Rush Live Tourography - The Permanent Waves Tour (REVISITED - World Tour 1980)

[ytserush]

The Moving Pictures Tour started 12 days after the album's release, from February 19th, 1981 to July 5th. They only toured North America during these five months, but they would hit Europe on the next tour in support of their 2nd live album, Exit...Stage Left.

They toured with fewer opening bands, at least that I am aware of. According to Eric at the Power Windows website, they opened with FM, Max Webster, and Ian Hunter.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Linked just below is the well-known Chicago audience bootleg from this tour, which has gone through many versions, but this is the "Definitive Edition" of the show. It's one of the fairly good and complete audience bootlegs from this tour, and any early tour for that matter.

www.nickeh.com/botm/rush1981-03-01.rar

Rush - Moving Pictures Tour - 114:47
(Live In Montreal, QC on 3/24/81)
(Exit...Stage Left Album/Video Source)

Disc 1 - 61:02
 1. 2112 Overture^       4:31
 2. The Temples of Syrinx^    2:11
 3. Freewill          5:36
 4. Limelight          4:32
 5. Hemispheres: I. Prelude*    4:21
 6. Beneath, Between And Behind* 2:51
 7. The Camera Eye*      10:57
 8. YYZ             2:21
 9. Drum Solo          3:12
10. YYZ (Continued)       2:05
11. Broon's Bane       1:37
12. The Trees          4:33
13. Xanadu         12:15

Disc 2 - 54:05
14. The Spirit Of Radio       5:03
15. Red Barchetta       6:37
16. Closer To The Heart       3:28
17. Tom Sawyer          4:44
18. Vital Signs          5:19
19. Natural Science*       7:58
20. Working Man*       1:17
21. Hemispheres: IV. Armageddon* 0:54
22. By-Tor & The Snow Dog    4:05
23. In the End          1:42
24. In The Mood          1:33
25. 2112: VII. Grand Finale    2:09
26. La Villa Strangiato       9:16

^ - Live In Edmonton, AB on 6/25/81
    2112 Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks
* - Live In Chicago, IL on 3/1/81
    The Definitive Edition - AUD
New Peak Amp for both sources = -3.0

28:18 - Non-SB Sourced

Like with the PEW Tour show I did, I knew I needed to start with the ESL CD for the MP Tour tracks, and then I added the ESL Video tracks, and that gave me a good chunk of the show in great quality! The rest of the tracks I pulled from the Chicago show, which include the 18-minute chunk of "Hemispheres: Prelude", "Beneath, Between And Behind", "The Camera Eye" in the first half, and the 10 minute chunk of "Natural Science", "Working Man" snippet and "By-Tor" in the second half.

Originally, I used the Chicago show for the opening "2112" bit, but then the 2112 Deluxe Edition was released and they added tracks from the Moving Pictures Tour on to it, so it was a perfect excuse to add them to the beginning to give the show a more soundboard-quality sound. And so, with less than 23% of this compilation in audience-quality, I was greatly satisfied!

As for the show itself, those with the ESL CD and Video will know how great those tracks are. Obviously, I can't get enough of the "Broon's Bane/The Trees/Xanadu" chunk of songs, one of my favorite runs of songs on this tour. And then there's the outro-medley that starts with "Working Man" (now degraded down to a minute-long snippet), segueing into an odd section of "Hemispheres", then going in to a chunk of "By-Tor" (no longer preceding "Xanadu"). The main show ends with "2112: VII. Grand Finale", in a very fitting fashion as it started with the first two parts. If they wanted to be REALLY clever, they would have thrown in "Discovery/Presentation" somewhere in the middle of the show!". And the encore remains to be "La Villa Strangiato" as leftover from the previous tour.

Overall, it's a good tour, but not as great as the previous two. We do get 6/7 new songs from the new album, including the their 'last epic' in "The Camera Eye", and we're treated to truncated versions of songs, snippets, but it seems like they really tried to squeeze in a lot but shortening things. The previous tour had 20 songs/tracks on it, but this one has 26. It was here that the band started rotating out their epics in favor of shorter songs, and with longer sets, they were able to fit in more songs as the years would go on.

-Marc.

Before this was the pre-Moving Pictures tour that primarily was a September 1980 affiair where pre-release versions of the usual suspects...Limelight and Tom Sawyer where heard live for the first time.  The Allentown Fairgrounds stop on this tour is probably a good representation of this.



Some other great sounding shows from the Moving Pictures Tour are the run of shows at Maple Leaf Gardens, the Madison Square Garden show on May 18, and the show in Anaheim.

Oddly when I first became a fan the first shows I bought  (other than a really bad video with the Don Kirschner videos, the A Farewell To Kings and the Hemispheres videos on it) were vinyl copies of the 1974 Cleveland show and two 1986 shows from Minnesota and Quebec.  I was really curious to find a show from Moving Pictures and few months later I found a the LP set of the Chicago show. It was very cool hearing songs from that tour I'd never heard before and they reggae improv was nice, but I wasn't blown away like I thought I would be. I don't know if there were too many radio hits or what it was.

There are some great songs in the set. Vital Signs? Check. Natural Science? Check. The Camera Eye? Check. Red Barchetta? Check? Iconic Neil solo? Check.  Something's different.

