even with the vocal issues he was having that night, pretty strong, IMO: Of course, that was the last tour that Freewill was in the setlist.

So many mismatched tempo changes that hinder momentum of songs...starts with the title track and continues throughout. Take the title track...slow build intro, the bridge between the intro and the first verse starts rocking hard, then the verse starts and...slower, then the tempo picks up again, then things really get going during the chorus, then, back to slow. The chorus in Driven worked so much better live. Time & Motion has a lot of interesting time signatures and all, but it's a bit of an odd mess at times. I've always referred to this album as "Test For Tempo"

I was in high school from '84-'88. Much of fashion, attitude, etc., was totally driven by the kind of music you and like minds listened to...the punks, the metalheads, the alternatives in Doc Martens, etc. All the jocks at my school were all about John Cougar, Bob Seger, Steve Miller, Springsteen. I had a lot of metalhead friends...Maiden, Priest, Scorpions, Crue. Early Metallica, Megadeth. With those guys, the dividing line was synths or keyboards of any kind. Many people that were devoted to the ballsy guitar arena rock of the 70s were terrified of the sounds that synths were making at the time. Here were these metal bands making loud melodic notes and screams and yet two-chord synth songs by the Thompson Twins and Culture Club were ruling the charts. As to Rush specifically, I don't have to tell anyone here that they had a Synth Era. My theory regarding articles like this one is that for a while, Rush didn't fit firmly anywhere. They had alienated the 70s fans (and rather quickly, I might add, Hemispheres was recorded in the fall of 1978. Grace Under Pressure was recorded in the fall of 1983. That's one heck of a musical transition in all of five years). Plus, the live act had totally changed...the sound, the instruments, the set lists. To a lot of other people, even though they embraced more of the overall trends in music at the time, they were still Rush, which in a way made it even easier for the people who didn't like them to begin with to still go overboard on bagging on them.

Given the level of musicianship that they've set as a standard over 40 some odd years, I just see the prospect of one-off shows the least likely. Methinks it's just...over.

Tai Shan is an outlier, really... I'd have to go with Open Secrets, it seemed to be a beginning of songs with tempo changes between intros, verses and choruses that screwed up the momentum of cohesion of said songs.

that's some hilarious trolling on rush's part For those who have never heard it, it's quite the assault to all the senses, as well as common sense. It's like a slap in the jimmy. Xanadu starts at 1:34:01. Sigh.

I was just fine with Superconductor until I went to a Rush concert and this happened... Xanadu>Supercondutor Not so fine with it anymore.

JL has a lot of the same riff repeating. To musicians of their caliber, I'm confident it isn't that difficult at all.

Countdown was a dud live. It just didn't transfer. The mysterious energy from the studio version got totally lost. The vocals sound very monotone and if you listen to the boots from the Signals tour you can almost hear "I really don't want to sing this" in Geddy's voice. Here's 12/6/82, Countdown is at about 1:25:55: As to Jacob's Ladder, it's one of the simplest songs they've ever written. I've always wondered if they stopped playing it after one tour just because they got bored with it.

All The World's A Stage Exit...Stage Left Different Stages S&A Live A Farewell To Kings

June 16, 1984, Grace Under Pressure tour, Kemper Arena, KCMO. Gary Moore opened. First Rush show of 17. Geddy is why I picked up playing the bass that same summer. I vividly remember watching him all night playing the Steinberger, and his Rickenbacker 4001 was on a stand behind him as the back-up the whole show, but he never touched it. Pure torture for a 13 year old obsessed with that Rickenbacker sound. He even listed it in the tour book! Wasn't until the S&A tour that I actually got to see/hear him play a Rick.

I was sitting quite near one of the cameras in KC for the in-house feed, back of the lower level at a slight angle, HDTV production quality camera like one would see at a sporting event with the giant tripod and the standing cameraman. A quick check of pics shows that they were wearing the exact same clothes 2nd set in KC as 2nd set Toronto 6/17, but then again they wore the same clothes a lot all tour. Who knows?

The sheer and utter power of Between The Wheels.

It is very hard. We were there when all of these bands first began, and here they are old men, some of whom (thinking especially of the ghastly Robert Plant) now bear a faint (if any) resemblance to their younger self. And I'm not a teenager anymore either. :codger: No less for me, chica. I friggin' hate this getting old thing. And seeing my favorite bands fade away - by necessity, choice, or force - isn't fun either. As is watching all these TV and movie actors we grew up with, kick the bucket. The 'net has given us a wide window into literally watching our age turn to dust. It's unsettling. Informative. But unsettling. Plant still brings the goods, chica! Just saw him live a month or two ago. Outstanding stuff. He looks pretty good for a geezer. :) Plant isn't even close to bringing what Rush can still bring. Years of cigarette smoking destroyed that once beautiful voice. Geoff Tate was a smoker too. With those pipes. Why, for crying out loud, why? Because we're only immortal for a limited time?

A lot of musicians either have no desire or outright dislike going back and listening to recordings from the past. As fans we hear the music differently. Where we hear emotion and edge, musicians hear mistakes and mistimings. Revisiting the past can be pretty uncomfortable in many different ways. There's a pretty good story about the Dick's Picks series that the Grateful Dead put out. Phil Lesh kept nixing show after show for this or that. The project had ground pretty much to a halt and they called a meeting, Lesh wanted to know what the hold up was and everyone looked at him and said "YOU!" He threw up his hands and got out of the way, because to his ears, none of it was good enough. That said, that's why a Steven Wilson is perfect for such projects if Rush were to release archival stuff...he has a much different ear, and conversely, he'd probably have a much more difficult time listening to a Porcupine Tree show.

Had a microscopic hope that they'd possibly maybe consider putting this last one on PPV. Drat!

Also a pretty solid as you can get that there will be no additional R40 shows.