How does this tour rate? (possible spoilers)

[rtrushfan]

R40 is the best RUSH tour I have ever experienced, and it would only be made better if they had included a song from "Hold Your Fire" in the set. :)

[EagleMoon]

R40 is one of the best tours I've seen post-Counterparts.

[londonguy]

That is an excellent point londonguy, they had only done one evening with tour before VT and of course the return since the hiatus was really special. Even though that set now looks like nothing but staples it was a very special tour. We have been spoiled since then with more rush live then ever expected considering what happened years ago that it is easy to forget how special that tour was.

 

Yet it was very special. I was fortunate enough to see them multiple times that tour and places I'd never seen them before and never did again. Still think about those shows.

[YYZ Working Man]

I seen both shows in Toronto . show # 21 and 22 for me since GUP in 1984.

 

The sound quality gets better and better every tour ........

Having said that and getting Ben Mink surprise .. This was in my top 3

[rftag]

The ATL show in May was one of the best I've seen of 8 spanning over 20 years. I'm super psyched to be seeing them again in Portland in July (hopefully set C with Natural Science :) ) Edited June 25, 2015 by rftag

[driventotheedge]

.............I'm super psyched to be seeing them again in Portland in July (hopefully set C with Natural Science :) )

DITTO!!!!! Thar's the one I'm hoping for in PDX too.

[Boston_E]

I enjoyed the show, but for me I would rank it behind several tours. (Vapor Trails, R30, Time Machine in particular)

[ctbadger]

The second set saves this tour. The first set is basically more of the same for the last 10+ years. I would have loved to see Neil play Chromey for the whole show using concert toms, double bass etc.... That kit adds so much more to RUSH's drum sound. I do agree about the stage props and the guy's out there messing with them. distracting. They boy's played great last night in Boston.

 

Absolutely spot on with the drums. Man, the old setup just has so much more punch, it was electric. Emotionally for me the only show that topped it was their return in 2002 in Hartford. Last night the crowd was jacked, the band was tight and largely mistake free, and the boys really seemed to be enjoying themselves. Even Neil.

[Todem]

As an entire production from the anticipation waiting for the band, to the natural gradual build up to the end of set one and then the non stop awesome sauce of set two and no question the best encore they have ever done.

 

It's the best tour I have ever seen and I have seen every tour from Signals - R40. Add in the fact my 10 year old son was rocking out as hard as I was...and I was able to share and experience the joy I had with him...I mean he was high fiving me when they announced Jacobs Ladder....we were both almost brought to tears of joy. We have been talking about this song since I started sharing Rush with him (basically at birth). It was a special moment for us.

 

 

This is pure magic and Geddy's voice is as good as you can expect at his age. Just magical vibes in this set and with the fans.

 

It must be experienced to understand and soak in. I am fortunate to have the chance to see it one more time. Vegas can't get here soon enough!!!

Edited June 25, 2015 by Todem

[Digital Dad]

I'll never get a chance to take my boy to see Rush :(( sniff

[Karena]

As an entire production from the anticipation waiting for the band, to the natural gradual build up to the end of set one and then the non stop awesome sauce of set two and no question the best encore they have ever done.

 

It's the best tour I have ever seen and I have seen every tour from Signals - R40. Add in the fact my 10 year old son was rocking out as hard as I was...and I was able to share and experience the joy I had with him...I mean he was high fiving me when they announced Jacobs Ladder....we were both almost brought to tears of joy. We have been talking about this song since I started sharing Rush with him (basically at birth). It was a special moment for us.

 

 

This is pure magic and Geddy's voice is as good as you can expect at his age. Just magical vibes in this set and with the fans.

 

It must be experienced to understand and soak in. I am fortunate to have the chance to see it one more time. Vegas can't get here soon enough!!!

 

Jacob's Ladder was mesmerizing. In the Boston area there were severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings all afternoon and evening. A few hours before the show a quick and nasty thunderstorm hit and lightning struck a tree near my home. Soon after, the storm was over, the sun came out through the storm clouds and there was a beautiful Jacob's ladder effect in the sky. I haven't seen that in ages. I talked to a few people at the show who saw it too. So cool, weird, amazing.

 

JL and the Camera Eye were highlights. I'm so glad we are getting these shows, was hoping Clockwork Angels tour wouldn't be it, didn't get into that so much.

[yyz305]

I would still take the VT tour as the best in the last 30 years since MP. The 5 year absence really added to the excitement. Geddy's vocals were incredible and the setlist was one of the longer of the evening with at 2:45. This tour, I have to admit, the first set up until DEW didn't do much for me but the 2nd set was full of not expected songs. JL, Cygnus and Xanadu, almost worth the price of admission.

