Tag Archives: alltheworldsastage

By-Tor and the Snow Dog

OK, so from a technical point of view, how do they do all those effects?  At times it sounds like there are about 8 people up on that stage, and this all sounds pretty sophisticated for 1976.  I guess it’s actually normal for that time – this is the era of Prog, after all, but it still sounds pretty accomplished from here.  The live version of this is just as riveting as the original, and appears to have even more drums on it, if such a thing were possible.

In The End

I had actually forgotten this was on here. By now Geddy’s voice is sounding a little mellower – feeling the effects of an evening at full stretch, perhaps?  The introduction is positively laid-back, and then – “One, two, buckle my shoe”  – it’s on with the main event.  Now, this is definitely slower than the recorded version.  It sounds pretty menacing in places – and long, too.  A bit of a tour de force, this – I think I prefer it to the original.

Working Man / Finding My Way

We must be nearing the end, now – round things off with a couple of old favourites which they can play in their sleep by now.  Amazing to listen to the drums on this now – Neil’s playing takes this into another league – much more of a showcase for the whole band than just a guitar workout.  The instrumental passage is bubbling along nicely, then falls over the edge of a cliff into ‘Finding My Way’ – neatly done, and so is the climb back up into ‘Working Man’.  It all fits together really well, and just when you thought it was all over…

…”Ladies and Gentlemen, The Professor on the drumkit”.  I remember the first time I heard this; I was (and remain) blown away – every band has to allow the drummer a solo, none – I mean none – of them come even close to this for musicality and sheer joy of playing.  I keep expecting to hear blasts of horn, but this early version of the classic Peart solo has everything else, including the seeming ability to play four different rhythms at once.  Short, sharp and to the point, this leaves us wanting more (but then, all Neil’s solos leave me wanting more…)

Thank you.  Goodnight (then of course there’s an encore):

What You’re Doing

Yes, we’d like a little more, thanks – a quick blast through what now sounds like an old blues standard, and it’s all over, bar the offstage noises, which make me laugh out loud, because I’d completely forgotten about them.

Summary:

That was a blast – haven’t heard it in ages, but it’s a real snapshot of the time; halfway between gigging out of the back of a van, and full-length stadium tours, the guys have all the stagecraft, and seem to be really enjoying their day jobs.  Incidentally, I know it’s traditional to see this as the punctuation between phase one and phase two of the Rush career, but I tend to see Rush studio albums in groups of three, so this comes a third of the way through phase 2 for me – I can hear a difference between the ‘2112’ tracks and the others – but either way you look at it, this is a great live album – one of the best.

Bastille Day

“Would you please welcome home…”  That always sounded cool to me – imagine coming back to your hometown, triumphant, selling out huge venues where you used to play to a handful of friends and family.  First impressions – it’s tight, well-practiced – good opener, you need something to grab people from the off, and this will do nicely.  The balance of instruments is good live – just as I suspected it would be when I reviewed the studio version – I’m sure there are effects and so on to come, but this is just three guys doing their thing.  One thing – why do all crowds everywhere always feel the need to yell out into any silence?  Just asking.

Anthem

Woah; Geddy speaks!  I remember this being the first time I’d hear his speaking voice.  Now, I’m not sure whether I prefer my live performances to be full of chat to the audience or not; I think that in Rush’s case, the music kind of speaks for itself, but it’s good to hear some information about a song sometimes.  Must be hard, though, to play shows for months on end and still find something interesting to say about anything.  The song is fluid and pretty faithful to the original – I imagine this is a point of pride for these guys at this stage.

Fly By Night / In The Mood

Barely a pause for breath here – straight on with the show.  What I’m hearing here is the bass sound – I wonder how difficult it is to concentrate on those bass lines while singing.  Even by this point, I suppose Geddy’s had enough practice!

Abrupt change for In The Mood – somehow, it works, but the juxtaposition is a little awkward – these two songs are not exactly natural bedfellows, are they?  Of course, the drumming stands out as different from the original, but not hugely so – it just couldn’t be anyone else.

Something For Nothing

And the contrast with this is quite dramatic – I’m trying to hear if this feels a little less well-rehearsed than the others, but it doesn’t.  I remember seeing bands in the past who were playing tracks from their new album which they seemed to be barely familiar with, but this just feels like an old friend.  It’s been pretty full-on up to now; the question is, how do they handle the change of pace which must be coming?

Lakeside Park

My previously documented ambivalence to this aside, this is pretty much the perfect song for this point in the proceedings – taking the pace down a little, using the introduction to let the audience as well as the band catch their breath, and it works better than I’d have thought – I think that the solo sounds more spontaneous than on the studio version, and the audience seem to be well into it.  I didn’t skip it this time, must be a good sign.

And at the end, I want it to go into Xanadu…

2112

… but obviously, it doesn’t.

How I remember the disappointment of realizing that this was not the full version – no Discovery?  At least, that’s how I remember it.  The overture is damned impressive; boy, these guys can really cut it live!  Syrinx is a lot less strident than the recorded version – you couldn’t really do that to your voice night after night, I suppose – and for me it’s all the better for it.  The segue into Presentation works pretty well, although the narrative loses quite a bit – it would all sound a bit odd if you hadn’t heard it before.  The vocal contrasts are handled well – is Geddy leaning away from the mic as the priest, lending a sense of distance to the proceedings?  Whatever, it works.

“The sleep is still in my eyes..” – listen to that rich baritone! Another section has been skipped, but with less damage to the story this time.  the final lyric is pure Robert Plant – never noticed that before.  And then the Finale, which seems slightly faster than I remember it – always a danger when playing live, I suppose – but it’s as creative and complex as ever, and really works in the live context.  Did they take a break in the show at this point?  I suppose they were young and fit back then; maybe there was no need…

I’m going to take a break, though – back in a moment.

All The World’s A Stage

A quick note from the future:  I’m not going to post individual song links for the live albums, I think.  Quite apart from it being somewhat of a pain to do, it will make the posts somewhat unwieldy, and probably not offer much in the way of illumination.

History

I love live albums.  I think I tended to buy live albums rather than compilations, since they were at least different versions of songs, and – to my mind, anyway – a better indication of what a band could actually do.  Also, there tended to be interesting stuff on them which you couldn’t get elsewhere – I’m a completist, remember?

This was the first live Rush album I owned (by the time Exit Stage Left came out, I already owned everything else), and for a time, it was my favourite Rush album.  After a while, though, I noticed that I didn’t play it much at all  – probably because I preferred the newer stuff, but also possibly because I think this is an uneven selection.  Looking at it now, it seems to me to be a record company-driven exercise in getting people to buy the back catalogue. (at the same time, I’m not sure that’s true, because I imagine this is a pretty faithful representation of the live show at the time.)  I’d love to know (yeah, I know – it’s on the web somewhere!) how much of the recorded show never made it on to vinyl; interesting to know what the full show was like.  Or maybe this is the full show – sets would have been shorter in those days, I guess.

Anyway, I’ve been debating with myself how to approach this – I’ve only just finished talking about most of these songs, so I think this will be slightly more cursory than usual.  I’ve got plenty to say about A Farewell To Kings, though, so that should make up for it.