Rush Concerts Attended Before 1985

[troutman]

AFTK - September Sept. 1977

 

Hemispheres - 1979 Not sure of the month. I believe it was January.

 

Moving Pictures - June 1981

 

S&A - July 2008. I think it was July. Pagscon!! :haz:

 

CA twice 2012/2013 November and April if memory serves.

 

The last tour - Portland July 2015

[EagleMoon]

And while you are here, maybe you can tell me how they managed to always sound in concert as they did on an album when no other band could do it?

 

Can anyone answer the above for me?

 

The reason why I got sick of going to concerts by 1980 is because I was always disappointed in the band in concert never sounding anywhere near the album. But Rush always managed to sound the same. If Rush could do it, why couldn't the other bands?

JARG, Eagle, Toymaker, Dr Cooper, Y_L or any other musicians out there want to take a stab at this one? :outtahere: :)

 

I think it easy answer to this question would be because they wanted to. They were talented and perfectionist enough to be able to re-create their studio sound live. They said in one of the older interviews I remember reading that they kept their minds on how things would sound live when they considered how to record them in the studio. I believe a lot of other bands don't try to be that precise.

 

I can't tell you how many concerts I walked out of so disappointed back in the seventies (one exception - Peter Frampton).

 

Peter Frampton was one of those artists that sounded better live than he did on the studio albums.

[EagleMoon]

All of you who saw them during the Hemispheres tour ... I don't even know what to say.

 

The biggest thing I remember from the concerts that I went to was the doublenecks for Xanadu and how much Geddy bounced around on stage. It's no wonder they were all so thin back then. I remember being amazed at how he could sing, play bass and keyboards. Plus the Taurus pedals, and how huge Neil's drum set was.

[troutman]

And while you are here, maybe you can tell me how they managed to always sound in concert as they did on an album when no other band could do it?

 

Can anyone answer the above for me?

 

The reason why I got sick of going to concerts by 1980 is because I was always disappointed in the band in concert never sounding anywhere near the album. But Rush always managed to sound the same. If Rush could do it, why couldn't the other bands?

JARG, Eagle, Toymaker, Dr Cooper, Y_L or any other musicians out there want to take a stab at this one? :outtahere: :)

 

I think it easy answer to this question would be because they wanted to. They were talented and perfectionist enough to be able to re-create their studio sound live. They said in one of the older interviews I remember reading that they kept their minds on how things would sound live when they considered how to record them in the studio. I believe a lot of other bands don't try to be that precise.

 

I can't tell you how many concerts I walked out of so disappointed back in the seventies (one exception - Peter Frampton).

 

Peter Frampton was one of those artists that sounded better live than he did on the studio albums.

 

 

:goodone:

[goose]

January 30, 1979!! Louisville Gardens, Louisville, KY -Hemispheres tour

March 7, 1981!! Louisville Gardens, Louisville Ky- Moving Pictures tour

July 3, 1984!! Market Square Arena, Indianapolis IN - R10!!!- Grace Under Pressure tour

 

Few and far between because I was overseas in the Navy for Permanent Waves and Signals Tours :madra:

 

But, as a benefit of being overseas, I was able to see Queen at the Budokan in Tokyo, so it wasn't a total loss!

Queen at Budokan? Wow!!!!

[mandydog]

January 30, 1979!! Louisville Gardens, Louisville, KY -Hemispheres tour

March 7, 1981!! Louisville Gardens, Louisville Ky- Moving Pictures tour

July 3, 1984!! Market Square Arena, Indianapolis IN - R10!!!- Grace Under Pressure tour

 

Few and far between because I was overseas in the Navy for Permanent Waves and Signals Tours :madra:

 

But, as a benefit of being overseas, I was able to see Queen at the Budokan in Tokyo, so it wasn't a total loss!

Queen at Budokan? Wow!!!!

 

Yes! It was on The Game tour February 13th, 1981. They sold the place out for 6 nights. Great show!

[Lucas]

December 2, 1982: Madison Square Garden, New York City

September 21, 1983: Radio City Music Hall, New York City

 

John, I was at one of the Radio City shows - did Marillion open when you saw them ?? ... They were booed unmercifully - I almost felt bad for them, but I was a 15 year old metal head and hated them too :D

[laughedatbytime]

3-11-1981 Moving Pictures Tour, Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, Indiana.

[Lucas]

My first RUSH show was May 9th 1980 The Palladium, NYC, and I still recognize it as one of the greatest, most memorable days in mylife ..

 

Saw them again Sept 25th, 1980 at the Spectrum in Philly .. They introduced Tom Sawyer and from what I recall, Limelight

 

I then saw them Dec 21st, 1981 at the Meadowlands in NJ - I remember the traffic was horrible because a NJ State trooper was shot and killed that night ...... Alex played "Silent Night" just prior to La Villa

 

I saw the Signals tour at MSG ..

 

... and then I saw 'em, again at Radio City Music Hall in '83 - they were losing me by then ...

 

 

[Lucas]

I'm curious to hear from anyone else about the Radio City Music Hall shows from 1983 - and Marillion ... They were booed relentlessly

[patjnev]

My first concert ever March 17th 1983 , Hollywood Sportatorium. It was great !

[JohnRogers]

December 2, 1982: Madison Square Garden, New York City

September 21, 1983: Radio City Music Hall, New York City

 

John, I was at one of the Radio City shows - did Marillion open when you saw them ?? ... They were booed unmercifully - I almost felt bad for them, but I was a 15 year old metal head and hated them too :D

The night I was there we booed them to the point of cutting their set short. I was just a 16 year old brat myself.

