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How about playing some tunes that we never hear live, rather than the same setlist for every new live album. The Replay DVD set was practically ruined by Alex. What about songs like Losing It, Camera Eye, Countdown, etc.
Rush isn't The Dead, they don't improv much or change song structures around. Also, the mix on all the audio that Alex seems to get involved with seems to end up muddy and over compressed. Other than the new album material, we've heard ALL of these songs on other live albums, and that sucks.
Would love to hear those for ONCE. So hearing the same songs played the same way time and time again gets OLD. About as OLD as these guys feel at this point.
Perhaps you need to get another engineer involved. :(
Rush used to release a live album every four studio albums, but starting with 1998's DIFFERENT STAGES they've been issuing live recordings left and right. There are a few exceptions, namely the instrumentals, which are not perfect but nonetheless enjoyable. It would be unreasonable to expect him to hit the strident high tones of the band's 1970s output, but it seems like he's even approximating the pitches of fairly recent songs. Unfortunately, the result The most immediately apparent flaw is the sound quality. The band brought a few neglected gems out of their catalogue, such as "Digital Man" and "Between the Wheels", and they play plenty from SNAKES AND ARROWS, which is a pretty strong album. SNAKES AND ARROWS, while not a shining example of balanced mixing, nonetheless rose above the "loudness wars" catastrophe of VAPOR TRAILS. I've found this practice dubious, but nonetheless I picked up SNAKES AND ARROWS LIVE, a document of two concerts in Rotterdam in the autumn of 2007. The second killer is the quality of Geddy's voice.
Unfortunately, SNAKES AND ARROWS LIVE drops us almost all the way back to a pit of no dynamic range, compression, and aural fatigue. Alex Lifeson had a hand in mixing this, and I wish he hadn't, as he turns almost every recording he manages into a slurry. Certainly his voice has declined since I last saw the band live in 2002.Had I actually gone to the concert and had the whole live experience--or at least were watching the DVD on a home cinema--instead of judging this merely from my stereo, I probably would have enjoyed this set a lot more. I can't recommend this unless you are a Rush completist.
Having attended seven Snakes & Arrows shows, many from the front row, I can personally attest to the sound fidelity that this recording brings to the concert listening experience. There is power in a well-engineered and not over-driven sound.Since I am guessing that there won't be many folks even looking at this that are not fans of RUSH my guess is that there is little to say beyond "this is a great recording of the concert and you should own it."
I bought this CD set as a souvenir of the tour, and whenever I give it a spin it takes me right back to that moment.I only hope Rush keeps on going for many more great years. The ultimate cult band, Rush was the soundtrack to the high school years of several generations of young men (including myself) and (less often) women.
Sure any band worth its salt can crank out a few decent singles for a few years. But will they still have anything important to say in ten years.
The true test of a band's greatness is its longevity in my humble opinion. This tour (which I was lucky enough to witness) provides proof to any that may still need it that Rush remains a force to be reckoned with.
Twenty. How about thirty.
Here the band rips into their classics with fire and energy, introduces some relatively strong new material, and does everything with that grain of salt that keeps them entertaining. To me, they are just as important now as ever.
This great album, now this not the best album that they've put out but its still a great album. The only problem i had with it was that they did not include red barchetta.
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