Rush: Classic or Dud?

I love Geddy's wailing vocals on Seven Cities of Gold

"The Garden" is a pretty serious epic. And for strange references, parts of that one remind me of NYC prog-poppers Extra Life.

I've had a lot of trouble getting into this one, for some reason.

Maybe you need to read the novel first.

Is the book out yet?

Next month, I think.

thanks!

Interviewed the author of the novelization, Kevin J. Anderson, today. It was a really interesting conversation - I asked him about the book and co-writing with Neil Peart, obviously, but I also asked a bunch of questions about his personal working methods, writing books in series owned by other creators (he's written a shit-ton of Star Wars novels and co-written a bunch of Dune sequels and stuff like that), etc., etc. It'll be on Roadrunner's website in a couple of weeks.

Cool post a link when it runs

Set list for the current tour (which kicked off last night):

Set One

01. Subdivisions
02. The Big Money
03. Force Ten
04. Grand Designs
05. The Body Electric
06. Territories
07. The Analog Kid
08. Bravado
09. Where's My Thing?
10. Far Cry

Set Two (with string section)

11. Caravan
12. Clockwork Angels
13. The Anarchist
14. Carnies
15. The Wreckers
16. Headlong Flight
17. Halo Effect
18. Wish Them Well
19. The Garden
20. Manhattan Project
21. Red Sector A
22. YYZ
23. Working Man

Encore:

24. Tom Sawyer
25. The Spirit of Radio

Eight songs from the new album. And a main set jammed with mid- to late '80s stuff. I am seriously excited.

Wow, I'm psyched to hear Grand Designs and Body Electric.

Man, what a bummer I was roped into a lame camping trip instead of catching this tour. I hope they come back to Chicago, which they often seem to do.

Love "Grand Designs" ...

sounds like they're giving the mid eighties a serious look!

About time.

Eh. they've been peppering their sets with '80s stuff since, well, the '80s. If anything I've noticed they'd phased out much of the '70s stuff.

Is this the first time Rush has ever featured any musicians onstage aside from the core trio?

I imagine so?
Hey Bill, guess lifeson must be seething with rage playing all these songs he hates....but I mean, the public would riot if they didn't do the hits like body electric & grand designs

playing all these songs he hates

maybe they can cover Sonic Youth's "Youth Against Fascism."

Is this the first time Rush has ever featured any musicians onstage aside from the core trio?

I think so... Closest that I'm aware of previously was the film of Aimee Mann singing the b-vox on "Time Stand Still"

set-list looks killer.

Oh wait when I saw then Mr.Big came out for the encore & the played ”Wipeout” and pretended to surf and stuff

This setlist feels like it was created just for me. It's a "Time Stand Still" or "The Pass" away from being perfect. "Red Sector A" and "The Body Electric"...wow! And I've always loved "Bravado".

super-glad I realized that the thread-revive was a setlist before my eyes processed any of what was written there. I can't understand why anyone attending one of the shows would want to know that beforehand.

I do realize I need to start cramming the new album before next Saturday..

I happily read it but still think that a spoiler alert is in order

I do appreciate the fact that a Rush setlist is literally a set list. No messing around with these guys. I saw Springsteen Friday and Saturday night, and the second show featured 15 songs not played the first. But Rush? They're all about a snapshot of a particular time on a particular tour, which I think is kind of cool.

I like the 80s stuff more than Bill does but, wow, is ILM this typical of the Rush fanbase? Are that many people really going to Rush shows to see mid- to late-80s album tracks? One song from Moving Pictures, one from Permanent Waves, one song from the SIX previous albums put together!

Especially surprising since the new album seems to harken back to their 70s material more than anything they've done in ages.

I guess they recently toured Moving Pictures in its entirety? Maybe that's what this is about?

Oh, with the encore, I guess that's two from MP.

With the Time Capsule tour all last year (or was it the year before?) I'm sure they feel they've done that stuff enough for now. Maybe they'll start alternating new & old like Iron Maiden does.

OK, I looked up the Time Machine setlist. I see what you're saying.

It's pretty unusual for them to be doing no Limelight, Freewill, 2112, or Closer to the Heart, to name just a few popular favorites.

(I do like the idea of mid-to late-80s stuff being "new" though!)

:P

Closer to the Heart they haven't done for years.

They played it on the time machine tour

I also saw them do it at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molson_Canadian_Rocks_for_Toronto

I suppose even that is 9 years ago now!

I saw the Time Machine tour and for the life of me don't remember Closer to the Heart, but yeah, I guess they did play it. Anyway, regardless, it hadn't really been played for a long time before that. Same with a lot of other older nuggets, which they sort of scatter throughout each tour. But the focus for a while has been on the early '80s, a smattering of '90s, and whatever latest record they are touring.

Interesting that they are focusing on this one fairly short period of a very long career. Marathon was one of the highlights for me on the last tour, so I guess it's pretty cool that they are doubling down on the Power Windows love. I suspect they look at it as an opportunity to rework those very 80s tunes with contemporary sonics.

It's corny as fuck but I love ”Mission”

Damn this is exciting. I would say that after this tour, it's time to revisit the 70s again...

I agree. I was predicting they'd bring back stuff like Xanadu and Hemispheres this time around, but maybe that will be the next tour.

Pretty sure Geddy can't sing either of those anymore (well, maybe "Xanadu," but definitely not "Hemispheres").

His singing was a bit shrieky, but it was still pretty amazing when they played Hemispheres on the Counterparts tour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH5jYLRcl08

So they've tweaked the setlist tonight, which is interesting. Won't say what was played, but I like it.

Man, looked at the tweaked set and now I'm even more bummed to miss it. :(

Not sure which I like better, both look pretty amazing.

They're gonna be A/B-ing those two set lists all tour, apparently. I am now thinking hard about going to both the Newark and Brooklyn shows, or Newark and Philadelphia, in order to see both.

Because you might know, is the band planning to tour the US again after Europe?

I don't know, actually. I wouldn't be surprised if they do, though, given that they've got a new record to promote for the first time in five years.

Picked up the Clockwork Angels book for some airplane reading this week, interested to see how it stands up.