rush signals tour opening act

Rush Tour Dates and Setlists

Jump to a tour, album tracks never performed live, unreleased live songs, live songs only found on official videos, the early years.

"While our originals were naïve and crude at that stage, we knew that no one ever soared to the top playing cover songs (except Joe Cocker with his raspy soulful voice and so much charisma that you were happy to hear him sing the telephone directory). So, we compromised—always an ugly word for us even back then—by peppering our setlists with songs by impressive big-name artists, but only their deep cuts. That way we could have our cake and eat it too. We added songs like the Rolling Stones' version of the Buddy Holly classic 'Not Fade Away,' Procol Harum's 'Simple Sister,' Cream's 'Spoonful,' Led Zeppelin's 'Living Loving Maid' and eventually David Bowie's 'Suffragette City' (that one became a super popular bar song for us), all of which we'd reshape to make our own. For example, we played a fifteen-minute version of Junior Walker and the All Stars' 'Road Runner,' just jamming the hell out of it with an Echoplex-heavy solo courtesy of Alex. It worked, and we started getting booked a lot ." - Geddy Lee, My Effin' Life

RUSH Tour Dates

Rush tour setlists.

This was a very busy time for Rush. Originally planned for a December 1973 release, due to the OPEC oil shortage the debut album was eventually released in Canada on March 18, 1974. Only one show exists in its entirety with drummer John Rutsey on drums, when the band performed on Canadian Bandstand in early 1974 promoting the debut album at the Laura Secord Secondary School in St. Catharines, Ontario. Rutsey left the band in July due to health concerns, and Neil Peart joined the band on July 29th (Geddy's 21st birthday), two weeks before the start of their first U.S. tour. The setlists varied from show to show, as Rush honed their skills and performed possible songs for their second album, including Anthem, Best I Can, Fly By Night and In The End.

May 15, 1974: Laura Secord Secondary School, St. Catharines, Ontario (Canadian Bandstand) Need Some Love Before and After Best I Can I've Been Runnin (unreleased original) Bad Boy (Larry Williams cover) The Loser (unreleased original) Working Man In the Mood

August 26, 1974: Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, Ohio Finding My Way Best I Can Need Some Love In The End Fancy Dancer (unreleased original) In The Mood Bad Boy Here Again Working Man/Drum Solo What You're Doing Garden Road (unreleased original)

December 16th, 1974: Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, Ohio Finding My Way Best I Can What You're Doing Fly By Night Here Again Anthem Bad Boy Working Man In The Mood Drum Solo

Fly By Night Tour

Fly by night tour dates, fly by night tour setlists.

There are only two unofficial live recordings of this tour. Comparison between the first recording in Cleveland on April 7, 1975, and the later performance recorded in Toronto on June 25th, 1975, show only minor changes such as dropping the cover tune "Bad Boy", adding "By-Tor And The Snow Dog" and moving "What You're Doing" to the encore. April 7, 1975: The Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, Ohio Finding My Way The Best I Can What You're Doing Anthem Beneath, Between & Behind In The End Fly By Night Working Man In The Mood Need Some Love Bad Boy

June 25, 1975: Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario Finding My Way Best I Can Anthem Beneath, Between and Behind In The End Fly By Night By-Tor and the Snow Dog Working Man Drum Solo In The Mood Need Some Love What You're Doing

Caress of Steel (Down The Tubes) Tour

"We called it the 'Down The Tubes Tour', we joked about it among ourselves. By the end of the that year we were unable to pay our crew's salaries - or our own." - Neil Peart, Classic Rock , October 2004

"Over the coming few months across the States we'd open for Blue Öyster Cult, Iron Butterfly, David Essex, Frank Zappa and the Mothers, REO Speedwagon, ELO, Kansas, Styx, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mott the Hoople, Ted Nugent - and KISS for the last time." - Geddy Lee, My Effin' Life

Caress Of Steel Tour Dates

Caress of steel tour setlists.

Before 1999, when a recording of the November 15, 1975 show first began circulating, fraudulent recordings of this tour were circulated, which accordingly led to the circulation of false setlists. In addition, for many years rumors spread regarding the setlist of Rush headlining in Toronto on January 10, 1976, from a soundboard recording supposedly in the possession of a Jean Weinrib who claimed to be the cousin of Geddy Lee. However, the existence of this recording is believed to be nonexistant and its setlist unsubstantiated, as Ian Grandy, a former member of Rush's road crew from that period, has stated that he never heard of any such cousin, and that the rumored soundboard recording does not exist.

November 15, 1975: Rockford Armory. Rockford, Illinois Bastille Day Anthem Lakeside Park The Necromancer By-Tor and the Snow Dog Working Man-> Drum Solo Encore: In The Mood

March 5, 1976: Randhurst Mall Ice Arena. Mt. Propect, Illinois Bastille Day Anthem Lakeside Park I Think I'm Going Bald By-Tor and the Snow Dog Fly By Night Working Man-> Drum Solo Encore: Finding My Way

2112 Tour Dates

2112 tour setlists.

March 26, 1976: Seattle, Washington Bastille Day Anthem Lakeside Park 2112 (minus Oracle) Fly By Night In The Mood Something For Nothing In The End By-Tor and the Snow Dog Working Man Finding My Way Drum Solo Encore: Best I Can

May 30, 1976: Nelson Center. Springfield, Illinois Bastille Day Anthem Lakeside Park 2112 (minus Oracle) Fly By Night In The Mood Something For Nothing By-Tor and the Snow Dog In The End Working Man Finding My Way Drum Solo Encore: What You're Doing

All The World's A Stage Tour

All the world's a stage tour dates, all the world's a stage tour setlists.

This tour marked the first time Rush toured Europe, and also the first to include keyboards and Moog Taurus pedals. It is believed to be the last tour they frequently varied their setlists; typical supporting and headlining setlists are below. The headlining setlist was very similar what was performed late in the 2112 tour. During the UK dates, an early version of "Xanadu" was added, while songs such as "Twilight Zone" and "In The End" were dropped. This is the last tour to include "Best I Can", and "What You're Doing" would not be heard again until the R40 tour 38 years later.

Supporting set: Bastille Day (dropped some nights) Anthem 2112 (minus Oracle) Lakeside Park (dropped some nights) Working Man-> Finding My Way-> Drum Solo Fly By Night In The Mood

A Farewell to Kings (Drive 'Til You Die) Tour

Opened For: Blue Oyster Cult, Bob Seger Opening Bands: UFO, Max Webster, AC/DC, Cheap Trick, Pat Travers, The Babys, Hush, Grinderswitch, Crawler, Uriah Heep, Jay Ferguson

A Farewell To Kings Tour Dates

A farewell to kings tour setlist.

This is the last tour Rush performed any shows as a supporting band. Although shows early in the tour featured a setlist with "Cygnus X-1" preceding "Something For Nothing", eventually those songs traded places and the setlist was standardized for the rest of the tour except for when "Anthem" was occasionally dropped. This is the last tour to include the song "Fly By Night", and "Lakeside Park" would not be heard again until the R40 tour 37 years later.

Bastille Day Lakeside Park By-Tor and the Snow Dog (abbreviated)-> Xanadu A Farewell to Kings Something For Nothing Cygnus X-1 Anthem Closer To The Heart 2112 (minus Oracle) Working Man Fly by Night In The Mood Drum Solo Encore: Cinderella Man

Hemispheres (Tour of the Hemispheres)

"Between October '78 and June '79 we trundled around the globe, playing around 135 gigs, many of them with the same opening bands as before, as well as the Pat Travers Band, Judas Priest, Golden Earring and April Wine. We played so many shows (on one stretch, twenty-three in twenty-four days, travelling overnight from one to the next), that I'm sorry to say they're now a blur in the haze of whatever drugs or booze we consumed to get ourselves through." - Geddy Lee, My Effin' Life

Hemispheres Tour Dates

Hemispheres tour setlists.

This is the first tour to include "A Passage To Bangkok", thanks to technological improvements in the keyboard department which had prevented it from being recreated live in the past. Besides the usual shortening of "By-Tor", the second verse was also dropped from "Anthem". The setlist remained the same throughout this tour until "Circumstances" was dropped during the UK dates. In addition to "Circumstances", "Something for Nothing" and "Cygnus X-1" were dropped from the setlist for the remaining dates of the European tour.

Anthem (abbreviated) A Passage to Bangkok By-Tor and the Snow Dog (abbreviated)-> Xanadu Something For Nothing The Trees Cygnus X-1 Hemispheres Closer To The Heart Circumstances A Farewell to Kings La Villa Strangiato 2112 (minus Oracle) Working Man Bastille Day In The Mood Drum Solo

Permanent Waves Warm Up (Summer Tour '79)

Opening Bands: Hot Mama Silver, FM, Nantucket Band, Streethart, Wild Horses, Pat Travers, New England

Permanent Waves Warm Up Tour Dates

Permanent waves warm up tour setlist.

It is believed the setlist remained the same throughout this tour.

2112 (minus Oracle) A Passage to Bangkok By-Tor and the Snow Dog (abbreviated)-> Xanadu The Spirit of Radio (early version) The Trees Cygnus X-1 (minus Part 2) Hemispheres (minus Dionysus) Closer To The Heart Freewill (early version) Medley: Working Man-> Finding My Way (abbreviated)-> Anthem (abbreviated)-> Bastille Day (abbreviated)-> In The Mood (abbreviated)-> Drum Solo Encore: La Villa Strangiato

Permanent Waves Tour

Permanent waves tour dates, permanent waves tour setlist.

It is believed the setlist remained the same throughout this tour. This is the last tour to include the near complete performance of "2112" (minus "Oracle") until the Test for Echo tour 16 years later.

2112 (minus Oracle) Freewill By-Tor and the Snow Dog (abbreviated)-> Xanadu The Spirit of Radio Natural Science A Passage to Bangkok The Trees Cygnus X-1 (minus Part 2) Hemispheres (minus Apollo & Dionysus) Closer To The Heart Beneath, Between and Behind (abbreviated) Jacob's Ladder Medley: Working Man (abbreviated with reggae intro)-> Finding My Way (abbreviated)-> Anthem (abbreviated)-> Bastille Day (abbreviated)-> In The Mood (abbreviated)-> Drum Solo Encore: La Villa Strangiato (electric guitar intro)

Moving Pictures Warm Up Tour (Fall 1980 Tour)

Opening Band: Saxon

Moving Pictures Warm Up Tour Dates

Moving pictures warm up tour setlist.

2112: Overture/The Temples of Syrinx Freewill By-Tor and the Snow Dog (abbreviated)-> Xanadu Limelight (early version) The Trees Hemispheres: Prelude The Spirit of Radio Closer To The Heart Beneath, Between and Behind Tom Sawyer (early version) Jacob's Ladder A Passage to Bangkok Natural Science Medley: Working Man (abbreviated with reggae intro)-> Finding My Way (abbreviated)-> Anthem (abbreviated)-> Bastille Day (abbreviated)-> In The Mood (abbreviated)-> Drum Solo Encore: La Villa Strangiato

Moving Pictures Tour

Moving pictures tour dates, moving pictures tour setlist.