[goose]

January 30, 1979!! Louisville Gardens, Louisville, KY -Hemispheres tour

March 7, 1981!! Louisville Gardens, Louisville Ky- Moving Pictures tour

July 3, 1984!! Market Square Arena, Indianapolis IN - R10!!!- Grace Under Pressure tour

 

Few and far between because I was overseas in the Navy for Permanent Waves and Signals Tours :madra:

 

But, as a benefit of being overseas, I was able to see Queen at the Budokan in Tokyo, so it wasn't a total loss!

Queen at Budokan? Wow!!!!

 

Yes! It was on The Game tour February 13th, 1981. They sold the place out for 6 nights. Great show!

Man, that's a concert of a lifetime!

[Merely Space]

Only saw one pre-1985 concert myself, GUP at the Astrodome. Sound was atrocious, but I didn't care. It was Rush, and there were lasers!

 

Honorable mention: I saw the PoW tour in January of '86, so that almost falls in the time period you asked about.

[Ron2112]

9/27/84 Capital Centre, Largo, MD

12/16/85 Capital Centre, Largo, MD

12/13/87 The Spectrum, Philly, PA

1/14/88 The Coliseum, Hampton, VA

[Ron2112]

December 2, 1982: Madison Square Garden, New York City

September 21, 1983: Radio City Music Hall, New York City

 

John, I was at one of the Radio City shows - did Marillion open when you saw them ?? ... They were booed unmercifully - I almost felt bad for them, but I was a 15 year old metal head and hated them too :D

The night I was there we booed them to the point of cutting their set short. I was just a 16 year old brat myself.

 

No, they finished their sets for the RCMH shows. But yeah, the booing is relentless. I have these openers on bootleg CD, and it's almost embarrassing.

 

[cygnify]

My first show was Sept 15, 1984. P/G tour. Glens Falls, NY. (a venue later used for TFE rehearsals)

[Bhawk2112]

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.

[circumstantial tree]

Power Windows tour, April 22, 1986, Greensboro Coliseum in NC. Blue Oyster Cult opened.

[JARG]

I'm interested in knowing who here has been to see Rush in the seventies and eighties.

 

Please include date and place of concert.

 

Thank you! :)

 

P.S. I want to know who to envy and be in awe of. ;) ;) ;) Then I will proceed to beat myself up and make myself feel even worse than I already do for never having gone to see them back then. :whip: :poke: :boo hiss: :boo hiss: :boo hiss: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

 

Hemispheres, 1979, Austin

Permanent Waves, 1980, Austin

Moving Pictures, 1981, San Antonio

Signals, 1983, San Antonio

 

That's it for dates prior to 1985.

[greyfriar]

May 11, 1983 Signals from :rush: with special guest Nazareth.

Concert took place in the Rhein-Neckar Halle, Eppelheim Germany. Actually the hall was a small gym which can hold up to 2,000 people. Place wasn't sold out that night, so I guess there were not more than 1,000 - 1,200 people there. Most in the audience were GI's cause there was a big US base nearby in Heidelberg.

The show was breathtaking from the beginning as soon as the house lights went down. Alex opened with the lick from TSOR and with the first drum beat, the whole place was bathed in light. That wall of sound was way too much for the 16 year old boy that I was. Sound was so brute, it felt almost like an earthquake. As they played Countdown, I was pretty sure the roof will come down. I remember how my trousers fluttered from that bass and Taurus Pedal sounds...ah, good times.

[JARG]

And while you are here, maybe you can tell me how they managed to always sound in concert as they did on an album when no other band could do it?

 

It's complicated. Part of the reason they sounded so good back in the day is that they were playing in smaller venues, often theaters and/or auditoriums, buildings which were designed for audio fidelity -- the first two Austin gigs that I attended were an example of that: the venue was maybe a 2600 seater and they sounded simply amazing in it.

 

Another reason is that the material they used to write required little or no prerecorded material to sound good. There's a rhythm guitar track underneath the solo in 2112 Overture, but it's hardly missed when they play the song live. It's a nice part, for sure, but hardly integral to that part of the song. Back in the day they used to write and arrange with the goal of being able to have the song sound good performed live just as a three piece. They quit doing that when it became possible to sample guitar, bass, vocal parts.

[Narps]

May 11, 1983 Signals from :rush: with special guest Nazareth.

Concert took place in the Rhein-Neckar Halle, Eppelheim Germany. Actually the hall was a small gym which can hold up to 2,000 people. Place wasn't sold out that night, so I guess there were not more than 1,000 - 1,200 people there. Most in the audience were GI's cause there was a big US base nearby in Heidelberg.

The show was breathtaking from the beginning as soon as the house lights went down. Alex opened with the lick from TSOR and with the first drum beat, the whole place was bathed in light. That wall of sound was way too much for the 16 year old boy that I was. Sound was so brute, it felt almost like an earthquake. As they played Countdown, I was pretty sure the roof will come down. I remember how my trousers fluttered from that bass and Taurus Pedal sounds...ah, good times.

Love Hurts... :D

[HemiBeers]

Signals tour, Kalamazoo, mi, rory gallagher opened.

 

I was disappointed he didn't sledgehammer any watermelons.

[JARG]

I remember how my trousers fluttered from that bass and Taurus Pedal sounds...ah, good times.

 

I have very distinct memories of that fluttering feeling at the Hemispheres and Permanent Waves tours. I remember initially thinking there must have been some fabric hanging from the seatback in front of me that I keep brushing with my shoe. Nope, it was just the sound waves. Yet despite how insanely loud they were back then, the sound was crystal clear. No mud whatsoever.