 

The VT tour was great, but they didn't play enough VT songs each night, or on the tour generally

[Weakly Criminal]

This seems to me a most excellent tour even if indeed it is their last. Seeing Jacobs Ladder live was a bucket list thing for me and they did not disappoint. The moment when Ged came in with the Cygnus bass line had me hugging the stranger next to me.

 

To me it was not so much about the individual performances which you would expect to be diminished at their age, it was about their continued drive for excellence and their attempt to satisfy a particularly picky audience.

 

I can’t imagine a band more professional or more determined to do their best for their true fans. I consider my lifetime investment in RUSH to have brought the best returns pop culture could ever produce.

[Boston_E]

I enjoyed the show, but for me I would rank it behind several tours. (Vapor Trails, R30, Time Machine in particular)

 

Thinking more about it, I would rank R40 ahead of Snakes N Arrows. I had a conflict so I was not able to see CA. I remember loving the Roll the Bones tour. Prior to that, it is too far back and several shows kind of blend together in my memory.

[ytserush]

It's better than R30 as far as the three hour format goes.

[Shemp]

It's better than R30 as far as the three hour format goes.

I agree. Also, I didn't care for the time wasted on the cover songs which they could have used to sing more of their own, even though the covers were good.

[KTMMan]

I'll never get a chance to take my boy to see Rush :(( sniff

 

Sorry to hear that. I have 4 kids ranging in age from 12 to 20 and I've managed to take each one in the last 7 years individually to a Rush show. I found some reasonably priced tickets (albeit in the nose bleed section) for the Portland show next month but this is the first time the entire family (all 6 of us) will be at a Rush show together and it will probably be the last for all of us, even me (show #25). Fortunately, the wife and I are in the 3rd row in front of Alex but I digress.

 

It will be a life long memorable night for all of us and something to look back on and talk about in the decades to come hopefully. The magnitude of this event is greater than most people could realize but is not lost on me. It is one of the things we tend to see more as we get older in that all great things do come to an end eventually so, Carpe Diem!

Edited June 29, 2015 by KTMMan

[AndroidOnTheRun]

This was pretty much an ideal version of what this setlist was going to be. In a vacuum, I'd have missed the synth-heavy era, but they covered that so thoroughly last tour I was fine skipping over most of them. I went in spoiler-free and there were several moments of utter "OH MY GOD THEY'RE PLAYING THIS SONG???" joy. How It Is (one of my favorites lyrically), freaking LOSING IT, Jacob's Ladder, Hemispheres (minus the twinge of disappointment in the brief moment I hoped beyond hope they might do the whole thing)... they even threw in an extra section of 2112.

 

But it wasn't the setlist alone that made this tour. The concept was magnificent. The "Movers" coming through to change over the set for each era was kind of gimmicky at first, but it made the few major transitions really spectacular. The transition from the opening video to the first song and the reveal of the 70s-era stage at the start of Act II were awesome moments. But the start of the encore -- the stark, simple, clean look of just the guys and their gear -- was breathtaking. And the final transition... just the way it linked it all back together, that 40 years ago, these were just three guys with a dream. And now, they've lived it. A moving, emotional night of music.

[Xanadu]

This was pretty much an ideal version of what this setlist was going to be. In a vacuum, I'd have missed the synth-heavy era, but they covered that so thoroughly last tour I was fine skipping over most of them. I went in spoiler-free and there were several moments of utter "OH MY GOD THEY'RE PLAYING THIS SONG???" joy. How It Is (one of my favorites lyrically), freaking LOSING IT, Jacob's Ladder, Hemispheres (minus the twinge of disappointment in the brief moment I hoped beyond hope they might do the whole thing)... they even threw in an extra section of 2112.

 

But it wasn't the setlist alone that made this tour. The concept was magnificent. The "Movers" coming through to change over the set for each era was kind of gimmicky at first, but it made the few major transitions really spectacular. The transition from the opening video to the first song and the reveal of the 70s-era stage at the start of Act II were awesome moments. But the start of the encore -- the stark, simple, clean look of just the guys and their gear -- was breathtaking. And the final transition... just the way it linked it all back together, that 40 years ago, these were just three guys with a dream. And now, they've lived it. A moving, emotional night of music.

 

I don't like the movers, even though I understand what they are doing. I guess I am just getting old and crabby. But listen, when Alex Lifeson is playing that magnificent intro to Xanadu, I don't want to see two guys in orange jumpsuits jerking around behind him. :P

[CygnusGal]

I really liked the set list to be honest. I like the fact that they basically ignored the era I am most ambivalent about, PoW to T4E, performing only Animate and Roll the Bones. And I liked that they pulled out quite a few surprise tracks, like Hemispheres and Cygnus X-1, even if some of them aren't necessarily my favorite song from the album they represented.