2112: Overture/The Temples of Syrinx Freewill Limelight Hemispheres: Prelude Beneath, Between and Behind (abbreviated) The Camera Eye YYZ/Drum Solo Broon's Bane The Trees Xanadu The Spirit of Radio Red Barchetta Closer To The Heart Tom Sawyer Vital Signs Natural Science Medley: Working Man (abbreviated with reggae intro)-> Hemispheres: Armageddon-> By-Tor and the Snow Dog (abbreviated)-> In The End (abbreviated)-> In The Mood (abbreviated)-> 2112: Grand Finale Encore: La Villa Strangiato (electric guitar intro)

Exit...Stage Left Tour

Exit...stage left tour dates, exit...stage left tour setlist.

The setlist for this tour was nearly identical to the Moving Pictures tour, with "Natural Science" replaced by an early version of "Subdivisions". "Hemispheres: Prelude" and "Xanadu" were dropped from the setlist in Germany .

2112: Overture/The Temples of Syrinx Freewill Limelight Hemispheres: Prelude Beneath, Between and Behind (abbreviated) Subdivisions (early version) The Camera Eye YYZ/Drum Solo Broon's Bane The Trees Xanadu The Spirit of Radio Red Barchetta Closer To The Heart Tom Sawyer Vital Signs Medley: Working Man-> Hemispheres: Armageddon-> By-Tor and the Snow Dog (abbreviated)-> In The End (abbreviated)-> In The Mood (abbreviated)-> 2112: Grand Finale Encore: La Villa Strangiato (classical guitar intro)

Signals Warm Up (Deep South Spring Training Tour)

Opening Bands: Riggs, Krokus

Signals Warm Up Tour Dates

Signals warm up tour setlist.

This setlist was identical to the Exit...Stage Left tour with the exception of "The Analog Kid" replacing "Xanadu". This tour marks the last time "Beneath, Between and Behind" and "In The End" were played live. It would also be the last time "Hemispheres: Armageddon" would be played live ("Hemispheres: Prelude" would return twice more, on the Counterparts and R40 tours). Lastly, both "Working Man" and "By-Tor and the Snowdog" were not played until twenty years later on the Vapor Trails tour. T-shirts for this tour read "Spring Training 1982".

2112: Overture/The Temples of Syrinx Freewill Limelight Hemispheres: Prelude Beneath, Between and Behind (abbreviated) Subdivisions (early version) The Camera Eye YYZ/Drum Solo Broon's Bane The Trees The Analog Kid (early version) The Spirit of Radio Red Barchetta Closer To The Heart Tom Sawyer Vital Signs Medley: Working Man-> Hemispheres: Armageddon-> By-Tor and the Snow Dog (abbreviated)-> In The End (abbreviated)-> In The Mood (abbreviated)-> 2112: Grand Finale Encore: La Villa Strangiato (classical guitar intro)

Signals (New World Tour)

Signals tour dates, signals tour setlist.

This is the first time the "Three Stooges Theme" was used to open the shows; it would be used until the Presto tour and then return for one final time for the Vapor Trails tour. As demonstrated in numerous recordings, Rush had fun this tour, often changing the lyrics to some of the older songs such as "The Spirit of Baseball" and "The Plumbers of Syrinx" (with Lerxst adding additional vocals), and a short instrumental was played leading into "YYZ". For this tour, "The Camera Eye" was abbreviated such that only the "New York" or "London" section would be performed each night on a seemingly random basis. Although the setlist remained the same throughout most of this tour, "Chemistry" and "The Camera Eye" were dropped from the setlist in Germany , and although "The Camera Eye" was brought back for later dates, "Chemistry" was never played again.

"Shows open with a re-recorded version of the Three Stooges theme. 'It's not the original theme because they won't let you use that,' Lee explained. 'So I hired my friend, violinist Ben Mink, who's a musician extraordinaire and a very big Three Stooges fan, and we had him recreate the original version. The three hellos you hear at the beginning are the three of us talking to him on the phone.'" - United Press International, December 1, 1987

The Spirit of Radio (with "Three Stooges theme" intro) Tom Sawyer Freewill Digital Man Subdivisions Vital Signs The Camera Eye (abbreviated) Closer To The Heart Chemistry (dropped after 5/3/83) The Analog Kid Broon's Bane The Trees Red Barchetta The Weapon (with Count Floyd intro) New World Man Limelight Countdown Medley: 2112: Overture/The Temples of Syrinx -> Xanadu (abbreviated)-> La Villa Strangiato (abbreviated)-> In The Mood (abbreviated) Encore: YYZ/Drum Solo

Grace Under Pressure Warm Up Tour (Radio City Music Hall Five Night Stand)

Opening Band: Marillion

Grace Under Pressure Warm Up Tour Dates

Grace under pressure warm up tour setlist.

The setlist for these five nights at Radio City Music Hall to warm up for the recording of Grace Under Pressure was similar to the Signals tour, with early versions of "Kid Gloves", "Red Sector A" and "The Body Electric" replacing "The Camera Eye" and "Chemistry" (these same two songs had been dropped from the setlist in Germany on the Signals tour).

The Spirit of Radio (with "Three Stooges theme" intro) Tom Sawyer Freewill (9/19 only) Digital Man Kid Gloves (early version/moved to follow New World Man beginning Sep. 22) Subdivisions Vital Signs Red Sector A (early version) Closer To The Heart The Analog Kid The Body Electric (early version) Broon's Bane The Trees Red Barchetta The Weapon (with Count Floyd intro) New World Man Limelight Countdown Medley: 2112: Overture/The Temples of Syrinx -> Xanadu (abbreviated)-> La Villa Strangiato (abbreviated)-> In The Mood (abbreviated) Encore: YYZ/Drum Solo

Grace Under Pressure Tour

Grace under pressure tour dates, grace under pressure tour setlists.

Highlights of this tour include the then-complete "Fear" performed in sequence, which included "Witch Hunt" thanks to technological improvements in the keyboard department which had prevented it from being recreated live in the past. This is one of only three tours in which "Limelight" was not included in the set, either full time or as an alternate/replacement (the other two being the Presto and R40 tours). Setlist changes during this tour: for the first leg "Afterimage" followed "Closer to the Heart", and the Drum Solo was a medley with "Red Lenses". After the summer break "Kid Gloves" replaced "Afterimage", and the all new extended jam section was added to "Closer to the Heart". After a 10 day break, beginning October 18th the Drum Solo found its way back to "YYZ" as on previous tours, and a new bass intro and full bass solo were added to "Red Lenses". "Kid Gloves" was dropped from the setlist in Japan . For most of the tour a short Get Smart video was shown as the introduction to "New World Man", although during early dates it was shown as the introduction to "Vital Signs".

The Spirit of Radio (with "Three Stooges theme" intro) The Body Electric The Enemy Within: Part I of 'Fear' The Weapon: Part II of 'Fear' Witch Hunt: Part III of 'Fear' New World Man Between the Wheels Red Barchetta Distant Early Warning Red Sector A Closer To The Heart (with extended instumental break added beginning Sept. 14) Afterimage (replaced by Kid Gloves beginning Sept. 14) YYZ -> 2112: The Temples of Syrinx -> Tom Sawyer Encore: Red Lenses (bass solo added beginning Oct. 18) Drum Solo (moved to follow YYZ beginning Oct. 18) Red Lenses (reprise) Vital Signs Finding My Way -> In The Mood

Power Windows Warm Up Tour (Spring Training 1985)

Power windows warm up tour dates, power windows warm up tour setlist.

The setlist for these four nights in Florida to warm up for the recording of Power Windows was similar to the original early setlist of the Grace Under Pressure tour, with the addition of early versions of "The Big Money" and "Middletown Dreams", which replaced "Kid Gloves" (the same song was dropped during the Japan dates of the Grace tour).

The Spirit of Radio (with "Three Stooges theme" intro) Subdivisions The Body Electric The Enemy Within: Part I of 'Fear' The Weapon: Part II of 'Fear' Witch Hunt: Part III of 'Fear' The Big Money (early version) New World Man Between the Wheels Red Barchetta Distant Early Warning Red Sector A Closer To The Heart Middletown Dreams (early version) YYZ 2112: The Temples of Syrinx Tom Sawyer Encore: Red Lenses/Drum Solo Vital Signs Finding My Way In The Mood

Power Windows Tour

Power windows tour dates, power windows tour setlist.

Beginning with this tour, Rush began its practice which continued through the Test For Echo tour of fine tuning the setlist during the first few dates of the tour: "The Weapon" followed "Territories" and was only played the first two nights of the tour (and thus is not included in the below setlist); "Witch Hunt" was added the second night preceding "YYZ" and the sixth night of the tour would move up in the setlist to follow "Middletown Dreams", possibly due to their common use of electronic drums. Additionally, "New World Man" was apparently dropped from the last month of the tour; its last known performance was April 22, '86, and it would not be performed again until the Vapor Trails tour.

The Spirit of Radio (with "Three Stooges theme" intro) Limelight The Big Money New World Man (dropped sometime after 4/22/86) Subdivisions Manhattan Project Middletown Dreams Witch Hunt Red Sector A Closer To The Heart Marathon The Trees Mystic Rhythms Distant Early Warning Territories YYZ -> Drum Solo -> Red Lenses (abbreviated) Tom Sawyer Encore: 2112: Overture/The Temples of Syrinx Grand Designs In The Mood

Hold Your Fire Tour

Hold your fire tour dates, hold your fire tour setlist.

The Big Money (with "Three Stooges theme" intro) Subdivisions Limelight Marathon Turn the Page Prime Mover Manhattan Project Closer To The Heart Red Sector A Force Ten Time Stand Still Distant Early Warning Lock and Key Mission Territories YYZ The Rhythm Method (Drum Solo) Red Lenses (snippet) The Spirit of Radio Tom Sawyer Encore: 2112: Overture/The Temples of Syrinx La Villa Strangiato In The Mood

Presto Tour

"The Presto tour was a short one, intentionally, because we weren't so sure about touring anymore. And things worked out so well, we actually finished the tour and everyone was still smiling." - Geddy Lee, Rockline , May 15, 1992

"The backdrop we used for the Presto tour was an oversized reproduction of an antique carnival poster originally painted in oils that I found hanging on a wall in my friend Jason Sniderman's home and immediately thought would look terrific on our stage...flanked, of course, by two gigantic inflatable rabbits. (Jason played the superb piano work on Presto 's 'Anagram' and years later on 'The Garden' from Clockwork Angels ." - Geddy Lee, My Effin' Life

Presto Tour Dates

Presto tour setlist.

This is the last tour to include "In The Mood", and is one of only three tours in which "Limelight" was not included in the set, either full time or as an alternate/replacement (the other two being the Grace Under Pressure and R40 tours). In addition, the first third of this tour was the first to not include "The Spirit Of Radio" in the setlist since its inception; after its return it would remain in the setlist for the rest of their touring history. This is the first tour to include The Surfari's "Wipe Out" during the encore; it would also be included during the first leg of the Test For Echo tour. Setlist changes during this tour: "Superconductor" originally followed "Show Don't Tell", but they switched places after the first four shows. One-third into the tour (beginning 3/31), "The Spirit of Radio" replaced "The Big Money".

Force Ten (with "A Show of Hands" video intro) Freewill (abbreviated)-> Distant Early Warning Time Stand Still Subdivisions Marathon Red Barchetta Superconductor Show Don't Tell The Pass Closer To The Heart Manhattan Project Xanadu (abbreviated)-> YYZ The Rhythm Method (Drum solo) Scars War Paint Mission Tom Sawyer Encore: The Big Money (replaced by The Spirit of Radio 3/31) 2112: Overture La Villa Strangiato In The Mood Wipe Out

Roll The Bones Tour

"It was great being on tour with Rush. I really loved hanging with those guys and getting to know Alex Lifeson a bit. They're such pros, man. I learned a lot about touring and how to put on a show from watching them and their whole crew. They're seasoned veterans. Watching their entire operation was pretty eye-opening." - Eric Johnson, MusicRadar.com, December 16, 2010

Roll The Bones Tour Dates

Roll the bones tour setlists.