Maybe too much of a focus on trying to play the set the exact same way every night? Maybe it's because I can't seem to think of one recording I've heard that's "in your face" like those recently released Edmonton tracks are. (If there's a complete show of that, I might just change my opinion about the Moving Pictures set)

[The Letter M]

The New World Tour (named after their big hit, "New World Man") began in Wisconsin on September 3, 1982 and ended on May 25, 1983 in the UK, with a special show in July and about 2 months off between mid-December and mid-February, but it was still was a fairly long tour.

Opening acts for this tour included Jon Butcher Axis, Golden Earring, The Payolas, Wrabit, Rory Gallagher, and Nazareth.

This is the first time the "Three Stooges Theme" was used to open the shows; it would be used until the Presto tour and then return for one final time for Vapor Trails tour. As demonstrated in numerous recordings, Rush had fun this tour, often changing the lyrics to some of the older songs such as "The Spirit of Baseball" and "The Plumbers of Syrinx" (with Lerxst adding additional vocals). For this tour, "The Camera Eye" was abbreviated such that only the "New York" or "London" section would be performed each night on a seemingly random basis.

Although the setlist remained the same throughout most of this tour, "Chemistry" and "The Camera Eye" were dropped from the setlist in Germany, and although "The Camera Eye" was brought back for later dates, "Chemistry" did not return and has not been played since.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Linked just below is the well-known New York audience bootleg, taking from the show at Uniondale, this is one of the few complete shows of the tour. For its time, it's got fairly good quality but the plus is that it IS a complete show, and you get QUITE a set list with these song choices!

www.nickeh.com/botm/rush1982-12-09.rar

Rush - Signals Tour - 115:07
(Live In Uniondale, NY on 12/9/82)
(Music In The Abstract - AUD)

Disc 1 - 55:17
1. Three Stooges Intro    0:49
2. The Spirit Of Radio      4:44
3. Tom Sawyer         5:08
4. Freewill            5:38
5. Digital Man                 6:59
6. Subdivisions         5:41
7. Vital Signs                 5:14
8. The Camera Eye         7:24
9. Closer To The Heart      3:19
10. Chemistry           5:14
11. The Analog Kid         5:07

Disc 2 - 59:50
1. Broon's Bane       1:43
2. The Trees          4:33
3. Red Barchetta         6:31
4. The Weapon         7:51
5. New World Man         4:02
6. Limelight            4:24
7. Countdown         6:17
8. 2112                   6:31
9. Xanadu            2:33
10. La Villa Strangiato      3:35
11. In The Mood         2:39
12. YYZ             2:27
13. Drum Solo          6:44

For the Signals tour, I decided to use this whole show, the 2nd night at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, since as of last year, no full (or near-full) soundboards exist of this tour! Hard to believe, but I just don't know of any soundboards of this tour, but at least we have a handful of good audience shows.

As for the set list, we're treated to 7/8 songs from Signals, 6/7 songs from Moving Pictures, and 2 songs each from Permanent Waves, Hemispheres, and A Farewell To Kings. Of course, "2112" makes an appearance in the form of "Overture/The Temples Of Syrinx" (another carry-over from the MP Tour), as well as the ever-present "In The Mood" in the encore. "Broon's Bane" returns, seguing in to "The Trees", but instead of "Xanadu" they go in to "Red Barchetta", quite brilliantly in my opinion! The outro for "The Trees" is seamless as they go in to the next song. "Xanadu", however, is moved to the end-of-the-show medley.

The closing medley is quite interesting, being a new group of "oldies" to close the main set. It now does not include "Working Man" and instead opens with 2112's first two movements. As "The Temples Of Syrinx" ends, they do not play the last chord and instead Neil does the drum fill in to "Xanadu", which plays for about two and a half minutes. After that, they go in to the "A Lerxst In Wonderland" section of "La Villa Strangiato", a portion of which would be played on later tours for medleys, and in those instances, it would be followed by "In The Mood" (on the HYF and Presto tours).

For this tour, the drum solo remains in the middle of "YYZ", but now returns to the encore as the song closes the show (for the first time, but definitely not for the last). Because over half of the set (13/21) are songs from their then-new album and their previous album, there wasn't much from for epics or classics prior to MP. They had hit a big-time and their new album even had their only no. 1 hit in "New World Man". With two fairly popular albums out, it was logical to play most of those songs. "Witch Hunt" still had not appeared (and it wouldn't until the next major tour), and "Losing It" seemed to be their "studio piece" for Signals.

As for the show itself, you can't expect gold with an audience bootleg, but if you get past the hiss, and take this show for what it is, it's a fairly good show! From the DRE, the average rating is 7.21. Check out fellow reviews of this whole show here - https://www.digitalrushexperience.com/database/review.php?RecordingID=1456

-Marc.

[jammindude]

Ok...I have never in my life downloaded a rar file before.  But this tour and setlist just looks like an absolute GEM to my eyes, so I would love to grab it.  Do I need to do something special to open this file?

[Big Hath]

it's a version of a zipped folder/archive.  you may have something on your pc already that will open it, but if not just get 7-zip

https://www.7-zip.org/

[ytserush]

Before I jump into the Signals tour, honorable mention should probably go to a few shows from the Exit...Stage Left Tour and the First Tour of the Nadars which came before it.

There are a lot of pretty good shows from the European leg of this tour out there and most of them are pretty good especially some of the German shows, but probably the gem of the entire tour is the Hartford show from December 1981 which many believe to be a soundboard featuring a pre-release version fo Subdivisions without the guitar solo not quite worked out.

