As I mentioned in the main Rush thread, this will be a thread discussing solely the LIVE aspect of Rush, from their first tour on their debut album, all the way up to today. Each week (or so), I will update the thread as we go through every major tour the band has gone on, discussing the set list, various aspects of the show (including song changes, video intros/accompaniments, etc.), various important/well-known bootlegs, as well as official releases, and how the band has evolved their show over-all from tour to tour. Most of my information will come from the Power Windows website and The Digital Rush Experience (bootleg directory).
As I also mentioned, this thread will allow me to talk about and share one of my recent projects where I found the best sounding and/or most complete bootlegs from each tour to create a full show that includes all (or almost all) of the songs played on that tour for personal use on CD-r/iPod. The idea came to me when I realized the
Snakes & Arrows Live DVD had four 2nd Leg songs from Atlanta as bonuses, and I wanted to put them at the end of my S&AL set, a la
Rush In Rio's "Board Bootlegs". After doing that, I felt compelled to do the same for
R30 (whose Blu-Ray release gave us the FULL show, which I then put on 3 CDs) and the Vapor Trails Tours (where I found a good version of "Ceiling Unlimited" to tack on the end of the
Rush In Rio).
After "fixing" all the recent tours for full CD-r versions, I decided to go back through my bootleg collection and do the same for every other tour, or at least, do as best as I could with what bootlegs I could find! It took me about a month or so to compile my lists, figuring out which shows to use, and for those that were incomplete soundboards, which audience boots to use to fill in the missing songs. After figuring that out, it was just down to doing some audio editing! Weeks later, I created my "Rush Complete Live Tours" set, a whopping 43 CDs of live Rush!
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The band's first major tour ran from March 18, 1974 to January 31, 1975 and took them across Canada, the northeast US and down the east coast, then across the US to the west coast before coming back to Canada and the northeast for more shows. It was a long 11 months of nearly constant touring, but a fledgling young band had to do that in those days. They opened for Uriah Heep, KISS, Manfred Mann, Rory Gallagher, Hawkwind, Blue Oyster Cult, and Nazareth. Here are some tidbits from the Power Windows website:
This was obviously a very busy time for Rush. The debut album was released in Canada in March, and drummer John Rutsey left the band in July due to health concerns regarding his type-1 diabetes. Neil Peart joined the band on July 29th (Geddy's 21st birthday), two weeks before the start of their first U.S. tour. The setlists varied from show to show, as Rush honed their skills and performed possible songs for their second album.
"I consider them brothers. They were like brothers to me. More so than Gene and Ace and Paul. I hung with them personally. Like, after every night we would go out - true story ... and we were in Holiday Inns then, not Ritz Carlton's or Four Seasons ... - and we would get on the balcony in a snowstorm, get all the blankets from everybody's room, cover ourselves with them like Eskimos and share a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red. We got along so great. We talked about our wives - how we missed them, and our kids and how we missed them, and our moms and dads. We got to be really good friends. I love those guys. Those guys could never do wrong in my book." - Peter Criss of KISS, That Metal Show, November 28, 2009
"I have so many road stories, but one that always comes to mind is the tour we did in the summer of 1975 with Rush opening for us. I always liked Rush (and still do). After a few weeks on tour I started to get to know the guys in the band, and their very funny tour manager, Howie. One thing led to another and before long Peter and I were getting visits from the Rush boys. It usually turned into late evenings filled with beer and grass and whatever else was around. Alex Lifeson, the band's guitarist, used to do this hysterical routine with a large paper laundry bag. He'd draw a ridiculous giant face on the bag with a black marker and put it over his head with a couple of holes poked in it so he could see and breathe. Everyone in the room at this point was either drunk or stoned, but usually a little of both. Anyway, Alex would go into this routine with the bag over his head and while smoking a joint out of his eye he put everyone into total hysterics. He really milked the routine until everyone was gasping for air!" - Ace Frehley of KISS, No Regrets, page 188
"Neil was incredible. I remember that when Neil joined the band and started writing the songs with them, Paul Stanley told me, 'I love Neil to death, but he ruined that band. They will never be anything.'" - Mick Campise, Kiss Roadie, Kiss Alive Forever: The Complete Touring History
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The first tour was pretty easy, the 2 Cleveland bootlegs have the best sound and are pretty complete, minus some fades between songs to eliminate crowd noise or wait between songs. Here's what I created:
Rush - Rush Tour - 71:08
(Live In Cleveland, OH on 12/16/74)
(Here Again At The Agora - FM Broadcast)
1. Finding My Way* - 5:14
2. Best I Can* - 3:10
3. Need Some Love* - 3:19
4. In The End* - 6:10
5. Fancy Dancer* - 3:58
6. In The Mood* - 3:21
7. What You're Doing - 5:25
8. Fly By Night - 3:13
9. Here Again - 9:06
10. Anthem - 4:35
11. Bad Boy - 7:17
12. Working Man - 10:38
13. Mr. Neil Peart On The Drums (Drum Solo '74) - 2:39
14. Garden Road* - 3:03
*(Live In Cleveland, OH on 8/26/74)
(ABC 1974 - SBD/FM Broadcast)
I was able to use the entire first half of the ABC 1974 show and not repeat any songs from the second half of the December show, and by piecing both shows together, I compiled every (known) song they played on that tour onto one show. And because both shows were soundboards used for radio broadcasts, and from the same venue, the audio is fairly the same, and AMAZING. There's a crisp and clear, yet raw and bombastic feeling to these shows, and they are really rocking, pounding, and wailing away.
The first album cuts are all taken to the next level with Neil's frantic drumming, and Alex's solos go the extra step, especially in "Working Man", which features an embryonic "By-Tor & The Snow Dog" in the middle jam section. Of course, the most talked-about thing from the ABC 1974 show, of course, is the inclusion of a cover ("Bad Boy") and 2 Non-Album tracks, "Fancy Dancer" and "Garden Road". If you haven't heard them, you're missing out, especially if you enjoy the band's first two albums! They're pretty rocking, and in my opinion, at least one or both of them should have made the debut album (at least, instead of "Need Some Love" or "Take A Friend", which has never been played live, fortunately enough). However, the version of "Bad Boy" on the 2nd Cleveland show is longer as Alex takes an extended (near 3-minute) solo at the end of the song!
Also of interest is the inclusion of four songs that would make it on their second album, including an alternate version of "Fly By Night", which places the softer section BEFORE the guitar solo (which is a better arrangement, it BUILDS up to the solo rather than being a cool-down).
The two Cleveland shows are arguably the best from this tour, especially being pretty-near official sound quality, but there are a few more, particularly the show that first featured Neil on drums (although the sound quality is not as good). This first tour was certainly a "getting our feet wet" kind of experience for three young boys from the land up north, but their youthful energy is definitely felt through these recordings.
-Marc.