Edmonton was one of the 1981 shows recorded for Exit...Stage Left, along with Toronto, Montreal, and maybe Vancouver. They should have multi tracks of all four of those shows, presumably with a full Moving Pictures Tour setlist. They also recorded some of the UK shows on the 1980 Permanent Waves Tour, a couple of which showed up on Exit..Stage Left as well: A Passage To Bangkok, Closer To The Heart, and Jacob's Ladder. There should hopefully be multi tracks of those full shows in the archive as well.
I just knew there was more than one show for the 1981 tracks on Exit...you can tell by the tonality in Neil’s snare. And it sounds like one or two songs were pieces together from different performances Definitely two or three 1980 UK shows were recorded.
My box showed up on Friday and I have been listening to the set all weekend. The Blu-ray is a real treat - I generally don’t care for 5:1 re-do’s but this great. I play through my family room setup - PS4, Yamaha receiver & Monitor Audio speakers. A lot of rear channel sound to make you feel like you’re in the center of it all. The vocals are incredibly clear and up front. As others have stated, lots of separation and detail. Cygnus is the highlight in this format. I haven’t played the records...mostly because I am so content with the recent Maghee release. I will get around to spinning these, though. I burned the live set and the other band versions. Alain Johannes’ version of Madrigal almost sounds like The Beach Boys did the music. Dream Theater plays great music but the vocals are the weak spot. I also sort of enjoy the other two cover tracks - just sort of fun to look at the songs from a different perspective. Overall a great package! The liner notes are excellent. New interviews and a great lead essay can be read here: Rush: A Farewell to Kings Fortieth Anniversary - Album Lyrics and Liner Notes . Enjoy!
I do believe the vinyl was pressed from Sean Magee's 2015 cut, so it should sound the same, broadly speaking.
Sh-t, I didn't even know there was an Edmonton recording from the Moving Pictures tour...I gotta track that down!
Exit Stage Left recording dates: Recorded June 10–11, 1980 at The Apollo, Glasgow, Scotland (Side 2) the rest: March 27, 1981 at The Forum, Montreal, Canada
The rest can’t possibly be only the 3/27 Montreal gig, because the songs on the album simply don’t match the video versions, except for Red Barchetta
Got the super deluxe box at the weekend. It's quite expensive but had store discount burning a hole in my pocket! It's a lovely package. The blu ray sounds great and much better than the HFPA blu ray which i also have. I haven't had a vinyl version previously so can't compare with anything.. but imho this new record (only listened to main album only so far) is a winner.
I wasn't sure where I read about the other MP tour dates recorded, and it turns out its from a Geddy Lee interview in the Rush bio called Visions: "We plan on mixing the dates from last year's English tour and the material from Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Edmonton. On this tour, we wanted to record some dates from the beginning of the tour when we were fresh, and some dates towards the end to see the differences and confidence of our playing." Sorry this is getting off topic.
IMHO not exceptional, but still listenable. They could've mixed it better. It feels like "Let's put Alex on the left channel, Geddy on the right, and Neil on center. Mix done.".
Ok here goes: I didn't like the sound of the 78 live disc on this new set. I prefer the Different Stages mix and I think the new CD sounds harsh, to my ears at least. I have yet to listen to the vinyl counterpart though. The good thing is, now that Amazon delivered me a replacement box (that actually includes vinyl discs 3&4 i.e. not missing) I can actually do that
Actually, Neil wrote in the MP tour book that several shows at NYC’s Palladium were recorded in May 1980. A live LP was originally planned to come out after PW. Cliff Burnstein urged them to go back into the studio, which fostered MP.
Live At Leeds is mixed like that, where the mix supports how The Who visually appeared on stage from the audience’s perspective. Different Stages is mixed in that fashion.
Rush: Moving Pictures Tour Book Sounds to me like they were at the Palladium when it was decided that they wouldn’t do a live album yet. But they had already made plans to record in the UK a month later and couldn’t scrap those plans. Either way, I would give my first born for a time machine trip back to the Palladium in May 1980!