Performed on every tour since their release, "In The Mood" and "YYZ" were not included in the setlist for the first time ever; although this is the only tour to not include "YYZ", "In The Mood" was never performed following the Presto tour. Setlist changes during this tour: while not present the first few dates, "Ghost Of A Chance" was added after the first month of the tour. Beginning with the European leg a short "Cygnus X-1" teaser was added to close the finale (a practice which was brought back for the Test For Echo tour). Beginning with the Denver show, with less than a month left in the tour, "Subdivisions" and "The Pass" were dropped and "The Trees" was added, and as early as two shows later "Vital Signs" and "The Analog Kid" were also added in the slots previously held by "Subdivisions" and "The Pass"; these three songs would remain in the setlist for the remainder of the tour. During this final leg's performances of "The Trees", Alex regularly played a few notes similar to the Beach Boys' "Sloop John B", a treatment that would continue during the following tour.

Force Ten (with "A Show of Hands" video intro) Limelight Freewill (abbreviated)-> Distant Early Warning Time Stand Still Dreamline Bravado Roll the Bones Show Don't Tell The Big Money Ghost of a Chance (added 12/4/91) Subdivisions (dropped 5/27/92, replaced by Vital Signs beginning 5/31 or 5/29) The Pass (dropped 5/27/92, replaced by The Analog Kid beginning 5/31 or 5/29) The Trees (added 5/27/92) Where's My Thing? The Rhythm Method (Drum Solo) Closer To The Heart Xanadu (abbreviated)-> Superconductor Tom Sawyer Encore Medley: The Spirit of Radio-> 2112: Overture-> Finding My Way (abbreviated)-> La Villa Strangiato (abbreviated)-> Anthem (abbreviated)-> Red Barchetta (abbreviated)-> The Spirit of Radio (reprise)-> Cygnus X-1 (teaser, added as early as 4/29/92)

Counterparts Tour

"It was Primus that got us to bring back parts from 'Hemispheres'...they would jam at soundcheck with all this stuff and we'd stand at the side of the stage and laugh. We got very close with them and hung out a lot and they said, 'You know, you should bring some of that stuff back, it was so cool, it's what we grew up with...' So we figured, 'Yeah, ok!' We started messing around in sound check with bits and pieces from 'Hemispheres' and then brought it back on the [ Counterparts ] tour." - Alex Lifeson, A Show Of Fans #13, Winter 1996

"We had The Melvins open for us. I loved everything about them but their music". - Neil Peart, Vancouver Province , March 20, 1994

Counterparts Tour Dates

Counterparts tour setlists.

Dreamline (with "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" intro) The Spirit of Radio The Analog Kid Cold Fire (with Country music intro) Time Stand Still Nobody's Hero Roll the Bones Animate Stick It Out (with introduction by Lerxst) Double Agent Limelight Bravado (added 4/20/94) Mystic Rhythms Closer To The Heart (with member introductions by Lerxst) Show Don't Tell Leave That Thing Alone! The Rhythm Method (Drum Solo) The Trees Xanadu (abbreviated)-> Hemispheres: Prelude Tom Sawyer Force Ten YYZ Cygnus X-1 (teaser)

Test for Echo Tour

"Rush performed 47 shows between October 1996 and July 1997. Seven of those dates-again consisting of arenas and amphitheaters-were sold out. Tickets were in the $40-25 range, with gross ticket sales totaling almost $14 million. Total attendance was recorded at 481,364 people." - Billboard , June 22, 2002

Test For Echo Tour Dates

Test for echo tour setlists.

"No. You can't go back." - Neil Peart (when asked if Rush would ever again play the full version of "2112" in concert), Rush Backstage Club Newsletter , 1988

This was the first time Rush toured without an opening act; with the extra time available, "2112" was performed in its entirety for the first time ever (including 'Oracle'), "Natural Science" made a triumphant return after a fifteen year rest, and the "oldies" medley was dropped in favor of more complete songs. Following this tour, "Driven" and "Resist" (acoustic) would be played on the Vapor Trails tour, and "Resist" would also be played on the R30 tour. No other songs from Test for Echo would ever be heard again. Setlist changes during this tour: "Resist" and "Time and Motion" were both performed for the first two dates only; following these two dates, the band alternated these two songs from one night to the next (and as demonstrated in various recordings, both were introduced with a Scottish reference). After the first ten dates, "Time and Motion" was dropped completely in favor of "Resist" and the setlist remained constant throughout the rest of the tour. The Surfaris' "Wipe Out", last performed during the Presto tour, was brought back for the first leg of this tour as the second half of a medley with "The Big Money". On the second leg of the tour "The Big Money"/"Wipe Out" was dropped and replaced with "Limelight" and "Stick It Out"; "Subdivisions" was also dropped; "Red Sector A" moved up in the set to follow "Freewill".

Dreamline (with "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" intro) The Big Money (replaced by Limelight second leg) Wipe Out (replaced by Stick It Out second leg) Driven Half the World Red Barchetta Animate Limbo The Trees Red Sector A (moved to follow Freewill second leg) Virtuality Nobody's Hero Closer To The Heart 2112 (complete) (-Intermission-) Test For Echo Subdivisions (first leg only) Freewill Roll the Bones Resist (dropped 10/23,26,29/96 and 11/1,4,7/96) Leave That Thing Alone! The Rhythm Method (Drum Solo) Natural Science Force Ten Time and Motion (10/19-20, followed Roll the Bones on 10/23,26,29 and 11/1,4,7/96; completely dropped 11/9/96) The Spirit of Radio Tom Sawyer Encore: YYZ Cygnus X-1 (teaser)

Vapor Trails Tour

"Canadian power trio Rush will kick off its first tour in five years June 28 in Hartford, Connecticut...The tour is billed as 'An Evening With Rush,' and will not feature an opening act. Dates are expected to stretch into the fall and offer in the neighborhood of 30 songs each night..." - Billboard.com , April 15, 2002

Vapor Trails Tour Dates

Vapor trails tour setlists.

For this tour every album was represented except for Caress of Steel and Hold Your Fire . "Between Sun And Moon" was performed live for the first time ever. Returning to the setlist was "Cygnus X-1: Prologue" after a twenty-two year rest (not counting the short teaser performed on every tour since '92), both "Working Man" and "By-Tor and the Snowdog" after a twenty year rest, and "New World Man" after a sixteen year rest. The drum solo included a complete triggered big band sample of "One O'Clock Jump", which Neil had performed with the Buddy Rich Band on Burning for Buddy Vol. II . "Resist" was performed acoustically, the first acoustic performance ever to be included in the setlist. Notable omissions were "Closer To The Heart" and "Force Ten", dropped for the first time since their inceptions (although "CTTH" would be brought back for the final U.S. date as well as the dates in Mexico and Brazil).

Setlist changes during this tour: "Ceiling Unlimited" was alternated with "Ghost Rider" each night for the first four months of the tour until "Ceiling Unlimited" was dropped permanently late in the tour (after 11/1). Later in the tour, similar alternations began to occur when "Freewill" first replaced "Vital Signs" on Aug. 12 (VS replaced by FW on 8/12 then alternated; both VS followed by FW played 11/2 and 11/4, standard rotation back 11/6), and when "Between Sun and Moon" was replaced by "The Trees" for two consecutive shows, Sep. 20 and 21, and then began alternating each show thereafter (BS&M replaced by Trees 9/20 & 9/21 then alternated, both dropped 11/2 and 11/4, standard rotation back 11/6, both replaced 11/10 by CTTH). Eventually, there were two primary setlists, with few variations: 1) with "Between Sun and Moon", "Vital Signs" and "Ceiling Unlimited"; 2) with "The Trees", "Freewill" and "Ghost Rider". This second setlist, with the inclusion of "Closer To The Heart", would be performed all three nights in Brazil to close out the tour (CTTH original version was added 10/5, 11/20, 11/22, 11/23, replaced BS&M/The Trees on 11/10). The few exceptions to this practice occured in Mexico City 10/5, following "Freewill", Geddy said they had "a special gift" for the fans of Mexico, as they played "Closer To The Heart"; in Mancester, New Hampshire, 11/10, the final show of the North American tour, "Closer To The Heart" was played in place of "The Trees". Out of rotation, the band played the identical setlists 10/22 and 10/24 (which included "The Trees", "Freewill" and "Ghost Rider"); 11/1 was the final performance of "Ceiling Unlimited"; on 11/2 and 11/4, both "Between Sun and Moon" AND "The Trees" were dropped, and "Vital Signs" was played immediately followed by "Freewill" in the usual spot in the setlist, which included "Ghost Rider".

Lerxst's Vapor Trails Rants

"On opening night in Hartford in 2002, Alex broke into a verbal improv like the ones he'd only ever delivered in rehearsals to break the monotony and entertain the crew. In front of a live audience now, and giving Neil and me no warning, he stepped up to the mic during 'La Villa Strangiato' and sang 'Hey Baba Reba!' (from Frankie Yankovic's 'Café Polka,' a drinking song his parents used to enjoy with their friends). That improv turned into a regular nightly stream-of-consciousness featuring such topics as 'While My Guitar Gently Vomits' and 'Chris Isaak on Acid.' For the times he wandered into oblivion or painted himself into a corner, Pratt worked out a drum cue that signaled it was time to wrap it up'like in the vaudeville days, when they'd give a performer who'd outstayed their welcome the shepherd's crook."- Geddy Lee, My Effin' Life

"For the most part I prepared about, maybe, two seconds before I actually opened my mouth. I thought about what I might talk about, and wherever it went, it went. It was fun and terrifying at the same time. There were lots of nights where I thought 'I am so stupid, I can't think of anything', and sure enough, I couldn't."- Alex Lifeson, "Rockline", February 5, 2003