There are also a handful of April 1982 shows, Lakeland probably being the best of these that feature pre-release Subdivisions again and The Analog Kid.


While it's true that there are no known soundboards from this tour, there are a number of great sounding complete shows like the Nassau Coliseum show above.

Two of the better ones are from Rotterdam and London in May 1983 ("One likes to believe in the spirit of baseball" and "We are the plumbers who fix your sinks" are great to hear.)

This tour also represents the first major shift away from songs of the 1970s which left many longtime fans disgruntled --  possibly even to this day. There also seems to be renewed vigor from the band as they were now playing a majorly revamped set for the first time ever

Interestingly, this is the first known Rush audience video. From here on out the video footage multiplies fairly consistently with each passing tour.

From Montreal 4/9/1983:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrkDrgYR7oo&list=PLihRWH5CDny1tFthcjJaLJCw9cAd81oGT

[The Letter M]

There are also a handful of April 1982 shows, Lakeland probably being the best of these that feature pre-release Subdivisions again and The Analog Kid.

The Live At Lakeland boot is one of the first ones I remember getting. Good set list, and good sound quality too. Definitely a good one to have if you're a semi-serious Rush ROIO collector!

-Marc.

[jammindude]

it's a version of a zipped folder/archive.  you may have something on your pc already that will open it, but if not just get 7-zip

https://www.7-zip.org/

Thank you, that worked great! 

Now I just have to find a program that will play shn files and let me burn them to CD. 

[The Letter M]

it's a version of a zipped folder/archive.  you may have something on your pc already that will open it, but if not just get 7-zip

https://www.7-zip.org/

Thank you, that worked great! 

Now I just have to find a program that will play shn files and let me burn them to CD. 

You can convert shn files into wav with Trader's Little Helper. Then you can burn the wavs on to a CD-r.

-Marc.

[jammindude]

Thank you guys....seriously.   Just burned it.   

You would think at 43 years old and being the hardcore DT and Rush fan that I am that I would do this more often...but I haven't. 

I have a CP boot that I obtained from a friend years ago...and I think I downloaded the Arizona Hemispheres tour from an MP3 source when it was posted on a site *years* ago.  (now that I have the programs to do so, I should probably find a higher quality source)...and then I have quite a few physical copies of DT boots that I've received from friends.     I guess I've just never gotten around to doing it this way. 

[sueño]

I gotta figure out how to do stuff like that.   

[ytserush]

There are also a handful of April 1982 shows, Lakeland probably being the best of these that feature pre-release Subdivisions again and The Analog Kid.

The Live At Lakeland boot is one of the first ones I remember getting. Good set list, and good sound quality too. Definitely a good one to have if you're a semi-serious Rush ROIO collector!

-Marc.

My primary reason for listening to Lakeland are those early versions of Subdivisions and The Analog Kid.

My favorite Signals shows are probably 11/8/1982 Detroit, 5/3/1983 Rotterdam and the 5/21/1983 London.



I used to be a fairly heavy collector until about 10 years ago. I'm not as active as I once was, but I'm always interested in good/unique performances as long as they aren't in any lossy formats.

[The Letter M]

Just gonna put this out there - if anyone wants a particular show of mine that I have done a compilation of (i.e. isn't already a stand-alone bootleg of it's own, like the Hemispheres of Signals shows I've posted about), let me know and I can see if we can work out a deal. I wouldn't mind sharing files or even sending burned CD-r's! Anything to spread the Rush Live Love!

There are also a handful of April 1982 shows, Lakeland probably being the best of these that feature pre-release Subdivisions again and The Analog Kid.

The Live At Lakeland boot is one of the first ones I remember getting. Good set list, and good sound quality too. Definitely a good one to have if you're a semi-serious Rush ROIO collector!

-Marc.

My primary reason for listening to Lakeland are those early versions of Subdivisions and The Analog Kid.

My favorite Signals shows are probably 11/8/1982 Detroit, 5/3/1983 Rotterdam and the 5/21/1983 London.



I used to be a fairly heavy collector until about 10 years ago. I'm not as active as I once was, but I'm always interested in good/unique performances as long as they aren't in any lossy formats.

True, I believe that was also the only reason I got the Lakeland shows - for the early versions of those songs. The early versions of songs always intrigue me but I rarely ever listen to them. When I was making my complete live shows sets last summer/fall, I had thought about compiling the best sounding Early Versions of songs from their tours, starting with "Xanadu" on the ATWAS tour and going up through the 80's when they stopped touring/testing early versions of songs. It's hard to find good sounding versions of these songs, though. I may revisit the idea this summer, though, if I can get a hold of some of the tracks I didn't have before.

-Marc.

[jammindude]

Bring on the guppy tour!!!

[The Letter M]

The Grace Under Pressure Tour began on May 7th in 1984, nearly a month after GUP had been released (unusual for the band to tour so long after an album's release), and went to November 25th of that year, with a two-month break between July and September. This time, they had Fastway, Gary Moore, Helix, Red Rider, Y&T, and Strict-Neine opening for them as their shows started getting a bit longer and a bit more involved.

This tour has been documented with a live video release (and eventual accompanying CD). It was on this tour they started doing even more video and light shows with their songs.

