On Sunday night my buddies Hurl, Buzzard and I went to see the legendary Canadian nerd prog-rockers Rush play in Edmonton at Rexall Place. This was my fourth time seeing Rush perform live in concert. Rush are on tour for their excellent 19th studio album Clockwork Angels.
Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart played a two set three hour show to a crowd of 12,000 people. The first set of the night was made up mostly of songs from their 80's era catalog. Opening with 'Subdivisions' from their 1982 album Signals, also from that album was the song 'The Analog Kid'. The 1985 album Power Windows was covered extensively, with Rush playing 'The Big Money', 'Grand Designs', 'Middletown Dreams' and 'Territories'. One of the songs that they played in which I have always really liked was 'The Pass' from their 1989 album Presto. The only two songs they played that weren't from the 80's was 'Where's My Thing' from the 1991 album Roll The Bones and closing out the first set with 'Far Cry' from the 2007 album Snakes & Arrows. Geddy Lee and the boys were sounding good with Geddy playing both keyboards and bass and even jumping around bit, which surprised me considering some of the comments Geddy has made recently about touring saying how much energy it takes out of him to tour nowadays. Maybe because this was the last concert date for 10 days he had a little more energy then usual. I thought the drums were lost in the mix a bit at the start of the show, but that could have just been because of where I was sitting.
The second set of the evening started with Rush coming out on stage with an eight piece string section. Geddy Lee had said it was the first time in their career that they had performed with someone else other then him Alex and Neil. Rush opened with 'Caravan' from their latest release Clockwork Angels and proceeded wit the next eight songs all from the same album. My favorite song from the album 'Headlong Flight' was also played, and is one of their heaviest songs in a long time, that song kicked my ass. It's not often a band can come out and play almost their whole new album and still have the fans in the palm of their hands. Usually that's a good time to do a beer run, but not with Rush, the fans were loving the new stuff.
Of course the crowd went wild when they went into the song 'Tom Sawyer', probably their best known song and most played radio hit. Rush ended the show with three parts from the 2112 album, ending with 'Grand Finale' of course. This was an amazing show from start to finish.
Something else I noticed at the show was how busy the merchandise booths were through out the night. Constantly a line up and not a small one either, huge line ups at all the merch booths.
All and all a fun night. Good times!!!
Rush setlist for the Edmonton show.
Set One
1.Subdivisions
2.The Big Money
3.Force Ten
4.Grand Designs
5.Middletown Dreams
6.Territories
7.The Analog Kid
8.The Pass
9.Where's My Thing?
10.Far Cry
Set Two, with string section
11.Caravan
12.Clockwork Angels
13.The Anarchist
14.Carnies
15.The Wreckers
16.Headlong Flight
17.Halo Effect
18.Wish Them Well
19.The Garden
20.Dreamline
21.Drum Solo
22.Red Sector A
23.YYZ
24.The Spirit of Radio
Encore:
25.Tom Sawyer
26.2112 Part I: Overture
27.2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx
28.2112 Part VII: Grand Finale
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