Rush v. Dirk, Pratt, & Lerxst

[jammindude]

VT did desperately need a remix… but it needed an amazing remix and I don’t think that’s what we got.

[HOF]

My only issue with the VT remix (and it’s not small) is that the drums somehow sound kind of fake, almost like he replaced the real drum track with some sort of sample.

[Architeuthis]

VT did desperately need a remix… but it needed an amazing remix and I don’t think that’s what we got.

Agreed, I like the original sound better. The title track especially suffered in the remix. A bad quality reverb was added to Geds vocals.

[Stadler]

I dunno,  VT,  S&A, and CA seem like three completely different beasts.

I LOVE S&A.  I am indifferent about VT and CA.  I do not at all consider them "three of a perfect pair". 

[Kram]

I think VT, SNA, and CA all inhabit the same general stylistic and sonic space. I think Counterparts and Test for Echo are also similar, but just better produced.

To me, SNA and CA are somewhat similar sonically - whereas VT is completely different in every way from the other two.

[HOF]

I think VT, SNA, and CA all inhabit the same general stylistic and sonic space. I think Counterparts and Test for Echo are also similar, but just better produced.

To me, SNA and CA are somewhat similar sonically - whereas VT is completely different in every way from the other two.

I think the reason I see all of those albums as similar sonically is that they are all primarily just guitar, drum, and bass, and Geddy’s tone especially from T4E on is pretty similar. Stylistically, I don’t think any song from T4E onward would sound out of place on any other album from that run. But the albums all get progressively muddier in the mix as well, which also lends to them sounding a bit samey.

[Architeuthis]

The Clockwork Angels tour was the muddiest sounding live show Ive ever heard from Rush. With all the advancements in technology by that time,  what the heck happened??   You can't blame the venue because I've seen countless shows there before that were crystal clear (including several Rush shows).
The CA live blu-ray even has the same issues.

[KevShmev]

The Clockwork Angels tour was the muddiest sounding live show Ive ever heard from Rush. With all the advancements in technology by that time,  what the heck happened??   You can't blame the venue because I've seen countless shows there before that were crystal clear (including several Rush shows).
The CA live blu-ray even has the same issues.

Not sure if was the result of working with modern day producers or their ears all being broken thanks to decades of touring, but the band seemingly forgot how to make something sound great once they reunited after their hiatus.  Even when they did the transfer of the three 80s concerts over to DVD, none of them sounded as good as they did on the original VHS releases.  Too bad cause A Show of Hands is by far most watched concert video ever, on the strength of how much I watched it in the 90s, but I rarely watch the DVD because of how frustrating the sound is.

[Architeuthis]

The Clockwork Angels tour was the muddiest sounding live show Ive ever heard from Rush. With all the advancements in technology by that time,  what the heck happened??   You can't blame the venue because I've seen countless shows there before that were crystal clear (including several Rush shows).
The CA live blu-ray even has the same issues.

  Even when they did the transfer of the three 80s concerts over to DVD, none of them sounded as good as they did on the original VHS releases.  Too bad cause A Show of Hands is by far most watched concert video ever, on the strength of how much I watched it in the 90s, but I rarely watch the DVD because of how frustrating the sound is.

You are so right about that. The VHS version of Show of Hands sounds miles better than the dvd.  The picture quality is also much better on the vhs.  Did you notice that the vivid colors of the light show got lost on the dvd?
The transfer was poorly done..

[KevShmev]

The Clockwork Angels tour was the muddiest sounding live show Ive ever heard from Rush. With all the advancements in technology by that time,  what the heck happened??   You can't blame the venue because I've seen countless shows there before that were crystal clear (including several Rush shows).
The CA live blu-ray even has the same issues.

  Even when they did the transfer of the three 80s concerts over to DVD, none of them sounded as good as they did on the original VHS releases.  Too bad cause A Show of Hands is by far most watched concert video ever, on the strength of how much I watched it in the 90s, but I rarely watch the DVD because of how frustrating the sound is.

You are so right about that. The VHS version of Show of Hands sounds miles better than the dvd.  The picture quality is also much better on the vhs.  Did you notice that the vivid colors of the light show got lost on the dvd?
The transfer was poorly done..

I did notice that, yes. I originally wondered if it was just the age of the video, but I have seen VHS uploads of the concert to YT and they are far better than the DVD. 

Some friends showing me that concert video back in '91 when I was just starting to get into Rush was integral in making me a bigger fan, and I am sure my great love for both Power Windows and Hold Your Fire stems from both albums being featured pretty heavily on there.