This is one of only two tours in which "Limelight" was not included in the set, either full time or as an alternate/replacement (the other being the Presto tour). Highlights of this tour include the then-complete performance of "Fear" performed in sequence, which included the first performances of "Witch Hunt". For the first leg of the tour, "Afterimage" followed "Closer to the Heart", and the Drum Solo was a medley with "Red Lenses". After the summer break "Kid Gloves" replaced "Afterimage", and the extended jam section was added to "Closer to the Heart". Beginning Oct. 18, the Drum Solo found its way back to "YYZ" as on previous tours, and a new bass intro and full bass solo were added to "Red Lenses". "Kid Gloves" was dropped from the setlist in Japan. For most of the tour a short Get Smart video was shown as the introduction to "New World Man", although during early dates it was shown as the introduction to "Vital Signs".

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Linked below is a pretty good, but incomplete soundboard bootleg from this tour. Recorded in Maryland on the 2nd half of the tour, it features most of the show up to "Tom Sawyer". It's a good companion to the official GUP show that has been released and features "Kid Gloves" and "The Body Electric".
"Bottle Of Booze" Largo, MD on 9/27/84
www.nickeh.com/botm/rush1984-09-27.rar

Rush - GUP Tour - 103:10
(Live In Toronto, CA on 9/21/84))
(Grace Under Pressure Tour Official)

Disc 1 - 49:07
 1. Three Stooges Intro       0:57
 2. The Spirit Of Radio     4:54
 3. Subdivisions*        5:18
 4. The Body Electric*        5:10
 5. The Enemy Within        4:35
 6. The Weapon           7:42
 7. Witch Hunt           4:40
 8. New World Man        4:01
 9. Between The Wheels*     5:33
10. Red Barchetta*        6:17

Disc 2 - 54:03
 1. Distant Early Warning     6:57
 2. Red Sector A        5:15
 3. Closer To The Heart     3:37
 4. Kid Gloves*          4:07
 5. Afterimage^          4:56
 6. YYZ           3:12
 7. The Temples Of Syrinx    1:49
 8. Tom Sawyer           4:51
 9. Red Lenses^          3:12
10. Drum Solo^          5:23
11. Red Lenses^          2:13
12. Vital Signs          4:56
13. Finding My Way        1:12
14. In The Mood        2:25


*Bottle of Booze - SBD
 Live In Largo, MD on 9/27/84
^Experience To Extremes - AUD
 Live In Milwaukee, WI on 6/25/84

15:44 - Non-SB Sourced

Like previous tours with official releases, I used the GUP Tour show as the basis for my representation of this tour. The bulk of the show was released, but was missing some key songs, especially "The Body Electric", "Between The Wheels", "Kid Gloves", "Afterimage", and "Red Lenses" from GUP itself.

To fill in the gaps, I used what I could from the Largo, MD bootleg, then the rest from a well-known audience show from Milwaukee, which features one of the best recordings of "Afterimage", as well as the "Red Lenses/Drum Solo" medley, featuring Neil's first electronic drum soloing on stage.

This was their first tour in awhile (since The Tour Of The Hemispheres) where all of their new album's songs were played live on tour. Granted, "Afterimage" and "Kid Gloves" swapped half-way through the tour, so you only got one or the other, and at most, 7 GUP songs on any given night, but the fact that they played both for half the tour shows that the band really enjoyed the songs back then!

Fans with the official GUP Tour show should be familiar enough with it, but the Largo, MD show is pretty good for a soundboard bootleg in '84. As far as I know, though, no known soundboards exist with the "Red Lenses/Drum Solo" medley, and I may not be remembering right, but I don't think there are any with Geddy's bass solo in the middle of "Red Lenses".

-Marc.

[jammindude]

I was surprised when the Count Floyd intro to The Weapon first appeared on the Signals tour....but for the record, I like the audience reaction FAR more on the Soundtrack CD for GUP.    I also like how Count Floyd cued "those synthesizers"...very nice touch.   (although I suppose that these both could have been studio fixes...I still think they make a better "live" performance than on the Signals tour)

[ytserush]

The Grace Under Pressure Tour began on May 7th in 1984, nearly a month after GUP had been released (unusual for the band to tour so long after an album's release), and went to November 25th of that year, with a two-month break between July and September. This time, they had Fastway, Gary Moore, Helix, Red Rider, Y&T, and Strict-Neine opening for them as their shows started getting a bit longer and a bit more involved.

This tour has been documented with a live video release (and eventual accompanying CD). It was on this tour they started doing even more video and light shows with their songs.

This is one of only two tours in which "Limelight" was not included in the set, either full time or as an alternate/replacement (the other being the Presto tour). Highlights of this tour include the then-complete performance of "Fear" performed in sequence, which included the first performances of "Witch Hunt". For the first leg of the tour, "Afterimage" followed "Closer to the Heart", and the Drum Solo was a medley with "Red Lenses". After the summer break "Kid Gloves" replaced "Afterimage", and the extended jam section was added to "Closer to the Heart". Beginning Oct. 18, the Drum Solo found its way back to "YYZ" as on previous tours, and a new bass intro and full bass solo were added to "Red Lenses". "Kid Gloves" was dropped from the setlist in Japan. For most of the tour a short Get Smart video was shown as the introduction to "New World Man", although during early dates it was shown as the introduction to "Vital Signs".