• Opening night in Hartford (6/28) he sang "Hey Baba Reba!" 'What is a Barbaritta you may ask, well, I'll tell you what a Barbarritta is, a Barbaritta is, a barbarritta is....a....'.
• Scranton (6/29), "a walk...selling a cat for 50 cents" and introduced the band as "that guy" (Neil) and "that other guy" (Geddy).
• Charlotte (7/1), "oh why would anybody use words, there are lots of words, some words are really short, and some words are LLLOOOOONNNNNNGGGG" and Alex jumps back into the song after the word long is spoken."
• Virgina Beach (7/3), "going to a zoo, a German zoo and seeing all the animals getting angry at him and then shooting them and then being taken to jail in a tiny car, interrogated by a big black guy with a big black beret and being tossed back into a jail cell with all of the animals he had shot - but that they left the door on the cell open and he busted out to come an play for us."
• Raleigh (7/4), a "Happy Birthday" song to America which concluded with North Carolina (in a southern drawl). In addition, at the close of the show, the big screen flashed "Happy 4th of July from Rush".
• Saratoga (7/6), Alex began with a coughing spell, mostly like coughing up a lung, with some rambling, then introduced the band as "On drums we have....that guy over there, and on bass....that other guy there. And, of course, the beautiful, sexy leader of the band....couldn't make it tonight".
• Darien Lake (7/7), he discussed going for a walk with Commander Tom, an old tv personality from Buffalo, and Professor Bleep and then bumping into Colonel Klink, but "... that's another story for another time..." Then he went on about seeing a fire, "A big fire! I don't know where it was, but it was somewhere! Maybe in Lackawana! Or East Tonawanda! I don't know where, but there was a fire! Lots of fire! FIRE FIRE FIRE!"
• Bristow (7/9), "The wicked witch, the wicked witch is dead....but which witch is dead?...Why would anybody want to write a song about a witch?"...."Mr. Bass (to Geddy)...I want you to play" (then plays a riff which Geddy tries to copy)..."Mr. Drums (to Neil)," etc.
• Holmdel (7/11), "taking a walk in Central Park, finding a pond, a clear and beautiful pond, and washing his laundry in the pond, and swimming in the pond, then taking a taxi across the street to come to the show".
• Mansfield (7/12), "I tried to quit smoking the other day .. ohhh .. I love to smoke .. I tried to cut the filters off and puff away. I even split the cigarette in half so I can smoke two at a time . . ohhh .. I like that. I tried smoking other things ... I tried smoking my socks and shoes .. that didn't taste good .. and then someone gave me this other stuff (acts dizzy, laughs from Ged and Neil), wow ... that was great ... and now I am never going to try to quit smoking again ...."
• Camden (7/14), "here's a scary story, a really scary, but somehow satifying one...", goes into prolonged coughing fit, Neil laughs and looks questioningly at Geddy, and Alex never does tell story.
• Wantagh (7/15), walking the beach with a metal detector, finding the body of Jimmy Hoffa.
• Toronto (7/17), "Buenos Nochas mein froinds. I was dreaming, and I saw a snake. I don't know what that has to do with anything, but then I heard a strange voice, and it whispered to me, 'Snoring...'. I continued dreaming, and this the time the strange voice said to me very loudly, 'SNORING! Please, don't snore anymore!' I sat there in bed like this-- (shot of Alex's eyes on the big screen popping wide open)-- and then I decided to take a walk. And I was walking and walking and walking, and then I met these guys, and we started walking and walking and walking, and we came to Ontario Place, and then we ended up HERE!"
• Milwaukee (7/19), "I had a dream and the ground was the floor and the sky was the ceiling and the lake was... well, I guess my toilet, and I looked around and I realized I was in hell!...a lot like Milwaukee...hot and humid..although its a dry humidity...this is a REALLY LONG STORY...somebody HELP ME!!!"
• Tinley Park (7/20), "I dreamed about porkchops chasing me and all the best food in the world. I ate a giant Marshmallow. I woke up and my pillow was gone!"
• Kansas City (8/1), Alex rambled in a Snaggletooth voice and included comments about his guitar and a short rendition of the chorus from "Kansas City" including "they've got some crazy little women there and I'm going to get me 5 or 6!" He then went in to a "trance" and requested that the band "play something happy" and Ged and Neil played a little riff, followed by "play something mysterious" to which Ged and Neil played a very similar sounding riff, and then he said they should play something with the 5 basic emotions but maybe save that for later...
• Maryland Heights (8/2), he sang happy birtday to KSHE radio (it was their 35 birthday party), and then followed up by making a series of Ugghhh sounds and said "that was a seal singing jazz." He proceeded to make the sounds again and said "that was me making funny noises."
• Cincinnati (8/4), he started off with what sounded like a Police song-"EEEE-OOOO.....OOOOOOO.....", then something like, "AAAAAHT-AAAAHT-AAAAAHT..." and then he started marching in place yelling "NOW LET'S HEAR SOME....ARMY! MUSIC!!" to which Neil started in with some cadence snare drumming while Alex snapped off several mock salutes and yelling "...HUT..TWO! THREE! FOUR!!..." like an over zealous drill sergeant.
• Burgettstown (8/6), he rambled about taking a walk to Primanti Brothers (Pittsburgh restaurant famed for serving sandwiches with fries and slaw on them) for a "sammich" (Pittsburgh-ese) and an Iron City, and then "I had a Suzy Q, and I started feeling really funny, and the next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital. I had an overdose of Suzy Q's. That happens when you have like 14 Suzy Qs. That doesn't happen when you eat a gob."
• Columbus (8/8): Alex sang Happy Birthday to QFM96 radio (their 25th anniversary bash). He then started sing "ya-ya-ya..yayay..yaya..Thats what The Beatles really wanted to sing...was the Ya-Ya song..." Then he said he "never met O'Charley before, but he's no damn good with darts, and he lost $20.00 dollars at his pub. But O'Charley can't pay up, or play this" as they return to "La Villa..."
• Noblesville (8/9), Alex sings, first gargling, then yodeling, and says "singing is easy, but I was to sing something different... How about something... mysterious?" and the band plays something mysterious with Alex singing sounds like choking "I don't know, that was kinda weird...how about something happy?" and Geddy and Neil play something happpy, with lots of happy tom and cowbell fills, and Alex sings in a silly high voice, and then Alex says "Wow, that was a waste of time!" as a they break back into "La Villa..."
• Clarkston (8/11), Alex talked of floating over Detroit, Joe Louis Hall, Cobo Hall, the Michigan palace (which is gone), then he corrected himself saying it wasn't there.
• Clarkston (8/12), Alex FORGOT to play "Limelight" following "Temples of Syrinx". As he began the intro to "La Villa", Ged walked over, smiled at him and said "What about 'Limelight'?". Alex got a horrified look on his face, pretends to cry and nodded. The rant, spoken in a German accent, was all an inside joke to his forgetting "Limelight": "...I thought I was someplace else, but I wasnt there... where I was supposed to be 5 minutes ago is where I'm going to be in 2 minutes..."
• Nashville (8/14), Alex began by making bizarre noises, and then spoke in a Sigmund Freud-esque voice about dreams. "I had a dream that had a very profound effect on me. I cannot remember the dream... but I know that it had Kim Basinger in it! You know that sort of dream where you wake up and remember it for five minutes, and then it's changed into something completely different? Then your mind starts getting crazy things in it. Ya'know... Like that Charlie Manson guy. Remeber him? Marilyn's brother. Well he sucks. Not Marilyn... He's allright" He rambled on about dreams until Neil signalled to get on with it by hammering the drums, and he apologized for his "loquacity" and ripped back into "La Villa".
• Woodlands (8/16), Alex began making bizarre noises and convulsions, and with eyes closed complained about his stomach. He asked Geddy and Neil to play some different kind of music, to which they responded by coming to a complete stop. This obviously caught Alex by surprised as he lost it and started laughing. Regaining his composure, he said that was nice and began making strange noises again, "ooooooooooooohhhhhhhh, ooooooooooooohhhhh, ooooooooohhhhhhhhhh, something's coming, something's coming...oh yeah, something's coming...(silence).....Uh Oh..." Neil's eyebrows raised and a sort of embarrassed smile sort of broke out over his face. Then he looked over at Geddy who was smiling broadly. When Alex said “uh oh,” he and Geddy both started laughing out loud. Next, Alex asked them to play some other kind of different music. Geddy and Neil played a short little riff, which Alex said was nice, but not as nice as the first music. Finally Alex introduced them, with Neil as Flip Wilson, himself as Brad Pitt and Geddy as "That Guy".
• San Antonio (8/17): Alex looked out at the crowd for a couple of seconds, and then asked in a lisp, "Does anybody feel like dancing?" He then cavorts across the stage with his knees bent and splayed out, and with both armns in the air, elbos bant and hands wide open, kind of like a can-can dancer, I guess. He gets back to the mike and says, "You guys suck ...you don't dance at all. Oh wait, I know, you do the cool dance." He then just stands there nodding his head up and down in a perfect imitation of guys who get dragged onto a dance floor by the girlfriends against their will. Then he says, "I like the cool dance best because you can do it while lying down." He then falls to the stage and proceeds to do the cool dance while lying down. After he got up, Neil had had enough and gave the cue to go back into the song.
• Dallas (8/19): Alex pretended to cry, then said, "okay okay okay okay la la la la. Hey play that song, play that part you played the other day." Geddy and Neil stopped playing. Alex whistled a little and then said, "You know sometimes you just have nothing to say, because there's nothing in your brain, nothing going on upstairs, empty empty empty"... back into La Villa.
• Albuquerque (8/21): he sang an incredibly fast paced vocal skat, beginning with blues (ala Aretha Franklin), "a doo be doo be doo be doo bop bop bee bop", and then sequeyed to square dance style "doe see doe, doe see doe, doe do doe, doe see doe", and then a cool-jazz vocal solo "get down, so low, get down, get down, so low".
• Salt Lake City (8/23): he went into a "Flick my Bic, Flick my Bic" song, then did alot of do-do-da-da's, sometimes going into a lower tone - Geddy and Neil waiting for him to finish, finally have enough and kick back into La Villa.
• Denver (8/24): (In strange monotone voice) "Good evening my friends. This is the part of the show where I have to talk to you. It is the only time they (points at Ged and Neil) ever let me talk, not that I blame them, because I'M NOT WELL! (Covers his eyes) I have to close my eyes, because I can't talk with my mouth and see with my eyes at the same time--I haven't figured that out, yet. I don't have anything to talk about, except this (and he vocalizes the melody played by Geddy). How did I know he was going to play that you might ask? I don't know much else, except this..." (as they rip back into La Villa).
• Vancouver (9/8): "Today I flew in an airplane across Canada and part of the United States. I landed here in Vancouver, and I noticed that it smells different here [the pot smoke was pretty heavy during the show...]. I LIKE how it smells here, here in BC. You know, I was born here in BC... in Fernie, BC. It's over there [points east] in the other part of BC. There are lots of mountains and rivers and rocks there. But it doesn't smell like it smells here. But I LIKE the way it smells here."
• Seatle (9/14): His ramble consisted of whistling, humming and finally a story about going to the zoo, about how the animals at the zoo were all relaxing having lunch and smoking cigars, but they didn't know that the zoo was just about to open, and their wonderful day was about to be ruined by... PEOPLE! "I was the first one in," Alex said. He said he had decided to free the animals, but first he had to figure out how to open all the locks. Then once he got the cages open, the animals just stayed in the back of their cages and wouldn't come out. "That's how it is!" he complained. "It's always about the animals! The animals! Animals animals animalsanimalsanimalsanimals!" He said the word "animals" really quickly over and over until it turned into a silly, maniacal noise. Alex finished with the story saying he had just accidentally swallowed the quarter that he was going to use for a phone call to have a van come pick up the animals. Then he said, "And that's all." He paused, and said "I *SAID* THAT'S ALL!!!" and they all jumped back into the song.
• Portland (9/15): "This is the part where we all dance...(he then dances a bit)...I suck at dancing...I want to tell you a story...a scary story...about getting attacked by a sandwich...I was walking down the street, there was happy music (he whistles...Geddy and Neil play a happy jig)...no, much happier than that....and I stop to get a sandwich...it was bread and salami and cold cuts and salami and ham and salami and mustard and mustard flavored salami...and...then...I ate the sandwich...which only goes to how...this is the stupidest story I've ever told..."
• Concord (9/17): Alex ranted about "turkey and turkey things!", describing his lunch of turkey and was quite facinated with "turkey things" for quite some time before talking about..."California Meat Bee's that swoop down and eat a guys lunch". He then asked Geddy to "Make some Bee sounds", to which Geddy twiddled a little on the bass, then Alex said "Oh nevermind".
• Sacramento (9/18): "This is the part of the show were I come out and say very stupid things ... stupid, stupid, stupid ... stupid. Stupid. Stupid...." (crowd starts chanting along to "STUPID" song for 20-30 seconds, then he mentioned that he had some hired help and would make them perform! "You two! Play something else! Play something ... mysterious, yet gay!" (Neil plays chopsticks on the glockenspiel) "PERFECT!"
• San Francisco (9/20): "I've lost my voice, and I cant find it! Some people around here" (looks at Ged and Neil) "would say that's a good thing...I can't think of anything so I'm going make them play songs for you" (then says to Ged and Neil, "play some Spy music" (Ged and Neil go into something and Alex says) "I never knew Batman was a Spy!!!! Play something happy" (Ged plays a happy riff and he sings 'YO YO YO' like Sting used to do with the Police.) "now play something scary" (Ged stops, and Neil plays a scary beat on the toms, and he knocks on the Microphone and says) "Don't Open The Door!! Don't Go In The Basement!" He then starts to talk back to the crowd, when Ged and Neil start up 'La Villa' and a surprised Alex says to the crowd "I've got to go!"
• Las Vegas (9/21): He began with a very long coughing spell, then attempting to clear his throat, said "Does anybody want to lick this mike?" (after much applause and a pause, he said) "My voice is changing. It sounds like Michael Jackson's voice. His voice now sounds like mine used to. Screw Michael Jackson anyway! (pauses, then he then begins whistling, then says) "everybody knows this one, join in!" (waves arms to get crowd to join in, then says to Ged and Neil) "now stop" (crowd is all whistling) "you guys are pretty good! Actually I have some very important things to tell you" (Ged and Neil start playing again) "but I'd rather hear what you guys have to say" (looks at Ged and Neil) "now stop" (encourages audiences to talk by waving arms, audience begins to chatter) "really? You don't say". Also during "Dreamline", Geddy emphasized Vegas with "She's got a sister out in Vegas " which received warm applause from the crowd.
• Los Angeles (9/23): Alex started (again) with the meat bees (like in Concord), and described how he was eating a turkey sandwich and they swooped down and cut out a section of the turkey and carried it off. Then one came back and bit him and he felt like a vampire (which he shouted over and over until they cut back into "La Villa."
• San Diego (9/25): He began by whistling a tune, and the crowd joined in after he said "everybody whistle!" Then he said "Let's see, what kind of story can I tell. Hmmmm. I have a really scary story about...the zoo! Let's talk about the zoo. The animals at the zoo like the blues. It's the zoo-zoo blues! (All 3 broke into a short blues melody)..."The animals fooled the zoo keeper with the blues. All the animals escaped from the Zoo. The moral of the story is never turn your back on an animal that listens to the blues!"
