Rush: Classic or Dud?

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

2112 is so fucking awesome. From that point up to Signals is my Rush era.

2112 is the one pre-1980 Rush album I prefer the most. I'd mention A Farewell to Kings, but I'm sick to death of "Closer to the Heart". It'd be cool to see Rush perform the title track live, though. Killer tune, that one.

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!

Yeah, that song had a pretty big impact on any kid who was into Rush in junior high/highschool, including me. It's funny, so many people criticize Peart for coming off as so rigid in his lyric writing, especially post-Permanent Waves, but to this day I find his work incredibly eloquent.

I want to make a case for "Time Stand Still," a mostly unsentimental and accurate depiction of nostalgia that's perfect for missing a high school you never loved; it's their "Solsbury Hill."

^^^word up! love that song! aimee mann on the hook

"Time Stand Still" is incredible. I had no idea that was Aimee Mann!

She was in the video, which was a cool touch. Definitely Rush's best pop moment since "Limelight". I want to go watch the Show of Hands DVD now.

from the onion AV club, interview w/aimee mann:

O: Speaking of popping up in weird places, what are you doing on that Rush album? [Mann sings on "Time Stand Still" from Hold Your Fire. —ed.]

AM: They called me up and asked me if I would sing. And I thought, Rush? That's not my kind of thing. So I listened to the song, and the part was this little falsetto thing. It was cute.

O: It's a fine enough song.

AM: Yeah. I don't mind the song.

O: Do you still get royalty checks from that?

AM: Oh, I don't think so. I doubt it. They gave me $2,000. That's a lot of dough.

O: Canadian or American?

AM: [Laughs.] That's the question! I think American. They flew me up to Toronto, and they were really funny. Well, except for Neil Peart. He wasn't very funny.

]She was in the video, which was a cool touch. Definitely Rush's best pop moment since "Limelight".

LURVE the synth line over the chorus.

I love Rush as a pop band, which is why I won't say that I'm a Rush fan, having dealt for years with Rush fans who claimed to hate pop.

One of my first alb reviews in high school was Rush's Presto. Still love "The Pass."

oh man just watched the video for time stands still...i forgot how sweet and melancholy that song is.

SO many guitar riffs on "Time Stands Still." Lifeson tries something different all over the verses.

"The Pass", there's an underrated track. Gorgeous song.

AM: [Laughs.] That's the question! I think American. They flew me up to Toronto, and they were really funny. Well, except for Neil Peart. He wasn't very funny.

http://www.cbc.ca/mercerreport/video_player.html?neilpeart

Adding 'yes' to all the "Time Stands Still" love. Another example of capturing a mindset in song to a T (and lord knows I'm feeling that more with the years).

"The Pass", there's an underrated track. Gorgeous song.

^^^^OTM^^^^OTM^^^^OTM^^^^

t-shirts I saw at the Rush concert last night:

Savatage
Boards of Canada
System of a Down
New York Dolls
Santana
Dead Kennedys

Think of another band where you'd see all those in the crowd??

Rush has fans from all over the spectrum. Yes is another one like that, where you see headbangers and Jackson Browne fans at the same concert.

I caught them at Irvine Meadows about two weeks ago. It was my 3rd Rush show.

These guys are just fucking fantastic.

Though they played some really exciting tracks like "Overture/Temple of the Syrinx" and "Passage to Bangkok", I have to say the highest energy moment of night was the mid-set "Spirit of Radio". I had it stuck in my head for days and days.

Might have to go see them again in Portland soon... which is silly since it's the same set list. But goddamn it--it's RUSH!

The show tonight was simply one of the best concerts I have ever seen. I was fifth row on the floor, dead center, and it was perfect. They were perfect. Lifeson is such a ham. Personal faves were the 80s fare, no surprise..."Subdivisions", "Between the Wheels", "Mission", etc. But the classics slayed, too. "2112 Overture/Syrinx" especially. And the new stuff fit extremely well with the oldies.

And yeah, such a huge variety of people. Great seeing so many kids, either curious teens or little kids taken by their dads.

Wow, I just want you guys to know I have experienced the first album this weekend at long last and had a great fucking time with it. I find if I just relax and accept that it is just a Led Zeppelin knockoff, then I can really enjoy it. I've always ignored their early stuff, which I probably said before on this thread. I only started caring about Rush for a few select tracks on the Permanent Waves album up through Hold Your Fire, then I lost interest. So this is just fantastic fun, this first album of theirs. Thanks ILM!

i recall reading an interview of u2 where they were talking about their zooropa tour or something, one of their biggest tours on the back of a huge bestselling album anyway... and they were all hyped cause they sold out some arena in michigan or somewhere - until they they realized rush had sold out the venue across town, on the same night as their concert, with rush's venue holding like 3 times as many people as u2's stadium, for that night *and the next*, and rush hadn't even dented the top 40 in like 10 years at that point....

so, are they pretty good live then? i honestly never understood their appeal myself.

I see something like a hundred shows a year and anytime I see Rush is a major event. They are that good live.