Rush made their triumphant return with a new studio album, released five years after their last one (which was released five years after the one before that - still a better rate than Tool), by releasing their FIRST EVER CONCEPT ALBUM. It was a statement that, even 20 albums in, the band could rock hard and release something so different but still very "at home" for them. They've dabbled in concepts and ideas before, like
Roll The Bones with it's gambling/money themes, or
Counterparts with it's binary-like lyrics of opposing things, but never before have they done a WHOLE album of the narrative concept before. They've done sides like "The Fountain Of Lamneth", "2112", and the "Cygnus X-1" duology, but an album of 12 songs reaching over an hour seemed so unusual and new.
When it came time to hit the road with this amazing material, they decided to do something different once more and introduce OTHER PERFORMERS on stage with them. The Clockwork Angels String Ensemble featured one conductor and nine players on the tour, and they played most of the 2nd set with the band, including up to 10 songs from their new album. This tour began its first leg on September 7, taking them to December 2, 2012; the second leg continues on April 23, 2013 and concluded on August 4, 2013. They played 72 shows across North America and Europe and recorded two shows in the US for future release.
The Power Windows website has this to say about this tour:
Rush threw out the playbook and offered up a completely fresh setlist with multiple variations for the Clockwork Angels Tour. In addition, for the first time ever the band was joined by a seven piece string section on stage for the majority of the second half of the show. Also for the first time, the drum solo was broken up into three segments heard at different points throughout the show.
The first set was heavy with 80's tracks beginning with the three album openers from Signals, Power Windows and Hold Your Fire performed sequentially to kick off the show, followed by three ultra-rare 80's live tracks, with more later in the show.
As with previous Rush tours, various minor setlist changes were made over the first few shows including refining the nightly alternates in the Clockwork Angels suite and finalizing the encore.
From the start of the tour, slightly differing setlists were planned to allow for the nightly rotation of four songs and their alternates: these eventually included "The Body Electric", "Bravado", "Seven Cities of Gold" and "Manhattan Project"; those songs were replaced the following night by "Middletown Dreams", "The Pass", "Wish Them Well" and "Dreamline", respectively. These eight songs remained alternates throughout the tour with a few exceptions, such as the occasional alternate being Limelight. For additional details including setlist revisions, click here.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Another tour, and another official release. This time, the band decided to treat us and include all but ONE of the songs they played this tour, with one unique difference. The only song played that isn't present on the official
Clockwork Angels Tour live album is "Working Man", which was only played five times at the start of the tour.
Because the track list is pretty perfect, this is one of the few times where I didn't change anything to an official release! The first set fits perfectly on Disc 1, all of the CA material on Disc 2, and everything else on Disc 3. And like with the TFE, VT, and S&A Tour sets I've made, all the bonus tracks have been tacked onto the end of Disc 3.
Rush - Clockwork Angels Tour - 184:46
(Live In Phoenix, AZ & San Antonio/Dallas, TX)
Complete Show + Bonus Tracks
Disc 1 - 59:21
1. Subdivisions 5:39
2. The Big Money 6:02
3. Force Ten 5:35
4. Grand Designs 5:15
6. The Body Electric 4:52
7. Territories 6:46
8. The Analog Kid 5:24
10. Bravado 5:46
11. Where's My Thing?/Here It Is! 8:23
12. Far Cry 5:35
Disc 2 65:32
1. Caravan 5:42
2. Clockwork Angels 8:12
3. The Anarchist 6:59
4. Carnies 5:16
5. The Wreckers 5:27
6. Headlong Flight/Drumbastica 8:17
7. Peke's Repose/Halo Effect 5:15
8. Seven Cities Of Gold 6:23
9. Wish Them Well 6:41
10. The Garden 7:16
Disc 3 - 59:53
1. Dreamline 5:19
2. The Percussor 3:10
3. Red Sector A 5:21
4. YYZ 4:52
5. The Spirit Of Radio 6:27
6. Tom Sawyer 5:56
7. 2112 Overture/Temples/Grand Finale 8:19
---------(Phoenix, AZ Bonus Tracks)---------
8. Limelight (Soundcheck Recording) 4:42
9. Middletown Dreams 5:20
10. The Pass 5:03
11. Manhattan Project 5:20
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
This is an even more far-out-there set list than the last two, with a TON of revisited songs that hadn't been played since the mid-to-late 80's, many of which were only played on one or two tours. The set-up is pretty simple, and takes after the last couple tours' set lists: Some hits and obscure stuff in set 1 with a strong closer, a bunch of new stuff in the first half of the 2nd set, then close out the show with singles/hits and a strong classic-song encore.