• Phoenix (9/27): "I been sick....here...what's this? (points to his throat) stomach? sore stomach? no...sore throat....." He said his head hurt...and his throat hurt...and his eyes hurt (etc...). Then he said that he was sleeping soundly in the hotel when suddenly, at 3 am, he was woken up by a gentle poking. His wife was poking him, poking him... and she softly said "snoring...". The rant continues with him saying how she went from poking to outright hitting - he bapped the microphone to emphasize his point, and knocked the cord/endcap right out the back of it. For the rest of the rant he was struggling to hold the cord in place (thus, his voice was breaking up over the speakers) and kept saying (in a pitiful little voice) how his microphone was broken, all cuz of "snoring, SNORING!". He ended his rant by saying that he hoped the next time someone woke you (the crowd) up, that you tell them to go buy a new mic.
• Irvine (9/28): Alex began with a bunch of mumbling, and talk about sleep and being woken up to poking and someone saying "...snoring", and then he said "and I turn over" (Ged and Neil stop playing) "and she said (speaks in a woman's voice) "do you think I'm fat?"
• Mexico City (10/5): This was Rush's first performance in Mexico. Geddy greeted the crowd with "Hola, buenas noches, no hablo español (Hello, good evening, I can't speak Spanish)". Then he explained in English that they would be playing "mucho, mucho" (many, many) songs. Following "Freewill", he said they had "a special gift" for the fans of Mexico, and they played "Closer To The Heart". Before "Resist", he introduced Alex as "This is Mr. Lerxst, Alexjandro" (Spanish equivalent for Alex). Alex's Rant: another coughing spell as on other nights, and another story of waking up at 3 a.m. to someone saying "SNORING!". He then said he had the chance to sleep for two hours, three hours, and then again a gentle poking from his wife, who asked him "do you think I am fat?".
• Tampa (10/10): (In a mellow, spaced out voice, similar to Tommy Chong's) "That was jazz, man. Jazz is, like... cool. Jazz is the easiest to play because you just play whatever you want and look cool. And say cool things like, 'dig it'. Cool jazz guys smoke too. They keep their cigarettes here (gestures to the tuning gears on his guitar) so they can just go (brings the guitar to his mouth to take a drag off the imaginary cigarette). Those are some cool jazz guys over there. That guy on the drums is... Bongo-head. The other buy we call 'Boom-boom Boom-boom'"...
• Atlanta (10/13): "Do you ever get so mad, that you just want to grab that guy, and rip off his ears, pull his hair out, poke him in the eye and punch him in the nose? Do you ever feel like that? I don't, I never feel like that. Instead, I just turn around and walk away (made prancing noises and did a funny walk back to his amps, then returned to the mike for "I always come back and kick him in the shin...but right now, I'm getting the cue, to introduce the band to you. On the drums, from his home town of Eth, in 'Eth'-iopia, the King of Ethiopia, the Emporer 'Highly Unlikely'". Then he said directly to Neil, "this is where you start playing the drums again, but more interesting than the solo!" (Neil played short solo, and Alex said) "Better, that's better...now he's getting good!" and then intoduced Geddy as "someone just was released from prison where he had been since he was 7 years old, Boom Boom-Boom Boom." (Geddy played short bass solo) "And then there's me, I'd like to play a little blues for you", and then played a few blues bars before returning to La Villa.
• Rochester (10/16): Again before playing Resist, Alex began with a country riff, and Geddy joined in. They played for about a minute..and then they stopped and Geddy said "That's all the country music we know", as the crowd responded with a loud roar... During the rant, Alex started by playing weird sounds on his guitar, and said it was something that will be on the next album. He then introduced Neil as the latin singer "Shakira", and then went on to talk about her wonderful hips, and accompanied this commentary with a brief imitation of Shakira by swivelling his hips while Neil played along. and Geddy as "The Vivacious...Preston Manning" (former Canadian Politician, Geddy's face just went blank, Neil laughed). Alex then started screaming "Alex...Wake up...Alex Wake up..."
• Montreal (10/18): Alex began with "I'd now like to introduce the band. Geddy meet Neil, Neil...Geddy." The crowd, and Geddy and Neil burst out laughing. He then talked about playing Jazz. He asked the band to play something jazzy and Neil and Geddy both started playing. Alex looked at Geddy and said "Not you!". So Geddy stopped playing (and appeared to be a little stunned - Neil was laughing). Then Neil played for a short piece and Alex told him "That is so retarded! But that's the great thing about jazz - it's retarded but, cool at the same time!". Neil is laughing quite hard at this point, then he asked Geddy for a bass fill but he didn't play much and Alex went on to play his little Jazz number that he just made up and Geddy had to tap him on the shoulder to get him to finish La Villa. (Rumored performance of "Nobody's Hero" on this night was determined to be false).
• Quebec City (10/19): the rant was about a voice saying "wake up Alex" over and over as he slept, and then when he went out for a walk the voice kept saying "Keep walking Alex". As on the previous night he then said "I'd now like to introduce the band. Geddy meet Neil, Neil...Geddy." Then he called them by different names, referring to the bass player as Ricky. He told Neil to play a cool beat, and Neil played a little bit, then he he asked for a song from the "magnificent bass plaer, Ricky". Geddy half heartedly played a little ditty and Alex said "Awesome"...
• Toronto (10/22): Alex began playing a weird sound on his guitar, and said "this is a new song...what do you think of it?" Then he started talking about "walking around", and said "what do I think about while I am walking around", and "what do other people think about? Hey you, hot shot drummer, what do you think about?" and Neil did a heavy drum beat. Then Alex looked at Geddy and said "And the suave young man over there with the guitar. What's this? Only four strings?" Then Geddy sat down on the corner of the drum riser and played something very jazzy, as Alex started to sing the words "La Villa Strangiato" over and over until Neil and Geddy broke back into the song...but Alex just kept singing "La Villa Strangiato La Villa Strangiato La Villa Strangiato" as Neil and Geddy had a laugh.
• New York, New York (10/24): Out of rotation, the band played the same setlist as the previous show (which included The Trees, Freewill and Ghost Rider). In addition, again for Resist, Geddy and Alex played some country music, with Geddy ending it with "That's all of the country music we know!" For the rant, Alex started by playing some Hawaiian music then said "That was a new Hawaiian song i just wrote." Then he talked about "walking on the beach in Hawaii, picked up a rock - ouch, lava, hot, I always do that!" Then his said, "this is what's in my head" and then played more Hawaian music." Then he said "Hey, you there in the funny hat" (to Neil) "What's in your head?" and Neil played a heavy drum rhthym. Then to Geddy "Hey, you...What's in your head?" and Geddy played "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" on the bass.
• Hershey, Pennsylvania (10/25): He started off talking in a "Yogi Bear" type voice, mumbling something incoherent. He then said (in the voice) "How ya doing, Hershey?" which received a loud response. Alex then asked Neil and Geddy, who were playing a diddy, "Can you guys stop playing.." to which Neil yelled "NO!" through one of his drum mikes and began laughing. Both Neil and Geddy stopped playing and Alex began plinking the strings on his guitar, asking the audience if they liked his new song. They then played a bit of the star spangled banner, and then Neil then began playing the beat to "Wipeout" and Alex played along, playing the wrong notes to the song on purpose. Neil and Geddy just looked at Alex in amazement and Geddy started laughing. Alex then said, "Gotta go now" and they jumped back into La Villa.
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (10/27): In a girlish-voice, Alex talked about baseball players and drugs that ballplayers use for big heads. "Why would anyone want a big head, I mean everyone wants a little head"...(long pause)..."now and then". Then he asked Neil if he could play something that sounded good or he was going to come over and play drums himself, to which Neil made a cross with his sticks. He then turned to Ged and said, "Can you play something good for a change?" Geddy played "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" on the bass while Alex sang some funny lyrics about baseball and drugs, suggesting that maybe Ged & Neil were taking the drugs to make their heads bigger, "....as if your heads could get any bigger!"
• Boston, Massachusetts (10/28): Thanks to the fan who emailed me shortly after the show for this report: He was invited to the Meet and Greet, where he presented Alex with a complete set of "Three Stooges" bobblehead dolls, as a "thank you for the music". Hoping to see them during the live show, he was rewarded during the drum solo: when Neil's drum kit spun around, standing betweeen the two Spongebob Squarepants dolls was the Curley bobblehead doll! He also reported that the person who came out on stage during "Leave That Thing Alone!" to put quarters in the dryers was long time Rush fan, Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson! Before the show, the fan had seen Johnson near the soundboard and had made small talk as Rush fans do, taling about the Angels winning the Series, Rush, etc....
• Chicago, Illinois (10/30): First Alex went to the mic and just stood there and didn't say anything, then he said his doctor said he had amnesia, or least that's what he thought his doctor said, but he couldn't quite remember. Then he stood there and did nothing, so Geddy and Neil stopped playing. Geddy then went over and showed him that he should be playing his guitar, and started hitting the strings for him, so then alex started hitting the strings and said "isn't this annoying" and then said "this is going to be on the new album" (wails on guitar) "you will just have to wait for the rest." Then he said "if you think that was annoying..." and then started screaming into the mic. This had Geddy and Neil laughing pretty good, at which point Neil queued the song back up and they started back into La Villa. For the rest of the song Alex kept sing "La Villa Strangiato" and ad libbing other parts as the song finished.
• Ames, Iowa (11/1): Alex began with a bit of coughing & "la la la..." (like scales), then said he was happy to be in Iowa with the Iowans. He was glad to be back at school. "You should be at school...instead of here...I didn't stay in school. Neither did they (motions to Neil & Geddy). But you should...otherwise you'll end up like them. Or you'll have to get a job. And that REALLY sucks..." He said to Neil and Geddy "you dropouts, play something smart!" Geddy & Neil stop playing, but only a second or two. Neil did a quick run around the drums before they went back to their jazz/swing improv. Alex clarified that now Geddy should play something smart. He acts flustered & confused, then returns to improv with Neil. As Alex returned to issue of school, Geddy & Neil move back into La Villa, and Alex began singing "Go Cy-clones!... Go Cy-clones!" while the crowd joined in. Side note, Neil apparently had a cold, as he was seen throwing many tissues over his shoulder.
• Minneapolis, Minnesota (11/2): Alex began with lots of moaning, then went on to tell about how he was performing in Lebanon only to be thrown out. Then he went to Syria because they like that type of singing too. Then he asked Neil if he could play some lebanese drums? Neil smiled and shook his head no. Can Geddy play some lebanese bass? He also smiled and shook his head no. Then he said something like "Oh, forget it!" and they got back to the song, although Alex kept up the crazy moaning for about 15 seconds until Ged jokingly told him to stop.
• Cleveland, Ohio (11/4): Alex began by him playing a little tune, then he walked up to the mic and said: "Voting...who to vote for? Why is it you can never vote for someone you actually like? Hey Neil, play some voting drums!" (Neil stops and plays a shuffle beat) "Hey Geddy, play some voting bass!" (Geddy stops and plays the original Batman theme). "Oh geeze thats great...if your voting for BATMAN! (Everyone laughs) Well, maybe if he was an independant. And whats up with that Robin Guy...just what is a robin anyway? Hey, I wrote a song for Robin..." (Geddy and Neil stop while Alex plays his song. Neil covers His mouth as he is laughing so hard. Alex sings a few Robin lyrics and then they break back into La Villa, only Alex is still singing with the beat). "Robin, I like your tights. Robin, what the hell is he anyway?!"
• East Rutherford, New Jersey (11/6): Alex turned to Neil and Geddy and asked "How you guys doing?", they said "fine", he then asked "So what are you guys doing tonight?" Neil replied "Working!". Alex then played a weird riff on the guitar and said "The first song goes like this", then played another riff and said "and the second song goes like this." Geddy and Neil stopped playing, looked at each other and shook their heads. Alex then said "Look for it! Coming to a music store near you!" He looked at Neil and said "Can you play anything remotely interesting on the drums?" Neil stopped the jazz beat and hits the cowbells with the horse racing 'at the starting gate' tune, and then played the same tune on his toms, then went back into the jazz beat. Alex then asked Geddy "And you, do you like know how to play the bass at all?", and Geddy ripped it up for a moment before going back to into the groove. After a bit more, Alex said "This part of the show is borring...." and then they went back to "La Villa".
• Uncasville, Connecticut (11/8): Alex started the rant played a wailing song on his guitar and said "that's on our new record!" to much applause, then said the rest of the song goes like this (as he plays some more) then says "I love that part". Then he stared weeping and told a long and funny story about how he lost all of his money at the casino. He had been gambling and said "If I had another $10,000 I could leave with $500".
• Manchester, New Hampshire (11/10): For this, the final show in the US, the band played "Closer to the Heart" in place of "The Trees" or "Between Sun and Moon" (in the setlist with "Freewill" and "Ghost Rider"). For the rant Alex started crooning into the microphone and playing some sort of blues scale on the guitar, then he says "I sound like Chris Issak on acid"...then he continues, "What is acid?...I thought it was orange juice. I think it is something I did in high school"...then he continues, "What is high school?" He then continued playing, then he stops and says something (or to the effect of) about it being the last night of the tour and that he will return to being nobody tomorrow...then he says, "Speaking of nobodys...there are these two nobodys back here"...points at Neil and Geddy. He then points specifically at Neil and says "Is there anything you would like to play since its the last show?" Neil just shrugged no. Then he looks/points at Geddy, "What about you?" He then looks back at Neil and says, "Not you....him!" And he points at Geddy and says "Him!" Geddy is like "Me?"...."Yes you!" And this continues until Alex gives up and starts playing "La Villa..." again.
• Porto Alegre. Brazil (11/20): 35,000 fans attended this first Brazilian performance. The setlist included The Trees and Freewill, which was followed by Closer To The Heart (same setlist for all three Brazil shows). Alex began the rant with a really poor guitar solo and said "That's how our next album will sound", then coughed for a long time.
• São Paulo, Brazil (11/22): 64,000 fans attended this performance, the largest in Rush's history. This show was recorded for backup to the Rio show which was recorded and filmed for DVD the following night. The rant was similar to the Rio rant the following night.
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (11/23): 50,000 fans attended this performance. Filming for the Rush In Rio DVD took place this night, the final show of the tour. Alex began the rant with raving and making weird sounds and then commented on Geddy and Neil's jamming with "this is jazz...jazz is cool"...then after a pause said "I love singing, singing is so easy..." and then said "I'd like to introduce you my backup band, the guys that followed me on this tour: on the drums...Mr. Milton Banana!" and Neil played some samba rhythms. "On the bass guitar, the Guy From Ipanema" and Geddy played Garota de Ipanema (the Girl from Ipanema) on the bass; when he get to the chorus Alex joined in on the guitar and mic singing "Laaaaa... lalalalalalalaaaaa....."

