Rush: Classic or Dud?

r.i.p. john rutsey.

RIP duder -- never knew that's why he had to leave the band.

on a whim bought tickets for Rush at the Excel Center on Thursday nite!

SOOO OOOO OOEXCITED : ) : ) : ) : )

I think Rush have a bunch of great songs, but I wouldn't call myself a fan: their fans tend to be kinda obsessive. But that's awesome. One of my regrets is that a friend of mine was a huge Rush fan (also Dream Theater and Jethro Tull) when I met him, and I turned him on to alternative rock in the mid 90s and he just gave up on Rush and the others. That's too bad: I found his Rush obsessiveness interesting. So I'm glad that there are still Rush fans out there.

They still bring it live. too bad about Rutsey, the first album was a beast.

Seeing them on Sunday! For the first time ever, I might add.

I'm starting to think their new live album just might be their best to date.

All the World's A Stage is a nearly unbeatable live album. So if you say that, I guess I gotta hear this new one.

so freakin awesome - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mav12Hm8fSs&feature=related

one of my very first concerts (back in the Hemispheres days)...practically wore out my copy of All The World's A Stage before I caught the "back in the dressing room" banter at the end of Side 4...("oh man, what a show!")...sad about Rutsey...I recall rumors about Neil Peart having leukemia...maybe true, maybe fans confusing him with Rutsey...

Granted, my taste in Rush is a bit on the weird side, I tend to prefer their 82-87 output. I guess because those were the years where I first got into the band.

AB-I think your tastes are in line with this thread, nothing weird about that. I'm more of a '70s fan, with 2112 being, in my opinion, their best. But I also love the 80s stuff.

My favorite album is still the first one I got by them -- A Show of Hands, of all things. I think they're a band that you end up loving whatever you get into first.

Thought I'd seen it all
Til I saw that video
Finding My Way smokes

Cool to see Peart on a small kit too.

I haven't listened to their recent stuff much, but they were truly awesome in the '70s. Agreed that All the Worlds... is incredible, one of the most underrated live albums by any band in any genre. Also, I agree with Ned's second sentence -- I think they're a band that you end up loving whatever you get into first -- with one caveat: provided you can like or grow to like Geddy's voice, especially on the earlier stuff when it was higher.

I tell you, I'd freak if they ever pulled out stuff like "Red Sector A" and "The Enemy Within". They are doing "Between the Wheels" and "Digital Man", which is cool.

And yeah, Ned's comment is dead on...Grace Under Pressure is the album I'm most fond of precisely because it was my first. Even though "Red Lenses" kind of blows.

One thing I always liked about 80s Rush is that Lifeson actually takes great advantage of that super chorus/compressed post-Andy Summers sound that every guitarist was flocking to then.

First Rush album I ever heard was Exit... Stage Left. Signals was the first one I ever bought (and am fond of the most)

One thing I always liked about 80s Rush is that Lifeson actually takes great advantage of that super chorus/compressed post-Andy Summers sound that every guitarist was flocking to then.

That's for sure. There's this effortless transition from one style of Big Epic Music to another that lesser souls failed at constantly.

That was weird watching them be so Zeppelin-ish in that You Tube clip.

it's weird how so many of the dino-chops-rockers of the 70s made a transition into quasi-new wave moves but still maintaining their own sort of spin on it -- rush, dudes from asia, yes, king crimson, etc

Yeah, I think Lifeson was the best at that early-80s new wave guitar style. On Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows, he really nailed that tone.

That's what I found so exciting about the last album, you had subtle glimpses of that very sound, like on "Armor and Sword".

Yeah, I think Lifeson was the best at that early-80s new wave guitar style. On Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows, he really nailed that tone.

Aye. "The Manhattan Project" always sounded like a McGeoch-era Siouxsie song to me - especially with that string break in the middle.

OK, I'm going to have to fish out my Rush albums tonight.

My favorite may actually be A Show of Hands... talk about an all killer, no filler set list. I love their 70s stuff, but a lot of the live albums from then had spotty material. Hands really encapsulated the very best songs from that era of the band.

i got into these guys thru my classic rock lovin' older sisters back around the time of Farewell To kings & hemispheres. these guys were HUGE in my jr high/high school years in my blue collar/lower middle class environment. i would rate permanent waves & signals as things i would still like to listen to, tho i don't own anything by them anymore. i saw them at the Meadowlands back on the signals tour (i think). anything post-signals sounded like shit to me but i know that's when a lot of you younger guys got into them.
Take off,to the great white north.

love this guy who plays acoustic rush riffs in his suburban kitchen.

presumably while the kids are at soccer.

Aye. "The Manhattan Project" always sounded like a McGeoch-era Siouxsie song to me - especially with that string break in the middle.

You have made my day, mister. I wish you understood just how much shit I was given for listening to Power Windows in 9th grade.

growing up in a small town, rush was almost served as a kind of "alternative" rock for us before nirvana and all them...we never heard about any cool new wave or punk stuff...so rush was metal enough to get a pass but there was something different about it obviously.

anyway i'm pretty excited about tonight...

If they were playing here in town, I'd go but I really don't wanna drive for hours to the middle of nowhere etc...

i can't wait for those opening notes of spirt of radio!!!!!!!!!!!

"Subdivisions" is going to be the one that gets me the most, I know it.

ANY EsCAPE MIGHT HELP TO SOOTH THE UNATTRACTIVE TRUTH!!!!

Yeah, "Subdivisions" is probably my ultimate favorite as well in the end. Though it was kinda funny I first heard one of the best encapsulations of bored/frustrated suburban life crossed with random dreams of something else after I'd already left high school!

I think the perfect midpoint between the '70s prog stuff and the '80s new wave stuff has to be Moving Pictures, and I nominate that album as Rush's platonic ideal. It has a little bit of both realms, and knocks both out of the park

A Farewell To Kings
Hemispheres is also great
2112 rules

i will (sort of) defend hold your fire as being good too