jnoble

after years of hearing about it, I finally watched it. Meh, it was OK. It was like a cheesy poorly animated '80s cartoon with random Rush songs playing in the background with little to nothing to do with what was going on in the story. In fact, the music could have been taken out entirely and not affected anything in the cartoon. That being said, Andrea was pretty hot. For a cartoon and all.

is there any particular reason why the AFTK Xanadu was slightly sped up a quarter/half step? Every once in awhile when I go to play along with it on bass I forget and have to retune. Was it an uncorrected error by Terry Brown or something they did on purpose?

QUOTE (Bastille Dave @ Dec 23 2011, 06:29 PM) gotta go with ESL. I love watching all the others but ESL is from my favorite era of Rush. the only gripe I have with ESL (the video) is the slightly muddy sound, the hightly edited setlist, and that it looks like they forgot to turn the lights on the stage sometimes...it's too dark in many parts which actually gives it a mysterious atmosphere, especially for songs like By Tor and Xanadu On the other hand, GUP is the exact opposite...that video is lit so brightly it's almost distracting

QUOTE (Tommy Sawyer @ Dec 19 2011, 06:30 PM) QUOTE (HowItIs @ Dec 19 2011, 04:09 AM) QUOTE (PolarizeMe @ Dec 18 2011, 11:41 PM) I'd definitely love to see an official release of A View of the Palace one day...plus the Shoreline pro-shot during the Presto tour and the alleged pro-shot from the RTB tour that hasn't surfaced yet. Release those 3 pro-shots in Replay x3 Deux? That'll be a great idea. It's kind of heartbreaking that there is no pro-shot video of live shows between ASOH and Rio. I missed them during that time and would love to see one of those shows. I vote Time Machine which edged out ASOH by playing one of my very favorite songs. You should watch A View from the Palace CP tour, pro-shot I have A Mountain View pro-shot DVD from a 1990 California Presto show that's pretty good. It is interesting however how much more excited and fun they seem to have now compared to that bootleg concert. The playing and performance is fine, but I don't think Alex or Geddy smile or goof around once, it's all business. Maybe they were having a bad night or something.

My biggest beef with ASOH is visually. It's not very interesting to watch start to finish because Geddy is playing a black bass wearing a gray suit/jacket, Alex is playing a black guitar (or a white guitar in some songs) wearing a dark suit, they don't switch instruments or wardrobe like they do now and it's kinda dull. Not much color to be seen other than the lighting/screen images/cartoons during certain songs.

I get annoyed when I see Rush on the Boneyard or Deep Tracks and it turns out to be a song I've heard a zillion times like studio TS or Limelight etc. Way to think outside the box, radio people.

The Big Wheel is actually a good song, as are most on RTB, handicapped by weak production. Imagine this and most of the other 'Bones songs played with their current beefy sound Damn you, Rupert Hine!

ATWAS: What You're Doing ESL: Tom Sawyer, By-Tor (video version...Geddy's bass groove/improv in the mid section blows me away every time) ASOH: La Villa (video version). I've always liked this song better with the sound they had circa HYF/Presto/RTB era. Various bootlegs: Where's My Thing live with the extended Geddy bass intro Rio: Secret Touch I'm not crazy about most of the songs on VT, but this version smokes TM: Presto, Marathon

QUOTE (Finbar @ Dec 3 2006, 01:49 AM) Signals. That album is just lost on me. I don't hate Signals, but most of it just sounds like a murky mix of overchorused guitar, swirling synths, and Geddy's echoey voice rising above the fog. Never been a fan of the production on that one even though I do like a couple of the songs a lot.

Geddy or Alex, forget which one, mentioned last year about re-recording those two songs for the upcoming album. I don't think a specific reason was given.

I just re-listened to most of TFE last night while playing some old-school arcade games on my PS2. I dunno....I still like the title track and (unlike most here) I've always enjoyed Half The World. But the album as a whole isn't that good. It's not BAD or unlistenable like the horrid production/sound of VT, but most of the songs and lyrics are just....meh. I guess that's the best way to put it. Overall it just sounds like Rush went into the studio without any kind of concept or big ideas and just recorded some average songs to make an album out of. Even Limbo sounds uninspired. TFE also marks the beginning of the bad habits that annoy me continuing to the current day...the Geddy choir, the 'wall of noise' layers of distorted guitars and basses, Neil's lyrics taking a turn for the worse, Geddy awkwardly shoehorning lyrics into musical phrases that don't quite fit.

the only Rush songs my local FM rock station plays on any regular basis is the standard studio TS, Limelight, TSOR, CTTH and maybe Big Money. A long long time ago I heard Cinderella Man played but that had to be a listener request.

unfortunatly, there's no way on God's green earth that Geddy could or even would attempt to sing/play all of Hemispheres in concert. No way no how. Unless they dropped it an entire octave, and even then....

other than the title track, I never listen to it and don't think any of it is that interesting. Geddy's post-1970s screech voice outside of Rush (and even a lot of songs with them) I don't find fun to listen to. The bass work is fine but the album is just boring. I'd rather listen to Victor, now that album had some cool edgy songs going on in it. 'Promise' and 'I Am The Spirit' are very very good.