Tom Sawyer (with Three Stooges intro) Distant Early Warning New World Man Roll The Bones Earthshine YYZ The Pass Bravado The Big Money Between Sun and Moon (alternated with The Trees) Vital Signs (alternated with Freewill) Closer To The Heart (five shows only) Natural Science (-Intermission-/Dragon video) One Little Victory Driven Ceiling Unlimited (alternated with Ghost Rider) Secret Touch Dreamline Red Sector A Leave That Thing Alone Rhythm Method (drum solo) Resist (unplugged) 2112: Overture/The Temples of Syrinx Limelight La Villa Strangiato (parts 2-12, with Lerxst rant) The Spirit of Radio Encore: By-Tor and the Snow Dog (abbreviated)-> Cygnus X-1 (prologue)-> Working Man

July 30th, 2003 (Molson Canadian Rocks For Toronto, Downsview Park, Toronto, Ontario) Tom Sawyer Limelight Dreamline YYZ Freewill Closer To The Heart (original version) Paint It, Black (instrumental)-> The Spirit Of Radio

R30: 30th Anniversary Tour

"This is the first time we have gone out [on tour] when we didn't have a project that we felt passionately about. We've been very successful not trading on that cliche where you're depending on your past. After I thought about it a while, I decided it's quite an accomplishment to stay productive for 30 years as a rock band, and having this cover project made it OK. It gave us something to occupy ourselves creatively and helped justify it to me....We had no plans to do an album of any kind at first, then somebody approached us about doing the tour. A friend planted the idea: Wouldn't it be fun to play a few songs that we liked when we first were learning our instruments and release an EP." - Geddy Lee, Charlotte Observer , May 28, 2004

R30 Tour Dates

R30 tour setlist, lerxst's r30 rants.

