Rush?

A true return to form, excellent album.

Rush were the first rock band I ever got into; I've been a fan since 1980, and I caught tours for every one of their albums from "Signals" to "Test for Echo".

As for the new album, it's probably the best of their Atlantic releases in my opinion, and I'll have to try and see them when they play here next month.

Cheers!

-Marc

I have from the first up to Signals on vinyl - and then later cd- - but didnt really like much after that. not sure why.

Farewell to Kings is still my favourite.

Well you can tell who the old man is here..have all there albums.. I still love the old "Caress of Steel/2112" stuff.. and like you Wolfie.. I was jamming Farewell to Kings with a friend last night! Just like Glenn's catalogue- Can't really pick a favorite. I bought Snakes and Arrows when it came out- love it, but when I heard it was to sound like the old Rush.. I was a little disappointed, only cause it wasn't quite as "Old" as I hoped! Great stuff though!

M.

I like snakes and arrows, but am still a bigger fan of "old" 2112 rush. snakes and arrows is not 2112, but still a nice piece of work.

I have followed Rush in a peripheral fashion over the years; I think my introduction to them was hearing Permanent Waves my senior year in high school. My brother, who is a drummer bought Moving Pictures when it was released and I do recall hearing it in the house; my two brothers and I shared the second floor of our house for a period in the early 80's.

But my real intro to Rush came when I moved to San Antonio in 1983. KISS 99.5 really championed them and dug deep in the catalog; they played some of their earliest shows in SA at a club called Randy's Rodeo. Neil Peart mentions this in his last book. I can remember hearing the live version of "By-Tor And The Snow Dog" from All The World's A Stage on Joe Anthony's Saturday night show....his show was killer! RIP Mister Anthony.

Rush has gone through phases; releasing a group of records and then summing them up with a live collection before moving on to their next sonic phase. Some of their releases are time marks for me; Power Windows was the first CD I bought back in 1986, Presto makes me flash on living in the Bay Area and Roll The Bones reminds me of living back in my hometown in the early 90's.

I bought Vapor Trails and listened to it a few times and then filed it; I wasn't sure what to make of it as it was almost their nod to a lot of the late 90's alternative music that clogged the radio. It also came on the heels of Neil Peart's personal tragedies of losing his daughter and wife in a short period of time. I had read things recently that the new CD was something of a return to "The Old Style"...whatever that means..I tossed aside any preconceptions and hiked down the hill to Circuit City to buy a copy and judge for myself. After buying the live Asia 2-CD set which left me somewhat unmoved, I needed some new blood!

It is impossible to assimilate a Rush CD in one listening but my initial take is that it sounds like the guys are actually enjoying themselves and they are still vital and have something to share. And that is pretty cool. I hope that when the day comes when it is no longer fun for them to work together that Geddy, Alex and Neil will bow out gracefully and they can always be proud of their recorded legacy.....

The new album is great but my two favourites are "2112" and "Fly by night".It would be great they could play in Spain.

Geddy Lee for me is probably the best living bass player. Some of you might have seen his picture on my MySpace page, and my habit of playing additional keyboards/synth via Midi Foot Pedals is obviously inspired by him!
Neil Peart is one of the world's greatest drummers, add the great Alex Lifeson and you get the dream team that is Rush.


I remember my first Rush moment very well, must have been in 1990 in the summer when Swiss Radio station DRS 3 had a Prog Rock Special on the whole day and played classic material from ELP, Genesis, Yes and all the usual suspects (John Miles' Music was on and The Beatles too!).
And then there was this unbelievably catchy, but still very proggy tune with complex rhythm- and time changes called The Spirit Of Radio by a group called Rush.
I bought a tape (yes, a cassette that is!) called Rock Aid Armenia on the next day at the supermarket that featured the very song. Anybody remember this?
My (older) brother later bought Permanent Waves on CD.
Needless to say that I became a big fan.

A couple of years later I had bought a handful of albums when the remastered CDs came out. So I switched to the remasters, which I now have all.
Ironically I have not heard a single note of Snakes and Arrows yet...... but it's on the list, of course!

Rush also have their place in my list of cancelled concerts.
I had tickets to their Munich show on the R30 Tour two years ago, but that gig was the only on the Tour that was cancelled (logistical reasons because of the DVD shoot in Frankfurt were stated).
Therefore I'm still waiting to see them live...

Christian

I used to be a huge Rush fan back in the moving pictures days. I haven't listened to them in a long time. I might have to check this out

"Snakes & Arrows" is very fine album and acoustic guitar sound is so beautiful.
I like it

My favorite album is "Permanent Waves". But I like all albums "Prest" and later as well.
I love RUSH because they don't retrace their way

RUSH haven't visited to play in Japan for 23 years.....

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RUSH haven't visited to play in Japan for 23 years.....

Wow ... I wonder why? Progressive rock is pretty big in Japan, aint it? I mean, just have a look at Dream Theater. They play Budokan when visiting Tokyo. Dream Theater isnt even in the same league as Rush.

Hopefully they will soon go to Japan!