[King Postwhore]

My friend who I took to the HYF tour said at the show, "Why didn't you tell me the lasers were in these colors?"  "I would have brought my 3D glasses!"

He also asked the information booth in the mall across the street that day, "What is the diameter of the sun?"

The person in the booth asked, "Why are you asking me that?"

My buddy responded, "Aren't you an information booth?"

I was stunned and laughing so hard as that employee shushed us away. 

[Zydar]

Speaking of Rush live releases, I have the Rush R40 Bluray box set and I plan on watching a couple of the concerts again in the coming weeks.

How would you rank all the different concert movies?

We have:

Exit... Stage Left
A Show Of Hands
Rush In Rio
R30
Snakes & Arrows: Live
Time Machine 2011
Clockwork Angels Tour
R40: Live

[KevShmev]

Speaking of Rush live releases, I have the Rush R40 Bluray box set and I plan on watching a couple of the concerts again in the coming weeks.

How would you rank all the different concert movies?

We have:

Exit... Stage Left
A Show Of Hands
Rush In Rio
R30
Snakes & Arrows: Live
Time Machine 2011
Clockwork Angels Tour
R40: Live

Difficult for me to do, to be honest. The set lists on the last tour tours were amazing, but I have barely watched either over the years, a) because I just don't watch full concerts like I used to, and b) Geddy's live vocals were a bit rough on the last few tours. 

You did forget Grace Under Pressure Live, which admittedly is only a partial show, but then again, neither ESL nor A Show of Hands are full shows either on their releases. 

A Show of Hands will always be my favorite, but Rio and R30 are both pretty amazing for obvious reasons as well and would round out my top 3.  I do think the single greatest performance from any of them, however, is Xanadu from ESL.

[RodrigoAltaf]

Rush in Rio is my absolute favorite because it has a VERY special guest in the audience: yours truly.

Yeah, I'm not biased AT ALL in my choice. 

[Mladen]

Holy cow, man, you were there?  What was it like? It's one of the craziest audiences I've ever seen on a live recording, which is surprising being that it is a Rush show. 

[RodrigoAltaf]

Holy cow, man, you were there?  What was it like? It's one of the craziest audiences I've ever seen on a live recording, which is surprising being that it is a Rush show. 

I was there, and also in Sao Paulo the night before. Two CRAZY gigs, the energy was off the charts. The rain in Sao Paulo was very tough, and with the wind, it was pouring towards the stage, not from the top down. I flew to Rio the next day, with barely enough time to unpack, get lunch and go straight to the Maracana Stadium, where they would play. I got there and the show was taking a very long time to start. I saw the drum tech testing everything and drying Neil's cymbals...the rain form the night before stopped many of the triggers in Neil's drums, so they were fixing everything. And when they revealed on the speakers the other reason why the show was taking so long to start - the fact that they were recording a live DVD - the crowd went absolutely INSANE!

This one and the Maiden show that would become the Rock in Rio release were my two best concert experiences ever, and I doubt anything else will top them...

[pg1067]

Speaking of Rush live releases, I have the Rush R40 Bluray box set and I plan on watching a couple of the concerts again in the coming weeks.

How would you rank all the different concert movies?

We have:

Exit... Stage Left
A Show Of Hands
Rush In Rio
R30
Snakes & Arrows: Live
Time Machine 2011
Clockwork Angels Tour
R40: Live

I'm not sure I own all of these, and some of the more recent ones I've only watched once.  I recall R40 being pretty rough with the vocals (or maybe that was Time Machine?).  All I can say with certainty is the ESL is amazing, but that is certainly an evaluation fueled by nostalgia.  If full video from that show ever emerges, it will be THE holy grail of music for me.  ASOH is pretty bad.  That's primarily because 10 of the 16 tracks are from what I consider to be the band's weakest era, and there are far better versions of every other track.  Rio has huge energy and great bonus features, but sometimes the crowd noise was a bit much.  The rest of the 21st century releases have kinda blended into one big blob for me.

[jjrock88]

Sent my list in the rush album ranking.  Top five and bottom five were easy.

[jjrock88]

As far as the Rush live DVD'S go, the only ones that have gotten a second viewing from me were Exit Stage Left and A Show of Hands.  ASOH is probably my favorite.

[faizoff]

Speaking of Rush live releases, I have the Rush R40 Bluray box set and I plan on watching a couple of the concerts again in the coming weeks.

How would you rank all the different concert movies?

