Rush - final show Saturday?

I also saw them in Phoenix and agree completely about it being a great performance. I've seen them each time they've been to Phoenix over the past 10 years and the other night was really something special. Geddy sounded the best I've heard him in a long time, and all three of them were in top form on their instruments. I loved it and feel very fortunate that I was able to be there. I also get the feeling it may be the last time. If so, they gave us an incredible memory to finish on.

 

I am so thankful to have seen them on these tours: Moving Pictures '81; Grace Under Pressure '84; Roll the Bones '92; Vapor Trails '02; and finally Time Machine '11. The original Moving Pictures tour in 1981 is probably my favorite concert.....ever...out of the more than 100 I have seen during my life. They were amazing and the sound at the Met Center in Bloomington, MN that night was spot on!

 

I have seen them 4 times over the years. The show in Portland 10 days ago was easily the best and was truly amazing.

 

If they want to retire from touring, I'm OK with that. They've earned it and Neil should really spend as much time with his family as possible. I do hope they continue putting out albums though.

 

Wow, so the consensus here seems to be that this current tour finds them performing better than on other recent tours. I've read the same sorts of comments and reviews on the Ticketmaster website. Maybe it really is THE END. They'll never come out and say it though, being the polite and unassuming Canadians they are.

I read something recently where Ray Daniels said something like, "The next time I try to get these guys out on tour, I'll be talking to 65 year olds." He also said that Neil and Alex are very much every year their age, but it's Geddy who's fortunate enough to feel 10 years younger than he is.

 

Love to see them do some shows at Massey Hall next June for the 40th
anniversary of the All The World's A Stage album.

 

I'll be savoring every moment of tomorrow night's show.

"Freeze this moment a little bit longer..."

 

Trying to look on the bright side, there are several possible replacement strategies for touring. They could:

1 - Perform/film a small number of shows after recording each new album and release a DVD and/or live album from the shows (as they have been doing between all their studio albums in this millennium so far).

2 - Start releasing live albums from previously undocumented tours to fill in the gaps from the era when every fifth album was live, as opposed to now when every other album is live.

3 - I'm not sure this would work multiple times but they could certainly do it once - film and release a making of DVD release documenting the writing/recording sessions for one of their future albums that won't be supported by a tour.

Any other ideas?

 

Those are all good ideas. Hope they do all that... plus keep playing as much possible.

 

I'd like them to do a killer album before they retire totally and I think Steven Wilson as producer would really push them and bring out interesting ideas.....

 

They hinted at doing "residencies".

Given the length of rehearsals needed, I find it hard to believe they would do "short" tours. Staying in one city for a couple weeks takes travel out of the equation and fan can make the trek to see them.

 

Let's hope so.

 

Really, never? That's surprising. And a bit sad. Do they not have much of a following there for some reason?

 

From 2012...

 

So Rush in Vegas. Right next to The Beatles Love

 

I saw them in Irvine the other night. Yes Geddy sounded the best he has in years. It wasn't a perfect show, but they seemed to be swinging for the fence with every song. This is not band who just showed up to collect a paycheck and went thru the motions. They seemed passionate and were giving 100%. I've seen them about 10 times and its the most focused they've been in years.

I haven't seen anyone comment about how Alex and Geddy were changing guitar and bass for almost every song, especially in the first half of the show. I've never seem them do this to the extreme they were Thursday night. I assume they've been doing it the entire tour.

 

Funny as i'm not a huge Rush fan, but i know a LOT of people who are, due to the fact they've never toured here. I think they could average 5000 people a show (small by their standards). If they just did Sydney and Melbourne you could double that.

 

Wow, your post is spot on man. It brought a tear to my eye.

I don't think it's truly the end for them. I think Geddy will probably do a solo album and tour which would be really cool IMO. He can probably play some nice theaters and do some eclectic deep cuts and cool rearrangements of some stuff. I think Rush still have another album in them also. I think they should take the U2 route and play a couple of major cities and just play multiple nights in the same arena. BTW I just saw U2 at their last 2 nights at Madison Square Garden and they were incredible also.

 

Caught this show last night at the Forum. Tremendous "going backwards in time" setlist and fun visual effects to go along with that theme. These three guys played with incredible energy, especially Lifson on guitar: that guy must be the most underrated guitarist out there.

Sadly, as with every time I have seen Rush going back to 1982, they had simply atrocious sound. Distorted, muddy, borderline unlistenable. The new Forum has some of the best acoustics in the country, so they really should have sounded as good as U2, the Eagles, Tom Petty, Phish or so many other bands who have rolled through. It's a shame because they put so much effort into their playing, and are so precise and meticulous...yet it's lost in a wall of mud.

 

In the Time Machine dvd I had the impression that Neil was playing in "safe Mode" (to not say that he dumbed down some parts). I think it's time to stop.

 

They'll be doing the odd "hometown" shows down by the lake.

 

How close were you to the stage? From all the videos the sound seemed ok. The Irvine show I was at was great sounding. Mixed well, clear. Could it have been a volume overload issue?

 

I caught the U2 tour in San Jose also, and I'm glad I went. A hard band not to like really under any circumstance, especially when they play their early stuff. I have to admit, I'm more into Rush though. I find Clockwork Angels more compelling than U2's latest album, although Songs of Innocence isn't half bad. I wouldn't have heard it as early as I did if they hadn't given it away on iTunes though.

I don't think Rush is completely over yet, but we'll see.

The sound at R40 in San Jose I thought was way too bass heavy in the beginning, but by the third song or so the mix was balanced just fine. The guy I was sitting next to noticed the same thing. I was in the cheap seats but directly across from the stage to the left a bit. As far as being too loud, I always use musician's earplugs anyway so that's never a problem for me.

 

For whatever reason, where you were physically seems to have had a large impact on sonic impressions. We saw the Philadelphia R40 show from the lower level on Geddy's side, fairly close to the stage, and talked about how disappointing the sound was - loud, but very indistinct. A few days later we saw the Madison Square Garden show from near the top of the building straight out from the stage, and it sounded incredible, with the instruments distinct and the vocals articulate.

I see an awful lot of shows, and it's unusual for a PA to display such characteristics, especially modern PAs. But I've seen a lot of comments like this about the R40 sound system. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times - depending!

 

I hope that this was not the last goodbye. I was out of state when Rush hit Denver on this tour, and I'll be kicking myself for years if this was truly my last chance...