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Linked below is a pretty good, but incomplete soundboard bootleg from this tour. Recorded in Maryland on the 2nd half of the tour, it features most of the show up to "Tom Sawyer". It's a good companion to the official GUP show that has been released and features "Kid Gloves" and "The Body Electric".
"Bottle Of Booze" Largo, MD on 9/27/84
www.nickeh.com/botm/rush1984-09-27.rar

Rush - GUP Tour - 103:10
(Live In Toronto, CA on 9/21/84))
(Grace Under Pressure Tour Official)

Disc 1 - 49:07
 1. Three Stooges Intro       0:57
 2. The Spirit Of Radio     4:54
 3. Subdivisions*        5:18
 4. The Body Electric*        5:10
 5. The Enemy Within        4:35
 6. The Weapon           7:42
 7. Witch Hunt           4:40
 8. New World Man        4:01
 9. Between The Wheels*     5:33
10. Red Barchetta*        6:17

Disc 2 - 54:03
 1. Distant Early Warning     6:57
 2. Red Sector A        5:15
 3. Closer To The Heart     3:37
 4. Kid Gloves*          4:07
 5. Afterimage^          4:56
 6. YYZ           3:12
 7. The Temples Of Syrinx    1:49
 8. Tom Sawyer           4:51
 9. Red Lenses^          3:12
10. Drum Solo^          5:23
11. Red Lenses^          2:13
12. Vital Signs          4:56
13. Finding My Way        1:12
14. In The Mood        2:25


*Bottle of Booze - SBD
 Live In Largo, MD on 9/27/84
^Experience To Extremes - AUD
 Live In Milwaukee, WI on 6/25/84

15:44 - Non-SB Sourced

Like previous tours with official releases, I used the GUP Tour show as the basis for my representation of this tour. The bulk of the show was released, but was missing some key songs, especially "The Body Electric", "Between The Wheels", "Kid Gloves", "Afterimage", and "Red Lenses" from GUP itself.

To fill in the gaps, I used what I could from the Largo, MD bootleg, then the rest from a well-known audience show from Milwaukee, which features one of the best recordings of "Afterimage", as well as the "Red Lenses/Drum Solo" medley, featuring Neil's first electronic drum soloing on stage.

This was their first tour in awhile (since The Tour Of The Hemispheres) where all of their new album's songs were played live on tour. Granted, "Afterimage" and "Kid Gloves" swapped half-way through the tour, so you only got one or the other, and at most, 7 GUP songs on any given night, but the fact that they played both for half the tour shows that the band really enjoyed the songs back then!

Fans with the official GUP Tour show should be familiar enough with it, but the Largo, MD show is pretty good for a soundboard bootleg in '84. As far as I know, though, no known soundboards exist with the "Red Lenses/Drum Solo" medley, and I may not be remembering right, but I don't think there are any with Geddy's bass solo in the middle of "Red Lenses".

-Marc.

Before I jump into this tour there was the five night stand at Radio City in September 1983 (with Marillion opening and being subsequently booed off stage).
The band wanted a distraction away from the studio and their problems with getting a producer to commit the their new album after they let Terry Brown go. Roger Kneebend almost got the job.

If I recall four of the five nights have surfaced and two of them sound particularly good. Of course one highlight of these shows were primitive versions of Red Sector A and The Body Electric. There may be a video from one of these nights, but I have never seen it.


OK...Grace Under Pressure Tour.

 If long time fans were pissed about Signals not featuring the '70s enough. This tour just made them angrier.  All but The Spirit Of Radio, Closer to The Heart, The Temples Of Syrinx and Finding My Way/In The Mood were from the last three albums.

That said, this was one of my favorite tours and the new vigor that began on the Signals Tour continues here. The band was moving forward (even if some fans weren't.) Rush also played Japan and Hawaii for the first and last time.

The Toronto show probably holds the record for most bootleged. The show has also been mislabeled numerous times perhaps trying to fool people that this was a new show (All you had to do was check the set to determine it wasn't) by claiming the show was from 1986 (when it was first broadcast) 1989 and 1992. This show must be out there more than 20 times in various incarnations and formats especially from the late '80s to the mid '90s.

Three three show mentioned above are certainly the cream of the crop but there are some others that are just as good although they aren't Soundboards.

Reno, ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9aTzrgccqI ) San Francisco and Japan are three that are particularly good audios. There are several others out there, but they are hard to come by.

Two videos are available from this tour


Here's Montreal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdIG6ZYbUyQ

Here's Japan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0a39DvlHI&list=PL76EBB9456A5340FF



Wow, I didn't realize how much of this crap is on you tube....Maybe I can find something I don't have there.

[Lupton]

Sorry total newbie here and I apologize for butting in like this. I've been following this thread since the Tour of the Spheres. Many thanks to Nick for hosting these show!   

So...I pulled down the GUP show only to find that it is actually really a superb soundboard recording from the Power Windows tour (4/16/86) .  So it looks like we got an album ahead. All good end results though....as I've normally just lurked and read on these forums, noticing this caused me to register and post here for the 1st time just so I could point this out. Any chance of hearing a show from the GUP tour? (I've always wanted to hear Kid Gloves live)

Anyway. Great thread and again many thanks to Nick for the shows. Soundboard recordings of Rush on ANY tour are a great thing to have!

[ytserush]

Sorry total newbie here and I apologize for butting in like this. I've been following this thread since the Tour of the Spheres. Many thanks to Nick for hosting these show!   

