So I'm watching a video of "Headlong Flight" from Manchester, and Neil's short solo in the middle of the song features him playing to samples of Alex/Geddy playing riffs from the song. It seems like Neil has dissected his traditional 8-10 minute drum solo and divided it into three parts:
The Acoustic Drum Solo - played in the middle of "Where's My Thing?", features some of Neil's old solo bits, like the Waltz and cross-overs
The Samples Play-Along - played in the middle of "Headlong Flight", taking the place of his usual horn-samples he's played since the Power Windows Tour
The Electronic Drum Solo - played before "Red Sector A", features a whole new first half with techno sounds, then does some 7/8 things Neil loves to do, then brings back the steam-y sound bits from his Time Machine Tour solo
Over-all, between these 3 solo spots, he's featured for about 5:45 of the show, considerably less than he's done in recent years. I thoroughly enjoy that Neil is shaking things up with his solo. His solo, as it was, had been growing and evolving since 1986, and while it's changed a bit more in the last few tours, I'm glad he's decided to do something different. I wonder if he was just getting tired of doing 8-10 minute solo spots for himself? Either way, it's a neat way for him to be featured throughout the set!
EDIT - some more notes about this tour that I've compiled (and thusly sent to Eric @ the Power Windows website)
Also of note:
"2112" played on the "Night B" set list is the R30 version with Grand Finale after Overture/The Temples Of Syrinx
Alex has a keyboard rig on his right, which (so far that I've seen) he plays during "The Garden"
With "Night B" being real, only 8 out of 20 albums are not represented on this tour: FBN, COS, AFTK, HEMI, CP, TFE, VT and FB.
A total of 30 songs are featured on this tour, with 5 swapping out each night. In Comparison:
24 - Time Machine Tour
31 - Snakes & Arrows Tour (both legs)
34 - R30 Tour (counting the 6 parts of the R30 Overture separately, otherwise, it's 29)
31 - Vapor Trails Tour (counting song swaps and the addition of CTTH)
25 - Test For Echo Tour
(Drum solos were not counted in the song counts above)
Over-all, the show is longer than the previous tour (by about 18 minutes), but shorter than the Snakes & Arrows Tour (by about 15 minutes), and about as long as the average Vapor Trails Tour show (music only, not counting intro/outro videos).
Song Notes:
-The band plays a total of 10 new songs from the album, dismissing only "BU2B" and "BU2B2", though the former was played on the Time Machine Tour, meaning all but ONE of the album's songs will have been played live.
-"Subdivisions", along with staples "Tom Sawyer", "The Spirit Of Radio", "YYZ", "Working Man", and "Far Cry", all return from the Time Machine Tour
-"Dreamline" returns from the Snakes & Arrows Tour
-"Force Ten", "Red Sector A" and the "2112" Medley both return from the R30 Tour
-"The Big Money", "The Pass" and "Bravado" all return since last being played on the Vapor Trails Tour in 2002
-"The Analog Kid" returns since last being played on the Counterparts Tour
-"Where's My Thing?" returns having ONLY been played on the Roll The Bones Tour
-"Manhattan Project" returns, last seen on the Presto Tour
-"Territories" returns since last being played on the Hold Your Fire Tour
-"Grand Designs" AND "Middletown Dreams" both return, having ONLY been played on the Power Windows Tour
-"The Body Electric" returns since last being played on the Power Windows Warm-Up Tour in March 1985
-Only 5 songs are played from their Pre-Signals albums: "Working Man", "2112", "The Spirit Of Radio", "Tom Sawyer", and "YYZ" (possibly 6 if "Limelight" does indeed return), and they're all played at the end of the show.
-Only 5 songs are played from albums between Presto and Snakes & Arrows: "The Pass", "Dreamline", "Bravado", "Where's My Thing?", and "Far Cry", and all but "Dreamline" are played in the first set.
-A total of 10 songs hail from their 80's/Synth material (Signals-Hold Your Fire), and a total of 10 songs are being played from the new album, both chunks making up 2/3rds of the total songs played this tour.
-Since the R30 Tour, Rush have played SEVEN out of EIGHT tracks from Power Windows: "Mystic Rhythms" on the R30 Tour, "Marathon" on the Time Machine Tour, and the other five on this tour. The only track not played (and still remains to be) - "Emotion Detector"
-Similarly, since the Vapor Trails Tour, 4 songs from Signals have been played ("Subdivisions", "The Analog Kid", "Digital Man", and "New World Man") and 4 songs from Grace Under Pressure have been played ("Distant Early Warning", "Red Sector A", "The Body Electric" and "Between The Wheels").
-However, only 3 tracks have been played from Hold Your Fire and are the only tracks from that album that were played AFTER the Hold Your Fire Tour - "Force Ten", "Time Stand Still" and "Mission".
-Marc.