Rush -- Manchester, NH -- September 7th, 2012

[IrritatedTrout]

Originally Posted by PVH5150

Start time: 745PM
Intermission: 845-855PM
End time: 1045PM

My ticket for Sunday says the show starts at 7:30. I heard a report they started a bit late yesterday, is that true? Maybe they'll add a song or two if they have time tomorrow.

Originally Posted by PVH5150

2. The Big Money (first time played since 2002)
3. Force Ten (first time played since 2004)
4. Grand Designs (first time played since 1986)
5. The Body Electric (first time played since 1985)
6. Territories (first time played since 1988)
7. The Analog Kid (first time played since 1994)
8. Bravado (first time played since 2004)
9. Where's My Thing? (first time played since 1992, with Neil solo)
20. Manhattan Project (first time played since 1990)
21. Red Sector A (first time played since 2004)

When I first saw the set I was like "Ehhh, cool. Not the greatest but it's Rush." But when you put it like this, it is a pretty special set, a lot of deep cuts in there. granted, I'd rather hear deep cuts from the 70's but I know they don't do a lot of that stuff. I still think it'd be nice to throw one or two of those songs in there though. I don't think putting something like Fly By Night and Cinderella Man in there would be too much to ask for.

To me, the biggest (realistic) problem is that they left BU2B out, kept Caravan in, and didn't do Seven Cities of Gold. They should leave out Caravan and add Seven Cities so that they will have done the whole album (except BU2B2 but whatever ).

Seeing this tomorrow. Gotta brush up on a few of these songs.

[PVH5150]

Originally Posted by IrritatedTrout

My ticket for Sunday says the show starts at 7:30. I heard a report they started a bit late yesterday, is that true? Maybe they'll add a song or two if they have time tomorrow.

Yeah, I rounded it off to 745. Exact start time was probably 742. First show of the tour, so it was to be expected. Still, minus the intermission, 25 songs in 2 hours 45 minutes. Always get your money's worth when seeing Rush.

[Sanitarium78]

Originally Posted by treghet

I believe you meant to say this tour is for the '80s era fans. This is certainly not something for diehard fans.



You don't want to hear any bitching? Then you should probably not read any Rush threads here or elsewhere until the tour is over. It's inevitable that people are going to complain about that because a lot of fans consider it to be some of their best work. Maybe you don't mind that they're skipping most of their early material, but if you can't see why somebody else would be disappointed by that then you might need to see where you land on an empathy test. And of course Geddy doesn't sound as great as he did so many years ago, but that doesn't mean you just ignore a major chunk of your work. I'm not denying that he likely has to sing differently to get through some of the more challenging sections, but you're making it seem like he sounds horrible, which he doesn't at all. If that was the case then I doubt they would have played old songs on any of the tours of the past decade. As for your reasoning that we should just be happy that we get to see them, these are valid complaints and to discredit them by saying people are ungrateful is asinine.

Yes, it is a tour for the diehard fans. Who else is gonna know these songs but them? As far as the 70s stuff goes, I love that era but for almost 30 years now they have played a very limited selection of songs from it. Do you think they just skip that stuff for no good reason? It's obvious that Geddy can't or just doesn't wanna sing that high anymore. At first he probably just didn't want to, but as the years have gone by it's because he can't hit those insanely high notes like he used to. I don't think some people realize how high his voice was back then. Even with downtuning and rearranging he still struggles sometimes to do the couple of songs they do play regluarly like 2112 and CTTH.

Most stuff from Permanet Waves onward Geddy can still sing all right. But you can hear on the new album how much his range has diminished. It would be great of they did play more from the 70s but even Geddy has said himself he sounds horrible when he sings the stuff now. For the R30 tour they rehearsed A Farewell To Kings but Geddy couldn't sing it right so it was dropped. If he couldn't do that song eight years ago there's no way he could pull off most of the stuff from that decade now.

The reason I don't consider people complaining about the lack of 70s material as a valid one is because this is nothing new for Rush. They said goodbye to most of their 70s catalog by the mid 80s. If it was something recent then yes the complaint would have some merit. But at this point the fans should've already accepted it and move on. They aren't playing anything from the 70s and that's not changing anytime soon.

