Revisiting Every Rush Album In Order: Exit...Stage Left (1981)

[Wil1972]

. Edited November 18, 2018 by Wil1972

[Todem]

Exit Stage Left had a big impact for me. It was the album that inspired me to play the guitar and get into a rock band. After getting into Rush at age 11, when Exit Stage Left came out....I had that "whoa" moment after hearing it front to back. I was like "I want to create music, and I want to play the guitar and do live shows". I always had an interest in the guitar, but Alex Lifeson and Rush were the flame that lit the fuse to my personal musical journey.

 

While it "feels" sterile for a "live" album, the performances are undeniable. To me this marks the bands absolute sonic and musical peak live. Crisp chops, and that amazing space between the instruments, Exit Stage Left demonstrates a band in total command of their craft. Side three with the Broons Bane/The Trees/Xanadu suite to this day, is my favorite Rush recording. Just sheer brilliance. And the live version of La Villa Strangiato is far superior to the studio version. I would also lay claim that Red Barchetta, A Passage To Bangkok, Beneath Between and Behind as well as the majestic Jacobs Ladder are also all superior and the definitive versions of these tracks.

 

Exit Stage Left is my favorite live Rush album....even if it is light on the feel of an actual "live" Rush show. It captures the band at their peak. I would say A Show of Hands would be my second favorite but it is a nice contrast to ESL in terms of style both musically and production.

Edited November 19, 2018 by Todem

[Segue Myles]

Exit Stage Left had a big impact for me. It was the album that inspired me to play the guitar and get into a rock band. After getting into Rush at age 11, when Exit Stage Left came out....I had that "whoa" moment after hearing it front to back. I was like "I want to create music, and I want to play the guitar and do live shows". I always had an interest in the guitar, but Alex Lifeson and Rush were the flame that lit the fuse to my personal musical journey.

 

While it "feels" sterile for a "live" album, the performances are undeniable. To me this marks the bands absolute sonic and musical peak live. Crisp chops, and that amazing space between the instruments, Exit Stage Left demonstrates a band in total command of their craft. Side three with the Broons Bane/The Trees/Xanadu suite to this day, is my favorite Rush recording. Just sheer brilliance. And the live version of La Villa Strangiato is far superior to the studio version. I would also lay claim that Red Barchetta, A Passage To Bangkok, Beneath Between and Behind as well as the majestic Jacobs Ladder are also all superior and the definitive versions of these tracks.

 

Exit Stage Left is my favorite live Rush album....even if it is light on the feel of an actual "live" Rush show. It captures the band at their peak. I would say A Show of Hands would be my second favorite but it is a nice contrast to ESL in terms of style both musically and production.

 

Great post!

 

Like I make clear throughout, the actual performamces are superb. It just fails to be a thrilling live album experience, and honestly I do prefer the studio versions as nothing feels special here.

[tks95747]

I'd have to agree with your general sentiment. For my money, the two best Rush live albums are A Show of Hands DVD and Rush in Rio, and that's because they FEEL live and there's some emotion to it.

"Rush in Rio" all the way for me.

ATWAS for me :rush:

[Rutlefan]

Loved Todem's post above; perfectly captures my feelings, even down to side 3 being my favorite Rush recording!

 

It's easy now to look back and critique ESL for being too polished, or what have you, but it felt perfect to me at the time, and I don't remember any of the other Rush fans (not that I knew a lot) not liking it. It's different from ATWAS, I think, because ATWAS was a band announcing itself, kicking down the door, after being being introduced by 2112. ATWAS put an exclamation point on the statement that was 2112. With ESL, Rush was following the success of MP, which had raised awareness of the band to a completely different level. I think MP reached #3 on billboard charts; unthinkable at the time to someone who had followed them through AFTK and Hemispheres. So I think ESL's intent was more to introduce a whole new wide audience to what Rush had been up to the previous few years. ESL didn't really need to improve upon the songs but simply needed to be faithful to the songs; doing that it would be strong enough and achieve its purpose. ATWAS had to raise their early catalog to the level of the 2112 material; no matter how much one might like their first three albums, they sound like a band trying to find itself compared to 2112, so ATWAS had to fix that, and it succeeded magnicifently of course.

 

In short, ESL had a different purpose that ATWAS, and I think it pulled it off as well as ATWAS achieved it's purpose. I love them both equally. While I'll admit ATWAS has the energy and exuberance, ESL does a great job at showcasing a band at the peak of its career. ESL wasn't primarily intending to communicate live Rush, but rather put a bow around them and say to those who didn't know better, "See, these guys are just as awesome as MP suggests they are." That was what it felt like to me at the time, and why I still love that album. I can still remember putting the needle down on side 3 and sitting down to a religious experience, much like when Hemispheres and MP came out.

Edited November 21, 2018 by Rutlefan