So...I pulled down the GUP show only to find that it is actually really a superb soundboard recording from the Power Windows tour (4/16/86) .  So it looks like we got an album ahead. All good end results though....as I've normally just lurked and read on these forums, noticing this caused me to register and post here for the 1st time just so I could point this out. Any chance of hearing a show from the GUP tour? (I've always wanted to hear Kid Gloves live)

Anyway. Great thread and again many thanks to Nick for the shows. Soundboard recordings of Rush on ANY tour are a great thing to have!

Welcome aboard. That would be the Philly show that ends during YYZ if I recall (about 80 minutes.) It's the only Power Windows soundboard and we'll probably get to it soon.


As for Grace Under Pressure:
You should check out the link to the Montreal video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdIG6ZYbUyQ


And Reno, ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9aTzrgccqI )

I believe they dropped Kid Gloves by the time they got to Japan.

All of those are full shows though.



You can also hear Kid Gloves live before it was even recorded when the band did their Radio City five-gig run in September of 1983. It's possible I left the link for that up there somewhere.

[Lupton]

Thanks for the welcome ysterush! 

These shows have been a lot of fun. It's interesting to see how the Drum Solo developed over the years.  Also...being able to witness cool moments...like the segue from the end of Trees to Red Barchetta on the Signals show   

I'll be sure to go back and check out some of those links.

[The Letter M]

The Power Windows Tour begin December 4, 1985, over a MONTH from the album's release date, and went all the way til May 26, 1986 with no huge breaks. On this tour, they had some prog and prog-related acts opening for them, including Steve Morse and Marillion, as well as others like FM, Fabulous Thunderbirds, and returning favorite Blue Oyster Cult.

More from Eric at the Power Windows website!

Beginning with this tour, Rush began its practice which continued through the Test For Echo tour of "fine tuning" the setlist during the first few dates of the tour: "The Weapon" followed "Territories" and was only played the first two nights of the tour; "Witch Hunt" was added the second night following "The Weapon", which was permanently dropped as of the third night. The sixth night of the tour, "Witch Hunt" would move up in the setlist to follow "Middletown Dreams", possibly due to their common use of electronic drums. Additionally, "New World Man" was apparently dropped from the last month of the tour; its last known performance was April 22, '86, and it would not be performed again until the Vapor Trails tour.

Intro (Three Stooges theme)
The Spirit of Radio
Limelight
The Big Money
New World Man (dropped sometime after 4/22/86)
Subdivisions
Manhattan Project
Middletown Dreams
Witch Hunt (not played opening night, added 12/5/85 following Territories & The Weapon, would move to follow Middletown Dreams beginning 12/12/85)
Red Sector A
Closer To The Heart
Marathon
The Trees
Mystic Rhythms
Distant Early Warning
Territories
(The Weapon, only played first two nights)
YYZ
Drum Solo
Red Lenses
Tom Sawyer
Encore: 2112 (Overture/Temples of Syrinx)
Grand Designs
In The Mood

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Linked below is the arguably the best Power Windows Tour soundboard in existence, and while it is not a COMPLETE show, it is definitely the best SOUNDING.
"Visions & Illusions Ver. 2.02" Philadelphia, PA on 4/16/86 <- link to the DRE Page for this show with reviews and ratings.
www.nickeh.com/botm/rush1986-04-16.rar

Rush - Power Windows Tour - 116:18
(Live In Philadelphia, PA on 4/16/86)
(Visions & Illusions Ver 2.02 - SBD)

Disc 1 - 60:53
 1. Three Stooges Intro      0:49
 2. The Spirit Of Radio      5:06
 3. Limelight            5:07
 4. The Big Money         5:57
 5. New World Man         4:14
 6. Subdivisions         5:51
 7. Manhattan Project         5:38
 8. Middletown Dreams         5:08
 9. Witch Hunt         5:11
10. Red Sector A^         5:16
11. Closer To The Heart      5:59
12. Marathon            6:38

Disc 2 - 55:58
 1. The Trees            5:03
 2. Mystic Rhythms         5:27
 3. Distant Early Warning      7:08
 4. Territories         6:26
 5. YYZ            3:22
 6. The Rhythm Method*       6:01
 7. Red Lenses*          2:19
 8. Tom Sawyer*          5:47
 9. 2112*          6:26
10. Grand Designs*       5:03
11. In The Mood*        2:56

*End-of-show tracks sourced from:
(Mid-American Dreams PE - AUD)
(Milwaukee, WI on 3/24/86)

^RSA has :29 cut in the middle
 Filled in with above source

Notes about my mix of these shows to represent this tour. The bulk of the show is probably the most well-known bootleg of the Power Windows tour, and any fan of these songs and this era should not live without it! It's a crisp and clean sounding soundboard, albeit an incomplete show. We get up through most of the drum solo, and a bit of "Red Sector A" missing, but other than that, it's the rest of the show! To help fill in those gaps, I used one of the next best shows out there, an audience recording from Milwaukee (a town that happens to have a LOT of good tapers, apparently!), which does a good job of filling in the rest of the show and encore.

The show starts off once again with the "Three Stooges" intro, then launching into 2 classic hits before moving into their first new song, the opener from their new album. Throughout the show, the band performs a whopping SEVEN songs during the set (with one in the encore, a feat rarely done from Rush!), which is as many new songs a night they did on the prior tour (although they swapped out a song mid-tour, meaning they actually played all EIGHT songs from the album). The only (and still unplayed) song is "Emotion Detector", sitting in the same spot on the album that "Losing It" did for Signals, another song that has yet to be played live.