This time around, instead of only doing a set of 5 new songs (like with
Snakes & Arrows), or an old album in its entirety (like with
Moving Pictures), they did almost ALL OF THEIR NEW ALBUM, in some order, to open the 2nd set with their string ensemble. Most nights they only played 9 songs, with "Seven Cities Of Gold" and "Wish Them Well" being alternated (except one night at Dallas, where both were played for the recording of the live album/video). That's a HUGE chunk of new music, and I think the fan reception to the album was so good that they couldn't have done it any other way. Besides, it's a concept album! How could you break all of that up across the whole night?!
The string ensemble is so beautiful, and having witnessed this show in real life was such a joy for me. The show in Baltimore was amazing, and I unfortunately had to leave right before the encore as my friend I was with was feeling ill and needed to leave early. So as forgiveness for making me cut out before "2112", she bought me a Rush Tour t-shirt, which I love. It was the dark blue one with the red logos and the tour list on the back. I love it so much (and it was like $35-40!), so I'm not too miffed that I didn't get to see "2112". Everything else was worth it.
Back to the show and set list at hand, the huge influx of 80's material made me SO happy because I love
Power Windows, and hearing songs like "The Analog Kid" again is a real treat. Between this tour and the previous two, the band has played 7 out of 8 songs from POW (with the only exception being the one song from the album they've never played, "Emotion Detector"). I loved the return of "Where's My Thing?" and how Neil YYZ'd his drum solo into the middle of the song! The last time they played this, he went into his solo AFTER the song (like he would with "Leave That Thing Alone!" in later tours), so it was neat to see him do this differently! The shorter solo here is nice and tight, showing off his skills on the front half of the kit.
The 2nd set is unbelievable and the run of CA songs is great, especially with how Neil integrated his drum-samples solo, typically used with horns and a big band outro, into the middle of "Headlong Flight". "The Garden" sounds even MORE beautiful live, if that's even possible, and Alex's intro to "Halo Effect" is stunning. But even after all of the CA songs, the string ensemble continued to play!
The remaining songs they picked are OK ("Dreamline" and "Red Sector A"), but the stand outs were "Manhattan Project" and, oddly enough, "YYZ". Before "Red Sector A", though, we are treated to one final Neil solo, where he shows off his skills on the back kit, with some AWESOME new samples and sounds that really make his solo sound more musical and melodic. I love this solo, and I hope he keeps bits of this on the next tour's solo(s).
The show closes out with "The Spirit Of Radio", but the encore is pretty great. The expected "Tom Sawyer" is, well, expected, but they pulled out the R30 version of "2112" again, with the full "Grand Finale" guitar solo this time around!!! I was so excited to hear that he was playing that solo again! The lack of it on the R30 Tour made it sound really flat at the climax of the "Grand Finale". I kind of wished the string ensemble had come back out for "2112". That would have been WAY cool.
Whew...anyways, those are my thoughts (for now) on the CA tour, and currently their last tour. No news yet on another tour, or an album, as 2014 is to be a year off for Rush. I guess we'll know in 6 months if they'll be recording or touring in the next year or so.
-Marc.
Topic: Rush Live Tourography - The Permanent Waves Tour (REVISITED - World Tour 1980) (Read 73510 times)