We have:

Exit... Stage Left
A Show Of Hands
Rush In Rio
R30
Snakes & Arrows: Live
Time Machine 2011
Clockwork Angels Tour
R40: Live

I have them all and they each have different things I like about it. R30 is probably my favorite overall, it has my favored mix along with the crowd noise, great setlist too. Rio is a blast to watch, the energy from the crowd is super infectious and it overcompensates the muddy sound and lower resolution video. I'll have to re-watch the others, I think there are aspects of each that are fun.


Edit: Missing from the list is also Grace Under Pressure Tour part of the Replay X 3 set

[nick_z]

Speaking of Rush live releases, I have the Rush R40 Bluray box set and I plan on watching a couple of the concerts again in the coming weeks.

How would you rank all the different concert movies?

We have:

Exit... Stage Left
A Show Of Hands
Rush In Rio
R30
Snakes & Arrows: Live
Time Machine 2011
Clockwork Angels Tour
R40: Live

Um, that's a difficult one...I'm very fond of A Show of Hands, as I got that one on VHS when my Rush fandom was truly starting to explode. I'm also a big fan of the synth era, so that helps too.

Overall, though, Rush in Rio is probably the one I watched the most. Incredible vibe and performance on that one...might sound a little rougher (not surprising, given the circumstances) but, man, the energy on that one and the whole feedback loop with the audience...amazing stuff. Also, the documentary! I mean, as Rush has become "cool" (sort of) in the last decade and a half or so, we got used to having more access (from a media perspective, I mean), but at the time the "Boys in Brazil" doc was a pretty unprecedented in-depth look at the life on that tour for Rush, with interviews that were funny and insightful. Watched it many times.

R30 was very cool too, and sounded great. Didn't care for the Feedback tunes too much, though.

Interestingly, despite the fact that S&A is far from being a favorite, I think S&A Live is excellent - in fact, I'd dare say the performance captured on it is close to peak "new millennium" Rush (as least from the perspective of what I witnessed). Also, Geddy's vocals are still very good there - and unfortunately took a bit of a nosedive after that...

...which I guess brings me to the more recent concert DVDs...excellent setlists all around, great gigs (the Clockwork Angels and R40 concerts I went to were unbelievably good)...but never quite grabbed me the same way. Same thing for Time Machine.

[RodrigoAltaf]

Speaking of Rush live releases, I have the Rush R40 Bluray box set and I plan on watching a couple of the concerts again in the coming weeks.

How would you rank all the different concert movies?

We have:

Exit... Stage Left
A Show Of Hands
Rush In Rio
R30
Snakes & Arrows: Live
Time Machine 2011
Clockwork Angels Tour
R40: Live

Um, that's a difficult one...I'm very fond of A Show of Hands, as I got that one on VHS when my Rush fandom was truly starting to explode. I'm also a big fan of the synth era, so that helps too.

Overall, though, Rush in Rio is probably the one I watched the most. Incredible vibe and performance on that one...might sound a little rougher (not surprising, given the circumstances) but, man, the energy on that one and the whole feedback loop with the audience...amazing stuff. Also, the documentary! I mean, as Rush has become "cool" (sort of) in the last decade and a half or so, we got used to having more access (from a media perspective, I mean), but at the time the "Boys in Brazil" doc was a pretty unprecedented in-depth look at the life on that tour for Rush, with interviews that were funny and insightful. Watched it many times.

R30 was very cool too, and sounded great. Didn't care for the Feedback tunes too much, though.

Interestingly, despite the fact that S&A is far from being a favorite, I think S&A Live is excellent - in fact, I'd dare say the performance captured on it is close to peak "new millennium" Rush (as least from the perspective of what I witnessed). Also, Geddy's vocals are still very good there - and unfortunately took a bit of a nosedive after that...

...which I guess brings me to the more recent concert DVDs...excellent setlists all around, great gigs (the Clockwork Angels and R40 concerts I went to were unbelievably good)...but never quite grabbed me the same way. Same thing for Time Machine.

I think it was a case of diminishing returns when releasing a live DVD (or Blu-Ray) became the norm in the music business. Clockwork Angels and R40 are excellent in their own way, although Ged's voice was really rough on both. But by the time those two were released, I was saturated with these all-encompassing releases. There are moments of brilliance in all their live videos of course, but at least in my view, they became less special at every release.

[HOF]

I love R30, but the only other one I own or have seen is Rush in Rio and while it is an amazing setting I didn’t think the band sounded as good as on R30 and I haven’t watched it often.