The Power Windows songs are fantastic on their debut tour, especially tracks like "Manhattan Project" and "Marathon", but they would return in future tours, so the real gems here are "Middletown Dreams" and "Grand Designs". The rest of the set consists of 3 GUP songs, 2 Signals songs, 4 MP songs, 1 PEW song, and only 4 songs from Hemisphere back (a trend that would continue for a few more tours). Obviously, the previous 3 albums get a LOT of returning songs, so the phasing out of hits like "Working Man", "Fly By Night", "Xanadu", "Hemispheres" and "La Villa Strangiato" alienated old school fans. I can only imagine what going to these shows was like, seeing fans who expected hits from the 70's Rush albums and getting about 80% 80's Rush.

-Marc.

[ytserush]

Well before going into the Power Windows tour there was the 2nd and final Tour Of the Nadars, which was a very short trek to Florida in March 1985 which likely saitisfied Geddy's need to be at Spring Training.  I can't remember which gig I have from this tour, but the tour featured early versions of The Big Money and Middletown Dreams. It was also the last tour that the band previewed any songs that had not been recorded first. It's also the last time that The Enemy Within and The Weapon were ever performed live (Which also happened to be the last time The Fear Trilogy was played live too.)


Okay, Power Windows Tour....Certainly the shows mentioned above are among the best and most widely circulated there is.

There are a few others of the dozen or so Power Windows shows that I have. Probably the best of these is the May 24, 1986 Sacremento show. I think it sounds a bit better than the Milwaukee show.


Interestingly there are vinyl boots from Quebec and Minnesota.

There are also videos from Nassau Coliseum, Saint Paul and Quebec. It appears only Quebec has made it to you tube.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCdLdV4Z-Ps&list=PL1747097D23F117E3

Never really liked the sound of The Big Money on this tour. The keyboards don't sound right to me.

This is also the first tour were Geddy and Alex start to get trapped by technology and not really free as much to prowl the stage like we've been used to in recent years. It would become even worse on the next tour of course.

[jammindude]

The Seattle show of this tour was my *very first* Rush concert ever.  I was 16 years old.

[ytserush]

The Seattle show of this tour was my *very first* Rush concert ever.  I was 16 years old.

My first two shows were March 31 and April 1 1986 with Marillion opening with Misplaced Childhood.


There is a recording of the Seattle show that is supposed to be pretty good, but I don't have it.

[jammindude]

The Seattle show of this tour was my *very first* Rush concert ever.  I was 16 years old.

My first two shows were March 31 and April 1 1986 with Marillion opening with Misplaced Childhood.


There is a recording of the Seattle show that is supposed to be pretty good, but I don't have it.

If there is a boot circulating, it would be very sentimental to me if someone would hook a brotha up....   I had no idea *that show* was on the circuit.

[King Postwhore]

The tour I met Geddy on.  opening night of the PW's tour.  Also the second leg as ytse posted above with  Marillion playing all of  Misplaced Childhood.  Epic, just epic.

[ytserush]

The tour I met Geddy on.  opening night of the PW's tour.  Also the second leg as ytse posted above with  Marillion playing all of  Misplaced Childhood.  Epic, just epic.

Few shows get much more epic than that..

[The Letter M]

The tour I met Geddy on.  opening night of the PW's tour.  Also the second leg as ytse posted above with  Marillion playing all of  Misplaced Childhood.  Epic, just epic.

Few shows get much more epic than that..

That does sound pretty damn epic!

Also, thanks for bumping this thread again. It seems I have (once again) forgotten about it, but this week I will move on with the HYF Tour!!! Which, IMO, is one of the better 80's set lists. Good choices between POW and HYF songs, as well as a few more classics. Also, one of the few tours to have a near-complete soundboard(-quality) show in the form of the Birmingham show used for the A Show Of Hands video!

-Marc.

[sirbradford117]

Marc, did you ever post a link to the GUP show?  Earlier in the thread, that link took me to the POW show download instead.  I may have missed the corrected link...

[The Letter M]

I checked the link and it's the right format, but the uploads were by Nick, so you would have to ask him to fix it. He may have uploaded the show wrong if the link posted was for the GUP show but the actual file was the POW show.

-Marc.

[ytserush]

The tour I met Geddy on.  opening night of the PW's tour.  Also the second leg as ytse posted above with  Marillion playing all of  Misplaced Childhood.  Epic, just epic.

Few shows get much more epic than that..

That does sound pretty damn epic!

Also, thanks for bumping this thread again. It seems I have (once again) forgotten about it, but this week I will move on with the HYF Tour!!! Which, IMO, is one of the better 80's set lists. Good choices between POW and HYF songs, as well as a few more classics. Also, one of the few tours to have a near-complete soundboard(-quality) show in the form of the Birmingham show used for the A Show Of Hands video!

-Marc.

Yeah, that Birmingham show is probably as good as it gets.
There a few other choice shows and some videos, but there weren't too many interesting things going on aside from the odd equipment malfunction to make things unique.