I honestly don't think Rush has long left though. I believe Rush will have one more tour in 2014 to celebrate their 40th anniversary and that will be it for them. Maybe they'll go all out and play more 70s material then, but don't expect the vocals to sound too good.

[treghet]

Originally Posted by Sanitarium78

Yes, it is a tour for the diehard fans. Who else is gonna know these songs but them? As far as the 70s stuff goes, I love that era but for almost 30 years now they have played a very limited selection of songs from it. Do you think they just skip that stuff for no good reason? It's obvious that Geddy can't or just doesn't wanna sing that high anymore. At first he probably just didn't want to, but as the years have gone by it's because he can't hit those insanely high notes like he used to. I don't think some people realize how high his voice was back then. Even with downtuning and rearranging he still struggles sometimes to do the couple of songs they do play regluarly like 2112 and CTTH.

Most stuff from Permanet Waves onward Geddy can still sing all right. But you can hear on the new album how much his range has diminished. It would be great of they did play more from the 70s but even Geddy has said himself he sounds horrible when he sings the stuff now. For the R30 tour they rehearsed A Farewell To Kings but Geddy couldn't sing it right so it was dropped. If he couldn't do that song eight years ago there's no way he could pull off most of the stuff from that decade now.

The reason I don't consider people complaining about the lack of 70s material as a valid one is because this is nothing new for Rush. They said goodbye to most of their 70s catalog by the mid 80s. If it was something recent then yes the complaint would have some merit. But at this point the fans should've already accepted it and move on. They aren't playing anything from the 70s and that's not changing anytime soon.

I honestly don't think Rush has long left though. I believe Rush will have one more tour in 2014 to celebrate their 40th anniversary and that will be it for them. Maybe they'll go all out and play more 70s material then, but don't expect the vocals to sound too good.

A diehard fine would probably recognize all of the songs, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't prefer older songs. Nobody has said that they expected a bunch of '70s songs, so I don't see how the complaints are invalid. As you said, on the recent tours they have played a small selection of them, and I think that's all anybody was asking for here. I know Geddy can't hit those high notes these days, but they could pick a couple songs he could still do well. And that's exactly what they were doing since the Vapor Trails tour.

With all that said, it's not a major problem to me and I'm very happy they at least have Working Man in there. My complaint was mostly due to the number of songs from Power Windows, which I think is one of their weakest albums. I don't mind hearing a song from it (I do like The Big Money and some others), but four? They have much better stuff from the '80s that they could focus on.

[petrovar]

While I am shocked by all the deep 80's cuts, I am overall happy with this set. I am absolutely psyched they are playing Bravado! One of my favorite songs that I have not heard live. I love 80's Rush as much as 70's Rush, so I am excited.

[mgothstryper]

I love Rush. I love the new album. I'm not one of those "only play stuff from the 70s!" guys. In fact, I like alot of the 80s stuff, and Counterparts is one of my top 3 or 4 favorite albums.

But I was at this show. True they sounded great, the perforamnce was great (even though Alex butchered the Tom Sawyer solo). The stage production was great.

But to open with 8 straight 80s tunes (even though they came storming out of the gate with three killer tracks) was disappointing. And as much as I like the new album, 9 straight tracks from it really killed the momentum. And BU2B is one of the best tunes; sadly it didn't make the cut.THere were some great moments (Headlong Flight was killer), but it definitely sucked the air out a bit.

The fact that they ignored their first 8 albums for the first 2.5 hours was the real disappointment. I totally get/respect them playing new stuff - so many bands put out new albums then ignore them live. But breaking it up a little would've worked better.

[mgothstryper]

Oh, and there's a MAJOR tease at the end. anyone who was there knows what I'm talking about. I'll just say, don't stick around for the final video - leave and beat the traffic. We thought we were gonna get something special, but alas...

[PVH5150]

http://youtu.be/CfGdJKIebqk

[toolfansat]

How did the string section work? When I heard that, I had a major WTF moment!

[petrovar]

What did the first set end with before the intermission? What songs were in the encore?