I absolutely adore Rush .. i have all the albums on CD now ,, been into em since about 1980 .. but have they EVER toured Australia ?? the answer is NO !! it seems like the bigger a band gets on a global scale the harder it is to tour the show to *sarcasm* remote places like the land filled with Kangaroos and Dingoes !! so Geddy and Co .. i'll let you into Open Secrets , we in Oz think you should be on a Mission to get your asses down to Oz and .. Presto ! enlighten us for the first time ..i'll tell you what Hand over Fist that this place , the fans , the country itself is awesome in Available Light ! but ya know .. i think i'm wasting my time .. so it's Exit ... Stage Left ............... :p

Hi! & thank you, Arjen.

Quote from Arjen

Wow ... I wonder why? Progressive rock is pretty big in Japan, aint it? I mean, just have a look at Dream Theater. They play Budokan when visiting Tokyo. Dream Theater isnt even in the same league as Rush.

Hopefully they will soon go to Japan!

NO. Progrssive Rock is NOT big in current Japan.

On one hand, a lot of remix-CD and Paper case-CD of 70's prog rock are reissued very often. On the other hand, it's difficult to find albums of modern prog bands like The Flower Kings ,Spock's Beard, or so in CD shop. The modern prog band promorted properly in Japan recently is only Porcupine Tree, I think.

Many old prog fan buy only old prog rock. Young rock fan doesn't have good chance to know prog rock. Japanese prog rock scene seems be getting smaller now.

(I mention there are many good prog rock bands in Japan and some prog rock specialist shop have REALLY great product lineup.)

Dream Theater is categorized into Heavy Metal in Japan and they are supported by many of Heavy Metal fan.

Japanes fan base of RUSH is not so big as Dream Theater. I guess...the time when RUSH's introduction to Japan was a little late (maybe late of 70's) and Japanese press didn't evaluated them high in those days .So their name didn't spread to neither the prog rock fan nor the hard rock fan very much.

According to a interviews of a Japanese music magazines, Geddy and Alex said about Japan tour,
"The only problem is an expenses side. Our stage set is very huge and if many audiences don't gather, we can't take a profit."

There are many Japanese RUSH fan of coures, but it's not enough to make a plan "RUSH live in BUDOKAN". RUSH played a live at BUDOKAN in 1984 though...

So...RUSH should do the East Asian & Oceanian tour! Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Austrarlia, New Zealand...They would be welcomed there, gain money, and recover the cost of tour

I hope Glenn plans a Westside of Pacific Ocean tour as well...

I think that there was a time when just about any Western band could travel to Japan and be guaranteed sold out shows and instant adulation. UFO first toured there as unknowns and found instant success. The Deep Purple story is well known to all here and The Ventures toured there in the Sixties and actually recorded a live album there.

To the average rock fan, the Budokan has almost mythical stature but to the Japanese it was originally built as a hall for martial arts events and also as a war memorial. The Beatles played there in 1966 under threats from those who felt that it was offensive for a pop band to play in such a hallowed place. And at a seating capacity of just over 14,000, anything less than a sellout generally spells a financial loss. For a band like Rush that has a huge stage set and tons of equipment, you can see why they are hesitant to take that risk.

And on a lighter note, Paul McCartney may be Sir Paul around the world but in Japan he is still persona au gratin for his trying to bring in a bag of marijuana through Customs in his luggage...not a good idea! UFO suffered the humiliation of "Mickey's Meltdown" in 1998 at the Sun Plaza and Paul Raymond once remarked that it was the worst possible place for that to happen given the culture. I might add that Mister Raymond has his own woes with immigration in Japan; he is not allowed to enter the country until sometime in 2008; it could be for overstaying his visa when he lived there in the late 80's and early 90's. Does anyone know if that is true?

Quote from Momo

According to a interviews of a Japanese music magazines,
Geddy and Alex said about Japan tour, "The only problem
is an expenses side. Our stage set is very huge and if
many audiences don't gather, we can't take a profit."

And nobody figured out that using a smaller stage set,
and renting amplifiers and other equipment, would be
the solution to this touring problem?

Quote

So...RUSH should do the East Asian & Oceanian tour!
Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Austrarlia, New Zealand......

I get a TV channel that broadcasts programs from South Korea.
(The Korean Boadcasting System.) Once a week they have
a televised concert; mostly Korean rock, with some covers of
"western" R&R sung either in Korean or English. In either case,
the fans know all the words, and are happily singing along.
I mention this series, because this show is always held
in a stadium that has to hold 50,000 people. (If not more.)
And the playing field is totally covered with seats too.
So it looks to me, that this would be a good (profitable) market.

And TOTALLY off topic.......
Anybody else besides me, watching the English sub-titled, Korean drama:

DAE JO YEONG
(Goguryeo / Korea versus Tang / China)

UN-FREAKIN'-BELIEVABLE!!!

Quote from Momo

According to a interviews of a Japanese music magazines, Geddy and Alex said about Japan tour,
"The only problem is an expenses side. Our stage set is very huge and if many audiences don't gather, we can't take a profit."

Hmmmm Well Rush ain't a cheap band and the Japanese promotors doens't want to take the risk of booking a expensive band and losing money. Its always the same story. Like Grace says: they can go with a smaller production to reduce costs and see how it goes.

Same here in Holland. Rush didn't play here (or Europe) since 1992. Finally they came and Ahoy Rotterdam was sold out in half an hour. All 10.000-11.000 tickets gone and these where expensive tickets haha! This was 2 years ago. Now there coming back next October and playing twice the venue.

I think it would be fair if they try the same in Japan. Im pretty sure Bodukan Hall will be sold out