Friday, July 21, 2006

Rush-Exit stage left, 1981

This was the band's second live album as the first was "All the world's a stage" (1976). This album contains Rush material from "Farewell to kings"(1977) through "Moving Pictures" (1981). Rush have gone through many different styles in their sound over the course of their long career. They went through a lot of style changes between 77-81, but I think it was some of their best material. I love their earlier stuff too because it's got an edge, but after "2112" they became a bit more refined, but I think they branched out a bit and most certainly grew as songwriters. So this live album captured the band during their 1981 tour and they were probably at their commercial peak during this time. These guys are by and large respected as musicians and there is good reason for that. I have unfortunately never seen them live, but they tend to have the reputation of being an incredible live band. I think this album serves in giving the listener a taste of what they do live, but I would imagination it's only taste. I think some bands have to do work to make their live sound better, but my bet is that Rush are overwhelming and live although I am not sure that they can totally be captured on a live album. Overall I think this is a solid album and one of the few live albums that I listen to fairly often. My favorite tracks are Spirit of radio, Red Barchetta, the Trees, Tom Sawyer and Xanadu.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would give my one good arm to see these guys live. I've seen their Rush in Rio dvd and the 30th anniversary tour video, and they blew me away. Tom Sawyer is my favorite song of all time, too. And I could sit there all night and just listen to Neil play, since I consider himn to be the greatest drummer I've ever seen or heard.

8:41 PM  
Blogger On My Watch said...

I've never seen them either nor do I know anyone who has, but you can't go wrong with these guys.

I love Rush. I love Spirit of Radio, as well as Freewill - oh, pretty much everything they have done. :)

5:05 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've seen Rush live a few times and they always deliver. You should really try to catch them next time they come around.

5:59 PM  
Blogger David Amulet said...

Rush is a stunningly good band live. They play their monstrously difficult passages with apprant ease and always seem to have fun doing it.

Fred is right--do what it takes to catch them, even if we all agree it would have been nice to see them in the late 70s!

-- david

9:43 AM  

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