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What is Rush's best live album?


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What is Rush's best live album?  

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  1. 1. What is Rush's best live album?

    • All the World's a Stage
      26
    • Exit...Stage Left
      35
    • Grace Under Pressure Tour
      3
    • A Show of Hands
      9
    • Different Stages
      28
    • Rush in Rio
      9
    • R30: 30th Anniversary World Tour
      6
    • Snakes & Arrows Live
      7
    • Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland
      8


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QUOTE (metaldad @ Aug 6 2012, 11:31 AM)
Exit..by a hair . The songs on it give it the edge for me . I think the first 2 live albums are all you really need

Bingo.

 

Really close for me. I know it's a cliche but it's kinda like voting for your favorite kid.

 

It's ATWAS and ESL and the rest are light years behind.

 

ESL wins but if I only the boys coulda busted out The Necromancer on one of those Massey Hall shows, I would would change (or Lamneth, but I understand that it was what it was)

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I had to vote for Different Stages (discs #1 and 2). There's just so much good stuff on there. I'm almost surprised every time I listen because I've forgotten some of the selections.

ATWAS, ESL and aSOH are all concise and enjoyable collections, too.

I was surprised there was any love for Different Stages disc 3. Here's why...

Geddy sings so many of his lines behind the beat. WAY behind the beat. It's super annoying. He has to rush to squeeze all the words in.

Maybe it was a phase he was going through at the time, because I don't hear it on ATWAS or ESL much, if at all. I'm just glad he stopped doing it.

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Exit...Stage Left because that was Rush at the peak of their live performance ability. Different Stages would be my 2nd choice. I love how they perform their 90's material on that one, with Bravado, Animate and Resist being the highlights... plus, the '78 concert is intense... that's what edges it over my third choice, All the World's a Stage. My top three choices just happen to end up as a trilogy of "Stage" albums.
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QUOTE (sitboaf @ Aug 6 2012, 08:12 PM)
I was surprised there was any love for Different Stages disc 3. Here's why...
Geddy sings so many of his lines behind the beat. WAY behind the beat. It's super annoying. He has to rush to squeeze all the words in.
Maybe it was a phase he was going through at the time, because I don't hear it on ATWAS or ESL much, if at all. I'm just glad he stopped doing it.

Yeah, I don't think it sounds good either. As for why he was doing it, maybe it was because he had a cold that night.

 

...He really did. They've mentioned it in interviews...

 

QUOTE
What made you pick the Hammersmith Odeon show specifically?

We came across it when we were clearing out a tape storage room. Geddy had a bit of a cold when we did that gig and after hearing the tapes initially, didn't feel that great about his singing. So the tapes were put away and we basically forgot about them. But when we came across them again recently, we knew we had something that was very cool. In the past, we've closed periods in our development with live albums. But this time, by having the stuff from 21 years ago and because we covered material from the various periods of Rush during the '97 tour, it took a different complexion. It became more of a retrospective release.
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I chose A Show Of Hands. That was the album that got me into Rush so its really special to me. Also, I love Alex's experimental playing! The way he integrates the whammy bar into the songs was so cool! And I just thought it was all-round cool.
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Got to go with ATWAS although I would have picked RiR if it didn't sound like crap. GuP also has some great performances on it (especially The Weapon which I cannot understand why they don't play it again) but it's not my favorite era of the band. I always prefer a rawer sounding live album and this was a great one. 2112 on this I think is still the best sounding 2112, although it would have been even better if they would have played the whole thing.
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ATWAS is amazing, the first I got into. Diff Stages has a pretty impressive span of their entire career.

 

Exit.. and SofH = schla03.gif The studio cuts of this material are way better.

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QUOTE (tas7 @ Aug 6 2012, 07:14 PM)
I have asked this question for years, is there any extra footage from the early live concerts?Now that we're into DVD and Blu Ray surely there must be extra footage from the ESL, Grace Under Pressure and ASOH that could be added a la How the West was Won by Led Zeppelin.

I would guess not seeing as how they didn't even bother restoring Lock and Key to the A Show of Hands DVD when it finally came out. While it's not my favorite song, it was outrageous to leave it out since the footage obviously existed. It was a laserdisc exclusive song back when ASoH came out.

Edited by Apollo
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QUOTE (Apollo @ Aug 8 2012, 08:57 AM)
QUOTE (tas7 @ Aug 6 2012, 07:14 PM)
I have asked this question for years, is there any extra footage from the early live concerts?Now that we're into DVD and Blu Ray surely there must be extra footage from the ESL, Grace Under Pressure and ASOH that could be added a la How the West was Won by Led Zeppelin.

I would guess not seeing as how they didn't even bother restoring Lock and Key to the A Show of Hands DVD when it finally came out. While it's not my favorite song, it was outrageous to leave it out since the footage obviously existed. It was a laserdisc exclusive song back when ASoH came out.

That has been the most frustrating thing about RUSH, the marketing people over the years have done, at times a bad job of promoting them. In the UK GUP, Power Windows and HYF were all released with next to no promotion.

When you think of bands who put out remasters and re-releases, they have added all sorts of extra material to keep old fans interested and to attract new ones. But not so Rush.With the early live releases they must have recorded the whole concert???? As an earlier poster said they had extracts from different concerts on that particular tour and must have the whole soundtracks for the video/DVD versions. For example I always preferred the soundtrack on the video of ESL to the CD although I've not heard the recent Sectors remaster.

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My vote goes for Rush in Rio because (1) I LOVE the raw energy of the show and the enthusiasm the crowd brings to the show and (2) its a big set list with a lot of songs I really like. Yes, unfortunately their are some VT songs (sigh) but the rest of the show is sooo good I can overlook them. Heck the group was having such a good night that even the VT songs are not totally bad.