• Opening night in Antioch (Nashville) (5/27): Lerxst told a story using different voices for a grandfather and his grandson, about flying model airplanes and repeatedly crashing them. "Grandpa! Grandpa! Tell us the story about the airplane!" he would say in a nasally, childish voice, and then tell about flying an airplane, and then making airplane crashing sounds.
• Charlotte (5/28): Lerxst talked about being old, wondering where he got "this" as he grabbed his belly, and complained of losing his hearing and things of that nature.
• Virginia Beach (5/29): Lerxst said one of his kids asked him to tell a story, and his reply was, "There are two types of stories, happy and sad." Since his kid wanted a happy story, he told the story of "One day, at a zoo, there was a lion, and he got outta his cage to visit his friend, the tiger"..."Lions and tigers and bears" then the audience replied "OH MY!" This went on two or three times. Then he said something about monkeys. Something like the monkeys were watching, and waiting for something to happen. At that Neil started a drum roll. (Double stroke.) Alex continued: "and then one monkey started a drum roll", Alex said. "A drum roll! How apropos said the other monkey to the first." At that point Neil and Geddy were split screen on the board. Neil whipped a look to Geddy, and you could tell Neil was trying to hold it in. Most of the crowd laughed at this...then Neil picked up the drum roll and they finished the song. Later, during "By-Tor & The Snowdog", when Geddy sang "By-tor...{pause}...and the Snowdog {second pause}, square for battle..." during the first pause Alex let out a primal war cry, and during the second pause made a bunch of barking sounds. Geddy was laughing too hard to sing "Square for Battle, let the fray begin!"
• Burgettstown (5/31): Lerxst talked about how it was Monday night (Memorial Day), "the end of a long holiday weekend...maybe a little drink" (tipping a shotglass), "maybe a little smoke" (puffing a joint)...and how much "it SUCKED to have to go back to work on Tuesday...Work SUCKS! Back to a stinky, smelly boss...get me this ASAP...get it ASAP your ass!..."
• Columbus (6/2) Lerxst started singing with the notes from his guitar. "Bah - bah - bah - bah....", a few times, then ended with: "Bah bah bah black sheep." After which he started to tell a story about how a sheep was driving a bus, which he thought was odd, because the goat was supposed to be driving the bus! Then, he asked how goats can drive a bus, and then was trying to figure out how a goat keeps receipts. He didn't know where a goat would keep them, and asked the audience, "DO YOU??" The band went back into the song, and Alex pointed out a stuffed-animal goat sitting on top of his amp, with the tag hanging off it's ear.
• Noblesville (6/4): Lerxst ranted a bunch of random, incoherent noises mumbled into the microphone and then started off singing what he was playing on guitar, interspersed with the occasional "Jumpin' Jimminy(?)."
• Tinley Park (Chicago) (6/5): Lerxst began playing odd chords on his guitar, and said "Geddy thinks he's sick..." and paused in response to Geddy's mention that the audience should excuse him because he is coming down with a slight cold, then continued by rambling about "The Day After Tomorrow...I went to see that movie. There were all these waves and all these storms and people were drowning in the city and it was SO STUPID! ..a REEEALLY dumb story." He went on about "having to sit through this crappy movie for 2 1/2 hours after running out of popcorn in the first 35 minutes. It reminded me of 'Titanic' where the ship hit an iceberg and SANK and a lot of people DIED..." and he said "why weren't there any ninjas on the ship, because that would have been more interesting", and concluded in a whiny voice - "WHY CAN'T THEY MAKE INTERESTING MOVIES ANYMORE?"
• Clarkston (Detroit) (6/8): Lerxst ranted about milk. "Drink more milk...or I'll kill you! 2% milk, 1% milk, homo, homo, homo milk that is, drink milk, drink milk, drink milk. Drink more milk or I'll kill you!" Another note about the Detroit show: Bubbles from the Trailer Park Boys came on stage during 2112 to restart the dryers, gestured to the audience a couple of times and did an air drum roll before sauntering back off stage.
• Milwaukee (6/7): Lerxst started with a lot of shreeky singing, then began doing both sides of a silly-sounding conversation between a man and a woman: (in a woman's voice) "nice suit"...(in a man's voice) "thanks, I just had it pressed".
• Cuyahoga Falls (Cleveland) (6/10): Early in the show, Lerxst was visibly upset at the security at the front of the stage and during "The Spirit of Radio" he went over to center stage and yelled twice at the security guard to sit down. From that point on they never stood and the crowd loved it. He started his rant by making funny noises into the mic and on his guitar, and then he started saying "Hey pool boy, hey pool boy, time to get out of the pool" (more was said but was difficult to hear).
• St. Louis (6/12): Lerxst began by saying "Baby, baby, baby" then talked about a person with a rash all over his face and finished by making popping noises with his hand & mouth. He also mentioned "Pool Boy" a few times. After the rant Geddy said "He's so fucked up" (talking about Alex) with a big smile for those in the front rows.
• Bonner Springs (6/13): Following the usual odd noises in to the microphone, Lerxst discussed surfing and the ocean and waves and sighting a fin coming out of the water and swimming out to take on the shark and singing "Pool Boy, Pool Boy". This led to all three playing a "Gangster" tune, where Lerxst confessed to killing someone! Just when it seemed the rant was done, he went into another verse, then held out his arms as if keeping his balance and yelled "Surfs Up!"
• Dallas (6/23): Neil's new book Travelling Music was first on sale at the Dallas show. Lerxst's rant began with his playing "take me to the ballgame" on the guitar, then talked about baseball, "Baseball, everybody loves baseball...how 'bout these Rangers". He then emulated a baseball announcer introducing "player 47" and related the pitches all the way to a homerun.
• The Woodlands (Houston) (6/26): This is reportedly the first show where Geddy sang in an old pirate voice "We are the pirates of the Temple of Syrinx, Arrrrr" during the "2112 medley". During the short rant of only half a minute, Lerxst discussed the weather which was was poor, and he may have said something about "wet socks...gray everywhere" and "he's gonna get on that plane and get out...you gotta go, gotta go, gotta go, go go!" and then said another sentence toward Ged's direction and Neil just went right back into the song.
• Denver (6/29): A short rant, where Lerxst basically expanded on the old saying "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me". "You know, we have a saying where I come from! You can fool some of the people some of th... Er.. Some of the people can get fooled if.. Er.. If you are the fool who follows the.. um...I won't get fooled again! I won't get fooled again!"
• West Valley City (Salt Lake City) (6/30): Lerxst pretended to be a pirate (speaking in a pirate voice) and talked about how he was a pirate captain and how he was never out of work because "When anybody needed a captain, they called me." He then explained that, "I have sailed the seven seas. I've seen a lot of good men go down .. (pause with a smile) and I've seen a lot of good women go down." He then went on to tell a story about a time "when I was sailing the eighth sea, it's a little known sea, it's not very big, I was looking for bounty and gold to plunder. I was also looking for a good bed to rest my aching back, and my aching wooden peg leg, and my aching wooden eye, and my aching wooden ear, and that's a completely different story" as to how he got a wooden ear that he would have to work on and cracked himself up in the process! Sidebar (via eyewitness reports): a couple in the first section (102) had a picture of a soldier and the girl kept raising it over her head during the first two or three songs of the show. An usher came over and asked her to put it down, as people were complaining that it was obstructing their view. Shortly after that a member of the Rush crew came over and stated that Alex wanted to display her sign on stage. Before or during "Red Barchetta" one of Alex's guitar techs took the picture and placed it to the left side of his amps (later moved right in front of his amps), which said anthonyquayle.com across the front. The touching moment came when Alex and the lady made eye contact, Alex saluted her and smiled, which of course made her cry. The picture stayed on stage for the rest of the night.
• Auburn (Seattle) (7/2): Continuing the pirate theme begun at The Woodlands, about three songs into the second set the crew on stage right were seen wearing pirate hats and eye patches. This brought laughs from Neil, Alex and Geddy, and Alex again sang in his pirate voice "We are the pirates of the Temple of Syrinx, Arrrrr" during the "2112 medley". For his rant, he started off with a series of strange chords then slipped back into the old pirate voice, and talked about being an old pirate, how his peg leg is bothering him and about the things pirates say like "shiver me timbers, avast ye swabbie and blow me (with a pause) down." He then sang a song called "The Pirate Blues".
• Ridgefield (7/3): Lerxst spoke as though he was a pirate, and talked about how he had just sailed in, and how he just loves being a pirate.
• Hollywood (7/6): Lerxst again gave a pirate inspired rant, and a Captain Morgan-esque picture (like a black light rug) popped up while Alex was ruminating on various pirate things, but nothing specific. One viewer reported that after resuming La Villa, the video screen showed Alex from his right side and he appeared to look down at someone in the crowd and said "I couldn't think of anything..."
• Chula Vista (7/7): Lerxst continued the pirate theme, begining with the usual strange opening chords and moaning and groaning, "la, la, la, la, la, la,", then said he was a "naughty pirate" but that he "didn't need one of those stinkin' patches" (Treasure of the Sierra Madre reference?). He then rambled about the Seven Seas, "Ahhhh, yes, to be a Pirate on the high seas, I want to be on the high seas, and sail on the seven seas being a pirate..."
• Mountain View (7/9): Lerxst rambled for a bit before continuing with the pirate theme... "Harrr haaarrrr, arrrrr, arrrrrrr, arrrrrrr. I stink. Tis a hard job being a pirate captain... The hardest part of being a pirate captain is making sandwiches for all the other pirates. 'I need four pastrami on rye, gimme two BLT's...toasted, and something dry to drink.....grop....it's the Pirate Blues.....Harrr harrrr har har..." During the 2112 medley, he again sang "We are the pirates, of the Temples of Syrinx, all the gifts of life, are down below"
• Concord (7/10): Pirate Lerxst began with the usual nonsense chords and then some tapping on the fretboard, and then slapping the neck with both hands, making tons of noise, then saying "Arrrrrrr....we were out on the seven seas....I don't remember which one, it coulda been the big one....someone was on the poop deck, it was a mess.....someone was in the crow's nest, way up high...." at this point ged and neil were laughing, and Al continues "You all remember the story of the Meat Bees? Well, this is different...arrrrrr......we didn't have anything to eat but fish.....big scary fish....nothing but fish" he grabbed the mic with both hands and stopped playing, whispering into the mic. Both ged and neil stopped playing as well, and it was just al whispering "Big nasty fish......they had big eyes......and giant sharp scary claws....and big fangs....scary fish....and that's all we could eat were scary fish........STUPID ATKINS DIET!"
• Marysville (7/12): Lerxst's rant was similar to previous nights, including the "Pirate Blues". He also threw in another reference to "the Atkins diet," then corrected himself and said "the Claude Akins diet, which is something very different."
• Phoenix (7/16): Lerxst ranted about "those damned pirates...German pirates, we were the best...in boats...it was a good boat...it was a boat that could float...and we would steal and pillage...and go to the beach..." and then broke into a neo-surf tune.
• Vegas (7/17): Again, during the 2112 medley, Geddy was wearing a shoulder parrot, sang 'We are the pirates", and added (for the first time?) during Grand Finale, "Attention all pirates of the solar federation...". In addition, the three flying saucers during the 2112 Grand Finale video were flying the "Jolly Roger". During the rant, Lerxst started with "I pooped on the deck once. Couldn't make it in time. See, I was avasting some scallywags...I was looking at some dead man's chests. Say, I always wondered about that. I mean, I see a lot of chests here tonight...and they sure ain't no 'dead man's' chests. Live ladies, ya see..." Then they broke in the Pirates Blues, and Alex added "Reminds me of my peg leg...er...what about the peg leg, I'm not sure..."
• West Palm Beach (7/29): Geddy told the crowd, "Today is the exact 30th birthday since our friend the drummer joined." Today being Geddy's birthday, during "2112 Overture" two very scantily clad women came out to tend to the dryers as the crew brought out a giant birthday cake loaded with candles. Without stopping playing Geddy went over to blow them out, and the crew re-lit them and kept it the cake on stage for the duration of the song. Between songs before the acoustic set, Lerxst walked on stage in his third shirt of the night...and Geddy said to the audience, "This guy changes his shirt more often than (someone [inaudible])." At the beginning of the acoustic set, Lerxst played the first six notes of "happy birthday" and a large portion of the audience started signing happy birthday, but Ged and Alex didn't stop and went right into "Resist". During the rant Lerxst mentioned the scantily clad women and then said that Geddy was having a "pirate birthday" and sang "Happy Birthday" to Geddy in a psuedo-sad crying/screech "Happy Birthday....(sob...sob)....Happy Birthday to you....(sob...sob)....Happy Birthday to you....(sob...sob)....YOU'RE SO OLD!....Happy Birthday....(sob...sob)...to you." and finally "happy birthday dear old man."
