Monday, May 6, 2013

Rush Concert Review




At this point in their careers, Rush can do pretty much whatever they want....and they do.

They've done the greatest hits tour.  They played "Moving Pictures" in its entirety on the tour that stopped in Greensboro a couple years ago.  So on the "Clockwork Angels Tour" stop that visited PNC Arena Friday night, the band had no problem playing a slew of songs from the terrific new album and saving the hits for the end.  But it was a risky play.

There was much to love about the show.  The massive video screen was so high def and impressive, you couldn't help but stare up at it despite the face that the band (the real thing!) was there on the stage to watch.  There was a string section in the second set that played with terrific precision and energy and worked well with the new material and naturally you had the obligatory mind numbing drum solos from Neil Peart.

That being said, the band lost the crowd for some time.  When they finally tore into "YYZ" nearly three - yes, three - hours into the show, it was like the audience had woken from a deep slumber and was once again ready to party.  Firing right from that into "Spirit of Radio" created bedlam.

Upon the show's conclusion with "Tom Sawyer" and the entire "2112" Overture, it was easy to look back on the show with both awesomeness and confusion.  Awesomeness because this band that has been at it for over 40 years sounds better than ever.  Confusion because, while the new material really did sound terrific, there needs to be a balance struck between trying out new things you're excited about and giving people that paid top dollar to see you what they came for.  The new tracks should have been interspersed with a hit every now and then to keep the crowd's energy up.

When it was all said and done, it was crazy to think  - after a 3 1/2 hour show - about the songs not played, including "Limelight", "Fly By Night", "Freewill", "Closer To The Heart", "New World Man", "Red Barchetta"....

Aside from an uneven setlist, Rush did score on the most important thing - a great performance.



Foster
Radio 96.1

*Alex Lifeson Photo courtesy of the News and Observer

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Foster, thanks for taking the time to post. However, I disagree with the interspersed theory. There are two interests to keep in mind here, the crowd, and the band.

From the band's perspective, if they're playing the same set each time, year after year, and maybe a new song or two, why bother? Put up a recording from 'Exit.. Stage Left' and 3 mannequins. Bringing back other, lesser known songs like The Body Electric keeps the band's interest peaked. As they've done tour after tour, the newer stuff starts to get interspersed as just part of their repertoire (See 'Rush In Rio').

I think there are, generally, two types of listeners: those who come just for the classics, and those who go for the whole show.

Those who just want to hear the classics are those who ran to the bathroom at the announcement that they are doing only one more song from the new album before getting back to the old stuff. When you intersperse, they're sitting there thinking how they can't wait to hear another classic.

For the other type, you get to hear what they're doing now. You get to be submerged into the new stuff, appreciating it for where the band is and grateful the band is still around after all these years. What if people complained about hearing the entire 2112 overture, when they really just wanted to hear 'I Think I'm Going Bald'? They'd have missed out ..

So, it's a little more than Rush just doing what they want. They have a model that works, and that's been proven time and time again. Whenever they do really retire, we'll miss hearing the classics live, but if this ends up being their last tour, I'll be glad to have gotten to hear most of their last album live.

(And, for the record, we didn't hear the 'entire 2112 Overture', just Parts I, II and VII. See http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/rush/2013/pnc-arena-raleigh-nc-63d80e07.html)

Alli said...

Don't get me wrong, Paul - I had no qualms about them playing the new material. I really enjoyed it and respect that they showcase it live. I just thought they should have spread out the hits. Even if they kept the song list the same, just throw "Spirit of Radio" and "YYZ" 5 songs apart in the middle somewhere, and save "Tom Sawyer" and "2112" for the end. Would have created better momentum for the crowd. - F