 

Second place is a toss up between Different Stages and All the Worlds a Stage. I love the raw power of ATWAS. DS does not have that but it makes up for it with a massive (and awesome) setlist plus a complete version of 2112 smile.gif. Hard to pick between them.

 

Third place is a toss up between S & A Live and A Show of Hands. More songs with S & A Live but early on Geddy has some bad moments (unfortunately we have seen more and more of those over the last few tours). With ASOH you get fewer songs but better quality. Still like both albums.

 

Fourth place is a toss up between Time Machine and Grace Under Pressure. Again, quantity vs. quality. Both are ok but nothing special.

 

After that its R30. It may have good production quality but (1) you don't get the entire show (2) you are stuck with some VT and Feedback songs (I don't mind Feedback as an album but I would really rather hear Rush's work live, VT I just prefer not to listen to at all), (3) we are stuck with the medley of some early songs to start the show. Generally I don't like medley's of songs and this is no exception. I can't describe how happy I was at the start of the show when I saw that tour and how PO'ed I was when I realized they were playing a medley of some of their early songs. Those were the songs (or at least sort of songs) I was hoping they would play in their entirety. Finally (4) its frankly not Rush at their best. Neil even admitted in one of his books that the group had a collective off night that night.

 

In last place for me its ESL. Boring in a major way. I would much rather listen to the studio albums which went into this live album. The live album is so sterile I could go to sleep to it, and I do not mean that in a good way.

 

For me its a small but noticeable drop off from Rush in Rio to ATWAS and DS. Then its a larger drop off from ATWAS and DS to the 2 3rd place albums. Then its an even larger drop from the 3rd place albums to the 4th place albums. Then its a major drop off to R30 with it being an even bigger drop to ESL. Those last 2 albums I don't really like listening to all that much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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ATWAS is special because it is similar to a full show and it really sounds like they are hungry. E...SL was my favorite era all jammed into the coolest album jacket...except for the plain red inside. ATWAS wins for photos here. The sound on E...SL is so warm, though. I love the sound of that record. Out of the newer stuff, I would say R30. The bluray is flawless. E...SL for the album, R30 for the video.

 

As far as P/G, that is the worst sounding/looking one they put out.

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Had to go with "Different Stages". There's just so much happening on those stages. Great selection. Plus, on the Chicago recordings, I was in the audience along with the Rush-girl who would become my Rush-wife and I can hear us clapping. Edited by Geddyleegenes
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QUOTE (tas7 @ Aug 7 2012, 05:43 PM)
QUOTE (Apollo @ Aug 8 2012, 08:57 AM)
QUOTE (tas7 @ Aug 6 2012, 07:14 PM)
I have asked this question for years, is there any extra footage from the early live concerts?Now that we're into DVD and Blu Ray surely there must be extra footage from the ESL, Grace Under Pressure and ASOH that could be added a la How the West was Won by Led Zeppelin.

I would guess not seeing as how they didn't even bother restoring Lock and Key to the A Show of Hands DVD when it finally came out. While it's not my favorite song, it was outrageous to leave it out since the footage obviously existed. It was a laserdisc exclusive song back when ASoH came out.

That has been the most frustrating thing about RUSH, the marketing people over the years have done, at times a bad job of promoting them. In the UK GUP, Power Windows and HYF were all released with next to no promotion.

When you think of bands who put out remasters and re-releases, they have added all sorts of extra material to keep old fans interested and to attract new ones. But not so Rush.With the early live releases they must have recorded the whole concert???? As an earlier poster said they had extracts from different concerts on that particular tour and must have the whole soundtracks for the video/DVD versions. For example I always preferred the soundtrack on the video of ESL to the CD although I've not heard the recent Sectors remaster.

I agree with you about ESL, ESL was a terrible audio release but the video is good and boots from the era like the St. Louis 1980 radio show are really good. ESL is the worst live release I have ever heard, I think Rush admitted all the energy of the show had been sucked out of it when ASoH came out and they said that they wanted it to be a balance of ATWAS and ESL.

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QUOTE (metaldad @ Aug 6 2012, 12:31 PM)
Exit..by a hair . The songs on it give it the edge for me . I think the first 2 live albums are all you really need

I go through periods when I'm way into live albums, and other times when I don't listen to any of them. Sometimes I want a different version of a song I love, and other times I'm all set with the studio version the band chose to release.

 

Relevance? ESL has the best songs of the band's career on it. But it doesn't sound too different from the studio albums. ATWAS is a better "live" album IMO.

 

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CD?

 

Different Stages, discs 1 and 2. It's kind of like ESL in a way, in that it's mostly just hits and other strong songs from every era (well, except for pre 2112). But unlike ESL, it sounds great, you can even hear actual audience members throughout.

 

ATWAS would be next, although for very different reasons.

 

Time Machine is also pretty good, but the first set could be better. RIR is great mostly for the crowds and raw energy.

 

R30 BLU-RAY would be the best video.

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QUOTE (sdhonda @ Aug 9 2012, 08:14 PM)
CD?

Different Stages, discs 1 and 2. It's kind of like ESL in a way, in that it's mostly just hits and other strong songs from every era (well, except for pre 2112). But unlike ESL, it sounds great, you can even hear actual audience members throughout.

ATWAS would be next, although for very different reasons.

Time Machine is also pretty good, but the first set could be better. RIR is great mostly for the crowds and raw energy.

R30 BLU-RAY would be the best video.

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