• Tampa (7/30): Lerxst started off by babbling incoherently into the mike which turned into a rendition of what sounded like a children's song. He then told a hysterical story of a couple trying to decide what to do that night. Man: "I thought maybe we'd go to a rock concert" Woman (in high pitched voice): "A rock concert? That's just typical. You always want to do what YOU want to do. How come you never want to do what I want to do? Do we have to sit here? It's so loud" Man "We can do whatever you want to do tonight, honey" Woman "I want to stay home and watch 'Fried Green Tomatoes'!..." This escalated into a blues song as he sang about having a mean woman that treats him bad as he never gets what he wants while the woman whines about him. Even though the rant wasn't pirate-themed, a large Jolly Roger flag was flown in the audience and Geddy had a Jolly Roger windsock on his mic stand and the parrot on his shoulder.
• Atlanta (8/1): Lerxst played some "jazzy" sounding guitar, then began to sing incoherently, finally degrading into a mixture of mock laughing and crying which went on for some time. Somewhere in the midst of this, Neil and Geddy stopped playing and looked at each other as if Alex had totally lost it. Geddy then tapped Alex on the shoulder and encouraged him to snap out of it.
• Camden (8/4): It During YYZ two very exotic dancers came out check on the dryers, and pretended to try them on as they gyrated provocatively for the band's benefit - Geddy walked back to them and leaned up against the vending machine as he played and checked them out with a cool guy "how you doin?" kind of look, and then wondered back up to the front...; in addition it was noted that six banks of bright white stage lights spelled out YYZ. During the rant Lerxst began with his typical guitar doodling before saying "there's always something happening over on that (indicating Geddy's) side of the stage...dancing girls, guys in pirate hats...nothing ever happens on this side of the stage and no one ever comes over here, except those guys"...pointing out the crew who were smoking on his side of the stage "always smoking...smoking, smoking and more smoking...". Then someone from the audience threw a hat at on stage and within a second he kicked it back and said "No thank you!" which had everyone laughing.
• Hartford (8/6): The new biography, Contents Under Pressure was on sale at the show. Lerxst's rant was like "nah nah nah nah nah nah nah" for a few minutes while making more bizarre guitar noises (more info welcome...). The Pirate theme was continued with a couple of "pirates" with hats and cutlasses adding coins to the dryers during the show. Geddy had the parrot on his bass strap during 2112 and sang "We are the Pirates...", the three flying saucers during the Grand Finale were still flying the "Jolly Roger", and one of the guys working the board wearing a rather large pirate hat. During the rant, Lerxst started off with the funky jazz guitar as usual then he started to sing along with his guitar part, "na na na, Na. na, na, naaaaaaa...", before the jazz warbling guitar would come back in. He would repeat the vocal part mirroring his guitar part. This went on for a minute or two and then Neil started to really pick up the drums to match Alex. Alex, sensing it was time to get back into the song started to pick it up along with Neil doing something like "Na NA NA!! Na NA NA. Na NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA!!!!!!." All the while Neil and Geddy were cracking up and the music is building and building and Neil seems as if he's trying to punch a hole in his snare drum. Then all of a sudden....it got really quiet again and Alex started it all again..."Na na na na NA na naaaaa."This went on for a little bit and then came into a mighty crescendo before going back into the song.
• Scranton (8/7): Lerxst began playing some dream notes (more of a dream scale - from a low pitch to a high pitch, hitting every note in between, then back down to low). He played around on his guitar for a while, then finally stepped up to the microphone. At first it was incoherant words (sounded likes "oo-oo-oo-ah-ah-ah", like a monkey, but slower and differentiating pitches), then he started screaming into the microphone ("RAAAAAH!", sort of like a battle cry, which the audience would answer back). He did his war cry about four times, then started saying what sounded like "La Villa Strangiato is La Very Strange" or something of the like.
• Saratoga (8/9): Neil could be seen sporting an eye patch during 2112. Lerxst began the rant with the usual odd guitar notes and mumbling, then began telling a story about a boy and girl who walked into the woods and found a house made of gingerbread. When they started eating it, a witch came out of the house and said "Stop eating my house!" The kids replied, "Be quiet you old bat. We're eating your house." He end by saying "Fairy tales really suck these days."
• Jones Beach (8/11): During 2112 Geddy again sang "We Are The Pirates...". For the rant Lerxst began by making random noises and singing along as "La La La LA LA", then said "I smell a skunk. I smell a Stinky Skunk." He continued babbling and making od noises, then ending in a whiny kind of voice, "What a stupid thing to do! What a stupid, idiotic, insane, retarded, moronic...thing to".
• Mansfield (8/12): After the drum solo, as Geddy and Alex came out to play Resist Geddy said "it feels good to able to sit down, he (pointing to the drum set) gets to sit down the whole show!" 2112 included the lyrics "We Are The Pirates..." Lerxst began the rant by singing the notes he was playing up and down the neck, then Pratt took up the pace with a bass-snare-snare beat, resembling a surfing style song. Lerxst then sang nonsense lyrics to the tune of "Monster Mash" for about a verse, but before the chorus he changed the tune into a blues song. Dirk and Pratt were in perfect sync for this as Lerxst rambed on in jibberish until they built to a crescendo until stopping in the blues tradition so Lerxst could let out on big note, which he sang along to, then finished saying "If a schmuck like me can sing the blues" (Pratt then starts the snare return to LVS) "then so...can...YOU!"
• Holmdel (8/14): Geddy informed the crowd that it was "to-the-day, the 30th anniversary of their first American gig" (with Neil Peart on drums). During the rant, Lerxst discussed smoking and drinking and making sure we had enough, and told the loud crowd "you guys are soooooo damn quiet in joisey".
• Darien Lake (8/15): During YYZ some girls came out to check the laundry, and 2112 still had the pirate theme with a parrot on Geddy's shoulder and sang the final chorus of Temples in his now signature pirate voice. Also during 2112 two of the crew came on stage with w/huge hats and vests carrying golf clubs and began to feed the dryers quarters, and when they didn't start spinning again they took out their clubs and beat the dryers. When done they walked past Alex and gave him a big wave. Moments later a guy wearing a black shirt and Speedo slowly walked across the stage. Lerxst started by making rollercoaster ride sound effects "RAAAAUHHHHH...RAAAAAAUHHHHHH" going up and down (the roller coaster ride at Six Flags was present in the backround throughout the show) and then started crying obnoxiously before telling a story about Little Boy Blue, and what he was wearing and "poor Little Boy Blue" before being joined by Geddy and Neil for a short blues tune.
• New York City (8/18): Lerxst warmed up the crowd with some of his signature strange guitar sounds and noises, then began "Oh thank you God for making me Paris Hilton...I'm thinking to myself, maybe I'll spend some money today, maybe I'll get my picture taken again...and again...and again...and again...and again...AND AGAIN!...and why? I don't know why. Just why not?" This led to a rock riff where he sang "Paris Hilton, Paris Hilton, Paris Hilton, where are you baby? Paris Hilton, Paris Hilton, Paris Hilton, where are you baybee? Where's your brain? Where's your brain? Where's your brain? WHERE'S YOUR BRAIN!?!? Paris Hilton, Paris Hilton, you're so beatiful, oh yeah, Paris Hilton, Paris Hilton, YOU MAKE ME SICK! I don't know what my problem is, but she makes me sick...well I probably make her sick, but you know what? I COULDN'T CARE LESS!"
• New York City (8/19): During 2112, the pirate theme was again continued, with Geddy sporting a parrot on his shoulder. During the rant Lerxst began mumbling nonsense as usual, then did alternating voices of "parents" saying "time to go...come on we gotta go"... followed by the voice of a child whining..."But I don't wanna go....I don't wanna go home!" which ended with "I don't want to leave New York City, the best city in the world!!" He followed that with more whining before finishing it up with a short blues song.
• Montreal (8/21): Geddy introduced "Between The Wheels" as a song "recorded not far from here". During 2112, Ricky and Bubbles (Robb Wells and Mike Smith) from the Trailer Park Boys walked onstage: Ricky lit a cigarette and Bubbles posed as the 2112 guy. The pirate theme was continued, with Geddy wearing a parrot and using a pirate accent for "We are the pirates...", one of the crew wore a pirate hat while checking on the dryers and the soundboard operator had a huge jolly roger flag which he waved at the end of "Temples". During the rant, Lerxst began with the typical mumbling/singing of nonsense, before clearing his throat and singing in a loud, and hoarse voice. Then he started to sing a blues tune while Geddy and Neil joined in, "Just a poor boy..."
• Toronto (8/22): Lerxst began with the usual odd guitar noises...then he started saying "there is no place like home...there is no place like home...click your shoes dammit...there is no place like Toronto...Toronto" ...and then he started breathing through his nose into the microphone in what sounded like a country & western beat. After doing this for a minute or so, they broke back into La Villa and Geddy asked Lerxst (not into the mic) "What was that?"
• London (9/8): During 2112 , Geddy sported his parrot and included his pirate lines. Lerxst began the rant singing la la la la la and making weird sounds with his guitar, then talked about the tower of London, Buckingham palace and how bad Radio One was (BBC 1 pop type radio station). He also sang some lines from Roger Miller's England Swings: "England swings like a pendulum do; Bobbies on bicycles, two by two; Westminster Abbey, the tower of Big Ben; The rosy red cheeks of the little children".
• London (9/9): The parrot was again in the house during 2112, and after appearing to have audio problems with his inner ear monitor, Lerxst began the rant with a mock sobbing rambling about his problem and mentioned "they won't turn it up". In reference to an earlier mistake in La Villa, Alex said "It was strange, I was dreaming. I dreamt I was in a band and playing in front of all these people and that I made I mistake. And then I realised it wasn't a dream, it was real! I've been playing this song for like 100 years and it happened. On no! Wait, how does it go again? I remember how it goes again!" He starts singing the last section and played some more of his odd guitar sounds.
• Birmingham (9/11): Lerxst began with the usual odd guitar sounds, then said "I'm so sad...I'm so sad...I'm so sad. They've closed Boddingtons Brewery..after 200 years of brewing beer." Boddingtons is a brewery in Manchester, makers of 'Real Ale', which was being closed after 230 years in business. Lersxt then turned it into a sad blues, similar to what he's played on earlier nights of the tour. "I'm so sad. Everybody's drinking too much lager now...I want my Boddington's!...Well its only beer!"
• Manchester (9/12): At the beginning of YYZ a cake with "HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEIL" flashed up on the screen, and it was brought onstage during the song. After the song, the crowd started singing "Happy Birthday" but were cut short by the beginning of "The Trees". For the rant Lerxst began with the usual strange noises before squealing like a pig. "Hey I sound like Babe". Then he seemed to go into a conversation with himself as Babe and the farmer (could be wrong here?) When he really got into it he seemed to be sort of telling himself off - gruff voice / wingey voice, eyes closed, grimacing all the time. Then his eyes popped open as if he'd just woken up and he started staring around at the crowd and said, "Hey, where did you come from?" He ended it by just tanding and waving his arms and said, "That's it."
• Birmingham (9/15) - Lerxst played a slow bluesy riff and sobbed into the microphone "12 years .....sorry, but we gotta go" (referring to the 12 years since the last UK tour!!) He repeated this a few times before starting to sob profusely. Geddy & Neil joined in wholeheartedly with the slow blues but soon began to show signs of losing it. Neil was smirking and Geddy was making a "T" (Time out!!) sign behind Lerxst' back, much to the crowds enjoyment. He wrapped up by saying something like "....next stop - Amsterdam!!!!!" (should have said Germany!)
• Oberhausen (9/17) - Geddy greeted the audience during the drum intro to Animate by saying "Hello Deutschland" (accent free). With all remaining German dates, he greeted each city by changing his greeting to "Hello Stuttgart/Frankfurt/Hamburg" instead of "Deutschland". For the rant Lerxst mumbled a few things as if he had a bad cold or something, sounded a bit like he was choking.
• Stuttgart (9/19) - One of the roadies put a dwarf on stage which Alex took during the middle part of By-Tor to play his guitar! Lerxst's rant was totally insane, he never said a word and was just laughing and screaming.
• Milan (9/21) - For Rush's first visit to Italy, Geddy first greeted the crowd with somthing like "Grazie! Thank you so much! Sorry I can speak Italian...just a little...'piccolo'..it took us quite a long time to come to Italy but now we are here to play a million songs tonight!" ('Piccolo' means 'small'; it was pointed out by one Italian fan that he should have said 'poco', which means 'little', but his minimal Italian still still received a strong ovation from the crowd!). In addition, following Limelight, Geddy said 'buona notte' (good night) . During his rant, Lerxst mumbled for some time, sounds like "bbbb... bbbbbboooppp....bbbbiii....booo.... bbboooo..." and didn't speak until the very end, when he counted off the return to La Villa Strangiato with "uno due tre quattro" (Italian for one, two, three, four).
• Frankfurt (9/24) - As expected after being alluded to by Geddy while on Phil Jupitus' Breakfast Show, this show was filmed by the band "not that we have a specific DVD release in mind for it, but just kind of as a historical record of 'this' tour." This may be why, during the rant, Alex didn't say anything, he only laughed for awhile! Like in Frankfurt, Lerxst again counted into the return to La Villa in German ("Eins, zwei, drei, vier").
• Prague (9/25): Geddy spoke some Czech, specifically "Dekuji", which translates as "I thank you". Likely as there were few native-English speaking audience members, the "rant" was entirely non-verbal. No words. