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Rush, Time Machine
Jul. 3rd, 2010 08:00 pmI'm surprised that they're on tour. It seemed like they didn't used to like touring. At least Neil didn't. And this time, they don't even have a new album. They were in the studio in the spring, and recorded a couple of new songs. Geddy says they'll resume recording when the tour is over. Maybe they wouldn't have gotten the album released until fall, and then summer touring season would be over.
Not only are they touring in between albums, they developed a new stage show. The stage was decked out in steampunk, with a bit of alchemy. For the first time in about fifteen years, there were no washers or other large appliances onstage. Instead, Geddy had a "time machine" behind him. With sausages being extruded. Alex, instead of his usual wall of amplifiers, had three large amplifier-looking things. They were reminiscent of old-time console radios, with sci-fi accents. Does this mean that Alex was feeding his guitars straight to the board, like Geddy has been doing for many years? The wall behind them was one huge screen. They showed their usual videos, some new work, some on-stage video, or no video for many songs. Sometimes video of the band was surrounded by steampunk frames. I was amazed at the resolution of that screen.
I had had trouble logging onto the presale to buy tickets, so I was a little disappointed that our seats were so far back. We were near the back of the reserved seats, but I was happy that we were almost dead center. We had a great view. Rush fans are a dedicated bunch, and the crowd was a curious mix of old and young. The average age keeps going up, but there are always teens, twenty- and thirty-somethings there. There were several families around us. One family of four - mom, dad, girl, boy - all in various tour shirts from years past. A mother and her teenage son, a couple with a four year old girl (okay, that seems a bit young), and in front of us was a man and two (probably) nine-year-old boys. One of them was air-drumming during one song. Either he knew the song, or was good at air drumming in general. It was cute. The guy next to us shot some video. I hope he posts it on YouTube or something.
The set list: The Spirit of Radio (the perfect high-powered intro), Time Stand Still (for the Time Machine Tour), Presto, Stick it Out (hard rocking), Workin' Them Angels (overtime), Leave that Thing Alone (the most "different" of their instrumentals), Faithless, BU2B (a new song, Brought Up to Believe), Freewill (crowd pleaser), Subdivisions. Intermission. Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, YYZ, Limelight, The Camera Eye, Witch Hunt, Vital Signs, Caravan (new song), Love 4 Sale (drum solo), Closer to the Heart (with new acoustic guitar solo intro), 2112: Overture/Temples of Syrinx, Far Cry. Encore: La Villa Strangiato, Working Man (with extended reggae into).
The first thing that an astute reader will have noticed, is the second set includes all of Moving Pictures straight through. Aside from being a surefire way to get people to show up when there's no new album out (as if they needed the boost), there are a couple of songs that they don't play. They haven't played "The Camera Eye" since the Signals tour in 1983. They also played Vital Signs. I thought I had never heard them do that one, but I apparently did, as late as 1992.
There were the two new songs, that I hadn't heard. They've been out for a few weeks, but I hadn't gotten around to buying them. I was impressed with BU2B. Very heavy. I was not as impressed with Caravan. It was very heavy, but it seemed a throwback. Rush of 1974 would have creamed their pants if they'd heard this song. Alex followed up Neil's drum solo with a new acoustic solo, which led into "Closer to the Heart".
I thought Neil's drum solo was a little different. The first part, on his acoustic kit was very different. Instead of his usual rhythmic pounding, it was somewhat atmospheric. More like waves of sound. The second part, on the electronic kit, was all African and Asian sounds. I liked it a lot. The third part, was his usual (as of late) big band bash, with full orchestration on backup tape.
I really didn't care for Geddy's bass sound. He's getting harsher. He played a four-stringed Fender. He had a really hard attack, going for a funky sound, but it didn't suit much of their music well. It was a hammer and chisel, compared to the jacknife of most of their work (Alex has the scalpel). For the most part, it lacked musical tone. On top of that, it was too loud in the mix. Just plain too loud, really. The plonk actually bothered my ears on occasion. The drums and guitar seemed to be mixed well, but the bass sound was overpowering. The attack was too much, and the bass fill was too little. It wasn't just Geddy, I don't think - it was the sound crew too. It's kinda been brought on by the subwoofer culture. Too much bass oomph. You know that sound - less musical than simply percussive. Boom... boom... boom... It's kinda cool if used properly, but for a band like Rush it can become annoying.
On the other hand, Geddy's voice sounded great. He's really becoming a better singer. Yes, for you anti-fans, you still wont like the sound of his voice, but he's definitely been working on his voice. And he can still hit some high notes. Not all of them, but I thought he did really well. Geddy didn't seem to be in a very good mood. He wasn't smiling or clowning around like he usually does.
Alex seemed to be his usual self, save for the lack of goofing around with Geddy. There were two songs where either his guitar didn't work, or he had the wrong one, and he had to run offstage and grab a new one.
My favorite songs from the set list are "La Villa Strangiato" and "The Spirit of Radio". La Villa seemed a little loose for my taste. "Far Cry was one of my favorites of the show. I wasn't all that excited by "Tom Sawyer" (as usual), and "Red Barchetta" didn't thrill me (unlike usual). "The Camera Eye" was enjoyable. I'm guessing the reason the band hasn't wanted to play it is that it's long and a little dull, but I like it a lot.
