Rush: Classic or Dud?

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.

What was that thread about the drummer?

Finding My Way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mav12Hm8fSs

fuck you guys, I'll take my '80s U2 over Rush any day

oh man -- had Eno produced Power Windows-era Rush...

...then Coldplay would never have existed. (Or not.)

I played Power Windows at the gym this week. Do I get a cookie?

yes!

Saw them in Austin several weeks ago and it was absolutely mind-blowing.

I've seen them many times before, but this was in a much smaller venue than usual and the sound was insanely loud yet crystal clear.

Between The Wheels from Grace Under Pressure was one of many highlights. I still can't believe that they were that good.

"Between the Wheels" sounded so good live, that I wish they'd played more from that album!

A childhood friend introduced me to Rush when Permanent Waves came out. I forgot about 'em until I heard Moving Pictures on headphones and was blown away. I was a fan through Power Windows which at first seemed perfect, but later felt a bit sterile. I sold all their records before college, but I couldn't stay away, and gradually got most of the 2003 reissues. In hindsight, Signals has the most consistent songwriting. Grace Under Pressure is a bit of a dense mess, but was I the only one to think of it when I first heard OK Computer?

I guess the reissues were 1997.

Next door in college,
a kid from Billerica
REALLY LIKED Counterparts

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:7_CEJ6TAwY8PmM:http://www.progreviews.com/reviews/images/Rush-Rush.jpg

Take yourself a friend

the words of the prophets were written on the studio wall

concert hall

Time Stands Still.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e10z-E56PVI

Okay, but srsly, Time Stands Still rules. Amirite?

I spun Passage to Bangkok at my Dj gig tonight.

I've had "Signals" on in the car the last few days, "Countdown" is so good, like Rush doing Gary Numan. Best album they ever did, I think, the only track I don't like is the "Walking on the Moon" knockoff.

Fucking Signals. THAT IS THE SHIT.

Stephen Colbert, Rolling Stone... I want my old uncool unsexy Rush back!