[snowdog]

Also, thanks for bumping this thread again. It seems I have (once again) forgotten about it, but this week I will move on with the HYF Tour!!! Which, IMO, is one of the better 80's set lists. Good choices between POW and HYF songs, as well as a few more classics. Also, one of the few tours to have a near-complete soundboard(-quality) show in the form of the Birmingham show used for the A Show Of Hands video!

-Marc.

And if I'm not mistaken songs that didn't appear on the video but did appear on the CD were from the Birmingham shows as well.  (Subdivisions, Distant Early Warning, Time Stand Still, and the full version of the drum solo).  I'm also not counting Witch Hunt or Mystic Rhythms since those were recorded on the PoW tour.  So between the two you almost get the full setlist from that tour.  Only thing missing is Limelight and Red Lenses.  And possibly Lock and Key if you don't have access to the Laser Disc.   I was really bummed that when they released A Show of Hands on DVD they didn't include Lock and Key.

[ytserush]

Lock and Key should have definately been included as part of some DVD.

But then so should Countdown and The Body Electric.

[The Letter M]

The Hold Your Fire Tour began on the 29th of October, 1987, hitting the usual spots in the US, the UK and Canada, to the end of the tour on the 5th of May, 1988. Known opening acts for this tour included MSG, Tommy Shaw, Chalk Circle, and The Rainmakers. It is believed that the set list for this tour remained constant throughout with no known changes from any of the dates.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Shared from Nick is the well known HYF soundboard bootleg from the Birmingham show used mostly for the ASOH tour video and album. It's a great compiled bootleg and is missing very little!
Hold Your Fire Tour - "Birmingham '88 Remaster"
Birmingham, UK on 4/23/88
www.nickeh.com/botm/rush1988-04-23.rar

Below is my compilation of HYF shows to create my complete tour representation. The bulk of the show comes from Birmingham:

Rush - Hold Your Fire Tour - 118:24
(Live In Birmingham, UK on 4/23/88)
(Birmingham '88 Remaster - SBD)

Disc 1 - 58:41
 1. Three Stooges Intro      0:53
 2. The Big Money         5:58
 3. Subdivisions         5:25
 4. Limelight*          4:37
 5. Marathon            6:33
 6. Turn The Page         4:42
 7. Prime Mover         5:33
 8. Manhattan Project         5:11
 9. Closer To The Heart      4:32
10. Red Sector A         5:12
11. Force Ten            4:55
12. Time Stand Still        5:10

Disc 2 - 59:43
 1. Distant Early Warning*      7:28
 2. Lock And Key         5:42
 3. Mission            5:42
 4. Territories         6:20
 5. YYZ            3:19
 6. The Rhythm Method*        6:00
 7. Red Lenses*          0:23
 8. The Spirit Of Radio*      4:59
 9. Tom Sawyer         5:39
10. 2112          5:33
11. La Villa Strangiato      5:27
12. In The Mood         3:11

*(Imaginations On Fire - AUD)
 (Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 04/05/88)
-Limelight
-DEW recorded intro
-Parts of the drum solo
-Red Lenses snippet/Intro to TSOR

Note - Show is still missing:
-Opening clocks of TSS
-Most of 2112's intro sound

Approximately 8:00 - Non-SB Sourced

For this compiled show, there was much missing to begin with. The Birmingham boot has nearly the entire show! The only full songs missing were "Limelight" and the bit of "Red Lenses" that came after the drum solo and went in to "The Spirit Of Radio". There were also bits of intro missing from "Distant Early Warning", "Time Stand Still" and "2112", as well as sections of the drum solo, but most of these things were filled in with a good audience bootleg from Milwaukee (where a lot of good bootleggers seem to record Rush shows!). This was the best and most complete I could make a HYF show, and I'm glad the Birmingham show exists to fill out most of it!

As for the show itself, if you've heard ASOH, you've heard some of this, and if you've watch ASOH, you've heard most of this. It's a great sounding show, and the songs are on fire, although I will say "Marathon" sounds a BIT slower than it did on the Power Windows Tour. We are treated to only 6 new songs this tour, as opposed to the 7 (out of 8) from the last, leaving 4 songs unplayed from the album (all four of which have stayed unplayed since this tour - "Second Nature", "Open Secrets", "Tai Shan" and "High Water"). Of these, highlights include "Lock And Key" and "Prime Mover", as well as the ever popular "Mission".

Four songs carried over from the 7 Power Windows songs, and they're good choices too. Returning from a two-tour hiatus is "La Villa Strangiato", now in an oldies medley with "In The Mood" and "2112 Overture/Temples Of Syrinx" sandwiched around it. It's one of my favorite encore medleys, and there's some great playing in the "A Lerxst In Wonderland" section from Neil, as well as Lerxst of course. The rest of the show showcases the then-usual suspects; "Tom Sawyer", "The Spirit Of Radio", "Limelight", "Subdivisions", and "Closer To The Heart".

It's one of my favorite 80's set lists but then again, depending on my mood, I could say almost any of the 80's sets are my favorite, but this particular show and the sound quality push it up a couple notches. Definitely get this if you've never heard it all before.

-Marc.

[jammindude]

Is there a version where we can hear Alex's rant on LVS?

[snowdog]

I've never seen that surface.  I remember reading an interview somewhere where Geddy said that they were not actually recording anything on Alex's mic which is why it didn't appear on the video.  So they made a joke out of it with the warning message.  Apparently he wasn't ranting but "singing" the keyboard part there.  It would be funny to hear.