TFE isn't horrible per se....that would be VT if for anything else, the horrid 'put a pot on your head and bang on the side of it with a spoon' production...I liked it when it first came out and remember Neil gushing in pre-release interviews about how they felt the songs were the 'best they'd ever written' (Doesn't he say that about EVERY new album?) But it hasn't aged well with me, that's for sure. It's dated sounding and I always thought it wasn't nearly as good sounding as CP...too distorted and fuzzy sounding. TFE also laid the grounds for the bad habits that would plague future Rush albums.....shoehorned lyrics awkwardly forced into music, Geddy choir, too many layers of guitars and bass for a 'wall of noise' soundscape 'Color of Right' in particular was the first Rush song that made me wonder if Geddy was inventing the melody on the spot. It's so bland and I'm still not sure what the hell the songs even about. 'Time and Motion' is OK but hugely disjointed sounding. Especially the keyboard sample riff that plays on and off between the verses. 'Limbo' starts off alright, but gets downright ponderous and goes on too long in a mess of distortion. Easily their worst and most forgettable instrumental. That all being said, I've always liked Half the World even if it wasn't the hit song the band seemed to think it should've been.

QUOTE (rushgoober @ Nov 24 2011, 10:46 AM) What I get from the song is that you're seriously overthinking it. Just let its brilliance wash over you. The music is great, I'm referring just to the lyrics/story

Let me explain my interpretation of Xanadu and you guys can comment and correct me if need be. Ok....so an explorer reads about the legend of Xanadu in books and how it will render you immortal and then treks out to the distant snowy mountains of China or some far off Eastern country to look for it. He finds some caves of ice and eventually the 'Xanadu' itself. Which itself is exacly....what? A nicely decorated room or palace tucked inside a mountain, sort of like a 5-star resort in the middle of nowhere? Anyway, he finds it and eats the honeyhew and drinks the milk of paradise which I suppose were just laying about ready to be served and instantly becomes "immortal" (like magic?) Now comes the part that's always made me wonder.... it appears that the explorer, since now he's become immortal, is permanently trapped inside the Xanadu tucked within the ice caves. Why? Some sort of ironic curse? (this part makes me think of the Covenant opening and melting the Nazis from Indiana Jones) And so now, the explorer is immortal but can't leave the Xanadu place and is doomed to be there forever. Am I being too literal here? Is this what the rest of you get from this song?

QUOTE (sco703 @ Oct 17 2011, 04:26 PM) The fact that they're still together and touring after all these years is amazing in its own right. They deserve to retire and enjoy the rest of their lives. It will be sad, but it's probably for the best that they retire. At least I got to see them. I agree. It's been a great ride, but the band's ability to put out first rate material hasn't been there for a long time, Geddy's voice is half-shot now and he strains to sing pretty much everything. I'll be sad the day they officially hang it up, but there's so much material and DVDs and CDs and remastered CDs and bootlegs and other cool stuff to find on Youtube that it's not like we'll ever run out of Rush to enjoy. Personally, I was sure at the time that Vapor Trails was going to be the last studio album.

the thing about The Big Money and PW in general is how colorful, bright and energetic it sounded after the stale cold feel and sound of Signals and GUP.

Color Of Right is the first Neil lyric that made me go "ummm...what?" That's still such a bland uneventful song to me. For me, Neil's lyrics started going downhill starting with Counterparts. Not saying that I don't like any of them since that album, just that he started to lose me more and more post 1993.

QUOTE (Phantom @ Oct 1 2011, 05:09 PM) In my opinion, to call his voice " pretty much shot " is an extreme exaggeration. I'd agree that it's not what it was, but " pretty much shot"? I'd respectfully disagree. I love the band as much as you guys, but his voice on the last two tours has unfortunatly been a distraction to me because of the straining and cracking and creaking. That and I think the way he's enunciating and lilting into the words makes it seem worse. I'm trying to enjoy every song but theres the ones where all I can concentrate on is how much trouble the mans having to just reach the notes much less hold them without sounding awkward.

I liked what I saw visually and the setlist, but I have to be brutally honest...anyone who can't admit that Ged's voice is pretty much shot now is fooling themselves. He strains and cracks through pretty much every song on the setlist now, even material like Presto that's not what anyone would consider a "high tough to sing" tune. Sure, there's some shows where he sounds better than others, but overall it's obvious his age has caught up to him.

Actually, I like exactly half of each tour's set list. Take away the standards they play every tour we've all heard a zillion times (Spirit, Limelight, TS, etc etc) and most of the shitty Snakes songs and I just skip to the deeper cuts that they resurrected....Time Stand Still, Marathon, Mission, Circumstances, Entra Nous, Presto, Digital Man, Force Ten, Camera Eye, Passage To Bangkok, Xanadu, the full versions of La Villa, Ghost of a Chance, Stick It Out. I wish I could edit together all of those into one show on DVD. I'm tired of hearing the classic songs and don't like most of the new stuff so these songs are the ones that interest me the most.

QUOTE (New Digital Man @ Sep 10 2011, 09:25 AM) Surely much of the problem is the multi-tracking of bass and guitar? How many layers of guitar are on there, wasn't it fifty or something crazy like that? Too much going on and not enough space! I should have commented on your post instead of writing my own saying the same exact thing lol. As far as Rush goes, I actually like their late '80s/early '90s pop sound better than the recent material specifically because the songs had room to breathe and wasn't just a wall of noise.