[425]

I think it was a case of diminishing returns when releasing a live DVD (or Blu-Ray) became the norm in the music business. Clockwork Angels and R40 are excellent in their own way, although Ged's voice was really rough on both. But by the time those two were released, I was saturated with these all-encompassing releases. There are moments of brilliance in all their live videos of course, but at least in my view, they became less special at every release.

I appreciate the live DVD being a norm when it comes to an artist that's still releasing a lot of new music, so each release brings with it a fresh dose of material making its live debut.

When it's a band that's no longer releasing much new music, a string of live releases that significantly outnumber new studio albums can get wearying. That seems to have been the case with Rush in the 2000s and 2010s: Five of those live releases came out after Rush in Rio, which documented the Vapor Trails tour, to only two studio albums that came out in that time.

[pg1067]

Um, that's a difficult one...I'm very fond of A Show of Hands, as I got that one on VHS when my Rush fandom was truly starting to explode.

That's me, but with ESL.  It premiered on MTV in February 1982.  That was before we had MTV, but they showed the Tom Sawyer and Red Barchetta videos from ESL pretty regularly.  ESL was released on VHS in July 1983, but it was really hard to find.  I recall looking for a while and eventually finding a store that had to special order it for me.  I think it took more than a month to get it, and I played the shit out of that thing.  The parents of one of my best friends would go away for the weekend sometimes, so we'd get together at his house and drink beer and watch videos like this.  ESL was heavy rotation for us.  Eventually the "door" on the videocassette housing broke off, but it would still play.  I got a new VCR that wouldn't play it because the door was missing, so I bought a blank tape and did a "transfusion" of the tape into a new housing.  Very delicate operation, but the patient survived.  I was relieved when it was finally released on DVD as part of Replay X3 (my GUP and ASOH videocassettes were in much better condition on account of FAR less frequent playings).

[King Postwhore]

I still have the VCS tape of ESL. I just don't have a VCR to play it on anymore. 

[Mladen]

This one and the Maiden show that would become the Rock in Rio release were my two best concert experiences ever, and I doubt anything else will top them...

You basically attended my two favorite shows ever recorded for a DVD. Awesome stories, man. 

[Architeuthis]

While we're on this topic,  this is the best footage I've ever seen from the Presto tour.  For some reason, the song order got changed and most of the Presto songs are after the 33 minute mark.   Alex kind of botches Superconductor.. 
  https://youtu.be/E3747b6c5nQ

[Zydar]

That's a great concert video I stumbled upon myself 

[Architeuthis]

Neil seemed to be supercharged on the Presto tour.  That was the best drum sound I ever heard from Rush followed closely by R30. 

[Stadler]

Neil seemed to be supercharged on the Presto tour.  That was the best drum sound I ever heard from Rush followed closely by R30.

I saw that tour, and live you're right.  I went back and listened to Presto the album for the ranking and was shocked to hear how thin it sounded.   I even checked my EQ settings.

[HOF]

Neil seemed to be supercharged on the Presto tour.  That was the best drum sound I ever heard from Rush followed closely by R30.

I saw that tour, and live you're right.  I went back and listened to Presto the album for the ranking and was shocked to hear how thin it sounded.   I even checked my EQ settings.

Oh, Presto is famously thin sounding, and that’s the one flaw in an otherwise amazing album. Someone here (Glasser I think) worked some audio magic on it and posted links to the files awhile back. What I heard sounded amazing. I wish they would get someone to do a full remix of this one because it really could use it.

[Nick]

Neil seemed to be supercharged on the Presto tour.  That was the best drum sound I ever heard from Rush followed closely by R30.

I saw that tour, and live you're right.  I went back and listened to Presto the album for the ranking and was shocked to hear how thin it sounded.   I even checked my EQ settings.

Oh, Presto is famously thin sounding, and that’s the one flaw in an otherwise amazing album. Someone here (Glasser I think) worked some audio magic on it and posted links to the files awhile back. What I heard sounded amazing. I wish they would get someone to do a full remix of this one because it really could use it.

If recent history is any indication the best we can hope for is the original mix on 4 different formats with extra artwork boxed up for about $250.

[Orbert]

Nah, if they remixed Presto they'd compress the fuck out of it and it would end up sounding brickwalled like the last couple of albums.  Because that's how it's done these days, apparently.

Presto is rather thin-sounding, but I'd rather have the space and be able to hear the instruments.  I can bump up the midrange on my stereo if I have to.

[King Postwhore]

I'll guess it could never be bricjwalled because it wasn't recorded at the levels as musuc in the 2000's.