Hi there.
I didn't get to see this tour live (my family came first this year) so I bought the Best Buy version of this release, which had a Rush/ Blah Blah Blah T-shirt. Worth the price of the set all by itself, especially since it's hard to find good Rush T-shirts in actual brick and mortar stores.
I am watching the disk right now. I'm glad that it is all on one disk.
I noticed that the energy level (particularly of the crowd) wasn't quite up the levels that it was from the last live set I bought, Snakes and Arrows (I still didn't invest in the Time Machine tour, mainly because I heard Geddy was sick during the recording of that show, but I got to see it here in Pennsylvania) and I guess that kind of surprised me.
It was an interesting choice by the band to play a relatively subdued first set, using deep cuts from the keyboard era. some of the band's very best songwriting comes from that era, but with the band's return to more raw rock, it was surprising to have so many 80's songs on the list. Personally, I loved it, but maybe that was why the crowd's energy wasn't as high.
It increases for the second set. Seeing other musicians onstage was a little odd: Rush has always done this on their own, save for Hugh Syme occasionally lending his keyboard talents in studio recordings. But, this time, they brought on about a dozen extra musicians, male and female, with violins and other string instruments to give some of the newer songs a bit more depth and accent just how good, and how well-orchestrated those songs are. The additional layers might soften the hard rock edginess of such songs like "Seven Cities of Gold" and "The Anarchist" but it is a bold move that really adds incredible weight the the material. Watching this performance, I think about what Queensryche's awesome performance at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, wherein they brought in a full orchestra (!) for one song, and played along with it (although the orchestra was in the studio recording).
One thing I find Ironic was that there are multiple shots of people bootlegging the same concert with their smart-phones!
In the end, this is a good show, and a good package. Rush sounds really good here.
Plus, the T-shirt is awesome, and with the current sale at Best Buy going on, it was pretty much free.
I missed the theatrical showing of this event, so my blue-ray player and surround sound system will have to suffice!!
I didn't get to see this tour live (my family came first this year) so I bought the Best Buy version of this release, which had a Rush/ Blah Blah Blah T-shirt. Worth the price of the set all by itself, especially since it's hard to find good Rush T-shirts in actual brick and mortar stores.
I am watching the disk right now. I'm glad that it is all on one disk.
I noticed that the energy level (particularly of the crowd) wasn't quite up the levels that it was from the last live set I bought, Snakes and Arrows (I still didn't invest in the Time Machine tour, mainly because I heard Geddy was sick during the recording of that show, but I got to see it here in Pennsylvania) and I guess that kind of surprised me.
It was an interesting choice by the band to play a relatively subdued first set, using deep cuts from the keyboard era. some of the band's very best songwriting comes from that era, but with the band's return to more raw rock, it was surprising to have so many 80's songs on the list. Personally, I loved it, but maybe that was why the crowd's energy wasn't as high.
It increases for the second set. Seeing other musicians onstage was a little odd: Rush has always done this on their own, save for Hugh Syme occasionally lending his keyboard talents in studio recordings. But, this time, they brought on about a dozen extra musicians, male and female, with violins and other string instruments to give some of the newer songs a bit more depth and accent just how good, and how well-orchestrated those songs are. The additional layers might soften the hard rock edginess of such songs like "Seven Cities of Gold" and "The Anarchist" but it is a bold move that really adds incredible weight the the material. Watching this performance, I think about what Queensryche's awesome performance at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, wherein they brought in a full orchestra (!) for one song, and played along with it (although the orchestra was in the studio recording).
One thing I find Ironic was that there are multiple shots of people bootlegging the same concert with their smart-phones!
In the end, this is a good show, and a good package. Rush sounds really good here.
Plus, the T-shirt is awesome, and with the current sale at Best Buy going on, it was pretty much free.
I missed the theatrical showing of this event, so my blue-ray player and surround sound system will have to suffice!!
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