 

I'm sure if I listen to a soundboard or to the inevitable live album there will be some clunkers from Geddy, but in the moment, being there, I thought he sounded amazing. Which is all that really counts.

I agree. This is perhaps the finest show I've seen Rush play. I nearly cried when they played Lakeside Park after my face melted off from Cygnus X-1 (who knew there was a drum solo at the centre of a black hole )

 

My only wish was that they'd played La Villa. I know I'm in the minority, but I've never been a big Jacob's Ladder fan (but it did rock, plodding though it is). Oh to see what they've been playing in Toronto, Newark, what's coming up in NYC, Vancouver, LA. So, okay two wishes, La Villa and Losing It.

 

:hi: Rick :hi: Hope you're well. :)

[Lorraine]

This was pretty much an ideal version of what this setlist was going to be. In a vacuum, I'd have missed the synth-heavy era, but they covered that so thoroughly last tour I was fine skipping over most of them. I went in spoiler-free and there were several moments of utter "OH MY GOD THEY'RE PLAYING THIS SONG???" joy. How It Is (one of my favorites lyrically), freaking LOSING IT, Jacob's Ladder, Hemispheres (minus the twinge of disappointment in the brief moment I hoped beyond hope they might do the whole thing)... they even threw in an extra section of 2112.

 

But it wasn't the setlist alone that made this tour. The concept was magnificent. The "Movers" coming through to change over the set for each era was kind of gimmicky at first, but it made the few major transitions really spectacular. The transition from the opening video to the first song and the reveal of the 70s-era stage at the start of Act II were awesome moments. But the start of the encore -- the stark, simple, clean look of just the guys and their gear -- was breathtaking. And the final transition... just the way it linked it all back together, that 40 years ago, these were just three guys with a dream. And now, they've lived it. A moving, emotional night of music.

 

I don't like the movers, even though I understand what they are doing. I guess I am just getting old and crabby. But listen, when Alex Lifeson is playing that magnificent intro to Xanadu, I don't want to see two guys in orange jumpsuits jerking around behind him. :P

 

I don't blame you. I wouldn't either.

[AndroidOnTheRun]

I don't like the movers, even though I understand what they are doing. I guess I am just getting old and crabby. But listen, when Alex Lifeson is playing that magnificent intro to Xanadu, I don't want to see two guys in orange jumpsuits jerking around behind him. :P

 

I could've done without the movers themselves, but I loved the concept they were a part of.

[TexMike]

The coolest thing about this show is that it gives us fans who weren't able to see Rush in the really early years a chance to time travel. Watching the 2nd set and encore, it really did almost feel to me like I was back in 1981 seeing the MP tour. I realize their chops and Geddy's voice aren't the same as back then, but they did a great job crafting a setlist that they can still play decently well and that also very creatively celebrates what I call their "jam" era. They went a long way towards trying to please fans of their older material this time out. They didn't have to do it and although there may've been some missed notes and shaky vocals here and there, I totally applaud them for attempting it. This is a good way to close the curtain on Rush as a touring act, sad as it is that that must occur.

[x1yyz]

This was pretty much an ideal version of what this setlist was going to be. In a vacuum, I'd have missed the synth-heavy era, but they covered that so thoroughly last tour I was fine skipping over most of them. I went in spoiler-free and there were several moments of utter "OH MY GOD THEY'RE PLAYING THIS SONG???" joy. How It Is (one of my favorites lyrically), freaking LOSING IT, Jacob's Ladder, Hemispheres (minus the twinge of disappointment in the brief moment I hoped beyond hope they might do the whole thing)... they even threw in an extra section of 2112.

 

But it wasn't the setlist alone that made this tour. The concept was magnificent. The "Movers" coming through to change over the set for each era was kind of gimmicky at first, but it made the few major transitions really spectacular. The transition from the opening video to the first song and the reveal of the 70s-era stage at the start of Act II were awesome moments. But the start of the encore -- the stark, simple, clean look of just the guys and their gear -- was breathtaking. And the final transition... just the way it linked it all back together, that 40 years ago, these were just three guys with a dream. And now, they've lived it. A moving, emotional night of music.

 

I don't like the movers, even though I understand what they are doing. I guess I am just getting old and crabby. But listen, when Alex Lifeson is playing that magnificent intro to Xanadu, I don't want to see two guys in orange jumpsuits jerking around behind him. :P

 

I loved them because I love the whole idea of the current stage show, and they are part of it.

[x1yyz]

I nearly cried when they played Lakeside Park after my face melted off from Cygnus X-1 (who knew there was a drum solo at the centre of a black hole )