It has been just about one year since the last post in this thread, but with the close release of the upcoming and amazingly quick-turnaround-release of the R40 Live album and video, I figured I'd finally update this thread at least one more time.
So, after the rousing success of the Clockwork Angels Tour, with the band's first mini-string orchestra performing with them for most of the 2nd set, what could the band do to top that on their next tour? With no new material on the board, they decided to pull out a lot of songs they hadn't played in a VERY long time, and I mean a long Long LONG time. When the setlists began pouring in from the first dozen shows (which had a lot of variation as they went on), there was a lot of talk about the song selection. I cannot imagine being anyone seeing them in the middle or end of that tour and trying to avoid setlist spoilers on the internet because they were EVERYWHERE and even if you glimpsed at a tour review headline, you were probably spoiled by citations of "Jacob's Ladder" or "What You're Doing".
Fans, critics, reviewers, music columnists, and everyone in-between, were all very excited about this tour, especially with the looming notion that this was likely their last major tour...EVER! So in celebration of their long 40+ year career, the band decided to take the concept to the stage and live it all again, by changing the stage as their songs went back in time, an amazing visual treat for fans who saw them, and a trip down memory lane the band as well as the audience.
The idea of playing a set in chronological order (forward or reverse) isn't new, but to invite the stage design into that concept was something quite interesting, and I applaud the band for doing something so fresh and bold, especially to end the show with amps on chairs and nothing by their hands and instruments around them! Also, can I just add that the "new" old drum kit DW made for Neil Peart?! WHO ELSE WAS EXCITED TO SEE THAT?!? THOSE CONCERT TOMS?! THOSE CHIMES?!? THE WHOLE THING!!!!
...I was. I never thought Neil would play a double-bass kit with Rush ever again, or have concert toms, or anything like that from before the Roll The Bones Tour. And to bring out the kit for only half a show...what dedication! Especially to learn all of the 2nd half of the show on the old kit...what a guy, what a guy! And then Geddy AND Alex bringing out the double-necks for "Xanadu"!!!!! Although I still find it sad that the ending of the song wasn't played the way it was on the studio album... I miss that little part with the snare rolls and the bells...AH well.
From the Power Windows fan site:
Rush's R40 Tour celebrated their 40th Anniversary with a unique setlist which traveled backward through time. Beginning with the opening song, the setlist covered their entire career from Clockwork Angels back to their bar days, finishing with a brief teaser of "Garden Road". As the show progressed backward in time, the stage props and video backdrops also "devolved" to coincide with the songs being played. Beginning with the sets used on the Clockwork Angels tour, they were later replaced with the dryers used on the Vapor Trails and R30 tours, followed by the backline used on the Test For Echo tour, and so on. (The Snakes & Arrows chicken roasters were not included in the props). During the second set, the R40 drum kit was replaced with a retro kit dubbed "El Darko" which featured double bass drums, tubular bells, and more throwbacks to an earlier time.
Alex Lifeson confirmed "We've got three sets - A, B, C" which featured alternating songs from the same respective albums. Set A included "Red Barchetta," "Distant Early Warning," "One Little Victory," and "Clockwork Angels"; those songs were replaced in Set B with their respective album-mates "The Camera Eye," "Between The Wheels," "How It Is," and "The Wreckers". Set C was nearly the same as A, except "YYZ" replaced "Red Barchetta," and "Natural Science" was added as a bonus track (without replacing another song). During five shows of the tour, the Clockwork Angels alternate track was dropped to make room for Signals' "Losing It" (click for details).
Digging deep for these setlists, "Losing It" and "How It Is" were performed for the first time ever, and while most of the songs from the first half of the show had been performed on relatively recent tours, many of those performed after the intermission had not been performed in decades: "Jacob's Ladder" was last played in 1980; "Hemispheres: Prelude" in 1994; "Cygnus X-1: Part 3" in 1980 ("Prologue" was played in 2002); "Lakeside Park" in 1978; and "What You're Doing" in 1977. Closing out the show was a teaser of "Garden Road", an unreleased original song last performed on tour in 1974. Albums not represented on this tour were Power Windows, Hold Your Fire, Presto and Test for Echo.
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Just like last tour with the Clockwork Angels live album, we are once again treated to a whole show along with alternate-night bonus tracks! This is quite a treat to be able to see and hear all of the songs performed on the tour, and what a set list selection this tour had!
Disc 1 - ??:??
The World is .. The World is ... (Intro)
The Anarchist
Headlong Flight/Drumbastica
Far Cry
The Main Monkey Business
How It Is
Animate
Roll The Bones
Between The Wheels
Losing It (with Ben Mink)
Subdivisions
Disc 2 - ??:??
Tom Sawyer
YYZ
The Spirit Of Radio
Natural Science
Jacob's Ladder
Hemispheres: Prelude
Cygnus X-1 [Prologue/The Story So Far (drum solo)/Part 3]
Closer To The Heart
Xanadu
2112 [Parts I, II, IV and VII]
Disc 3 - ??:??
Mel's Rockpile (with Eugene Levy) (Intro)
Lakeside Park/Anthem
What You're Doing/Working Man
--------Bonus Tracks--------
One Little Victory
Distant Early Warning
Red Barchetta
Clockwork Angels
The Wreckers
The Camera Eye
Losing It (with Jonathan Dinklage)
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What a treat this official release is! SEVEN bonus tracks on the CD, including an alternate version of "Losing It", the VIP song of the tour, performed only FIVE times, so we've got two of the five officially released!!! On top of that, we get the six songs that were swapped in and out of the sets this tour.
Sadly enough, as mentioned above, no songs from TFE, Presto, HYF or POW were performed, though I can forgive the last one because we got SO MUCH POW-love on the last tour, and in the last 15 years, they've played all but one of the songs from that album live, so we've got a fairly good representation of the album since the VT tour. But there was such a missed opportunity to pull out some hidden gems from the other three albums.
Still, what we DID get from the show's second set makes up for those missed chances, because getting to hear half of Permanent Waves in one go is surely an amazing thing of beauty. Between that and four songs from MP, as well as half of AFTK and the Prelude from "Hemispheres", there's a TON of that golden-era Rush here, as well as the longest version of "2112" since the full version was played on the TFE tour in 97. In fact, the whole second disc of this set will likely get a LOT of spins once I get this in the mail. I mean, just LOOK at that set!!! I am almost tempted to take the whole show and "mix in" the bonus tracks into their proper chronological places (OLV after HII, DEW after BTW, TS/RB/YYZ/TCE, and the other CA songs somewhere in the beginning).
Anyways, hopefully this isn't the last time I ever update this thread. I know a lot of European fans wished the band had brought this show across seas, but that now seems unlikely as the band have taken time off since the tour ended a couple of months ago. The future isn't clear, but you can bet I hope there will be another tour somewhere down the line, and when that comes, I won't miss it like I did with this tour.
-Marc.
Topic: Rush Live Tourography - The Permanent Waves Tour (REVISITED - World Tour 1980) (Read 73521 times)