The films... The intro film was pretty good. Who writes these things? Geddy played a way-over-the-top, old-time Jewish sausage store owner. Neil was an Irish cop, and Alex was an enormous eastern European... inventor? It involved a Rush-like trio of kids (playing "Tom Sawyer" on drums, tuba and accordion), and a time machine that changed the style of music they played. Damn funny. The into to the second set involved a similar group of people shooting a video. They had another film at the end of the show. Two uber nerds got into the band's dressing room after a show, and the band came in, and... hilarity ensued. Okay, this one wasn't all that funny. After that, there was a recorded version of "Closer to the Heart" played by the band in Polka style. It seemed almost like it was made for Milwaukee. :-)
Not only are they touring in between albums, they developed a new stage show. The stage was decked out in steampunk, with a bit of alchemy. For the first time in about fifteen years, there were no washers or other large appliances onstage. Instead, Geddy had a "time machine" behind him. With sausages being extruded. Alex, instead of his usual wall of amplifiers, had three large amplifier-looking things. They were reminiscent of old-time console radios, with sci-fi accents. Does this mean that Alex was feeding his guitars straight to the board, like Geddy has been doing for many years? The wall behind them was one huge screen. They showed their usual videos, some new work, some on-stage video, or no video for many songs. Sometimes video of the band was surrounded by steampunk frames. I was amazed at the resolution of that screen.
I had had trouble logging onto the presale to buy tickets, so I was a little disappointed that our seats were so far back. We were near the back of the reserved seats, but I was happy that we were almost dead center. We had a great view. Rush fans are a dedicated bunch, and the crowd was a curious mix of old and young. The average age keeps going up, but there are always teens, twenty- and thirty-somethings there. There were several families around us. One family of four - mom, dad, girl, boy - all in various tour shirts from years past. A mother and her teenage son, a couple with a four year old girl (okay, that seems a bit young), and in front of us was a man and two (probably) nine-year-old boys. One of them was air-drumming during one song. Either he knew the song, or was good at air drumming in general. It was cute. The guy next to us shot some video. I hope he posts it on YouTube or something.
The set list: The Spirit of Radio (the perfect high-powered intro), Time Stand Still (for the Time Machine Tour), Presto, Stick it Out (hard rocking), Workin' Them Angels (overtime), Leave that Thing Alone (the most "different" of their instrumentals), Faithless, BU2B (a new song, Brought Up to Believe), Freewill (crowd pleaser), Subdivisions. Intermission. Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, YYZ, Limelight, The Camera Eye, Witch Hunt, Vital Signs, Caravan (new song), Love 4 Sale (drum solo), Closer to the Heart (with new acoustic guitar solo intro), 2112: Overture/Temples of Syrinx, Far Cry. Encore: La Villa Strangiato, Working Man (with extended reggae into).
The first thing that an astute reader will have noticed, is the second set includes all of Moving Pictures straight through. Aside from being a surefire way to get people to show up when there's no new album out (as if they needed the boost), there are a couple of songs that they don't play. They haven't played "The Camera Eye" since the Signals tour in 1983. They also played Vital Signs. I thought I had never heard them do that one, but I apparently did, as late as 1992.
There were the two new songs, that I hadn't heard. They've been out for a few weeks, but I hadn't gotten around to buying them. I was impressed with BU2B. Very heavy. I was not as impressed with Caravan. It was very heavy, but it seemed a throwback. Rush of 1974 would have creamed their pants if they'd heard this song. Alex followed up Neil's drum solo with a new acoustic solo, which led into "Closer to the Heart".
I thought Neil's drum solo was a little different. The first part, on his acoustic kit was very different. Instead of his usual rhythmic pounding, it was somewhat atmospheric. More like waves of sound. The second part, on the electronic kit, was all African and Asian sounds. I liked it a lot. The third part, was his usual (as of late) big band bash, with full orchestration on backup tape.
I really didn't care for Geddy's bass sound. He's getting harsher. He played a four-stringed Fender. He had a really hard attack, going for a funky sound, but it didn't suit much of their music well. It was a hammer and chisel, compared to the jacknife of most of their work (Alex has the scalpel). For the most part, it lacked musical tone. On top of that, it was too loud in the mix. Just plain too loud, really. The plonk actually bothered my ears on occasion. The drums and guitar seemed to be mixed well, but the bass sound was overpowering. The attack was too much, and the bass fill was too little. It wasn't just Geddy, I don't think - it was the sound crew too. It's kinda been brought on by the subwoofer culture. Too much bass oomph. You know that sound - less musical than simply percussive. Boom... boom... boom... It's kinda cool if used properly, but for a band like Rush it can become annoying.
On the other hand, Geddy's voice sounded great. He's really becoming a better singer. Yes, for you anti-fans, you still wont like the sound of his voice, but he's definitely been working on his voice. And he can still hit some high notes. Not all of them, but I thought he did really well. Geddy didn't seem to be in a very good mood. He wasn't smiling or clowning around like he usually does.
Alex seemed to be his usual self, save for the lack of goofing around with Geddy. There were two songs where either his guitar didn't work, or he had the wrong one, and he had to run offstage and grab a new one.
My favorite songs from the set list are "La Villa Strangiato" and "The Spirit of Radio". La Villa seemed a little loose for my taste. "Far Cry was one of my favorites of the show. I wasn't all that excited by "Tom Sawyer" (as usual), and "Red Barchetta" didn't thrill me (unlike usual). "The Camera Eye" was enjoyable. I'm guessing the reason the band hasn't wanted to play it is that it's long and a little dull, but I like it a lot.
The films... The intro film was pretty good. Who writes these things? Geddy played a way-over-the-top, old-time Jewish sausage store owner. Neil was an Irish cop, and Alex was an enormous eastern European... inventor? It involved a Rush-like trio of kids (playing "Tom Sawyer" on drums, tuba and accordion), and a time machine that changed the style of music they played. Damn funny. The into to the second set involved a similar group of people shooting a video. They had another film at the end of the show. Two uber nerds got into the band's dressing room after a show, and the band came in, and... hilarity ensued. Okay, this one wasn't all that funny. After that, there was a recorded version of "Closer to the Heart" played by the band in Polka style. It seemed almost like it was made for Milwaukee. :-)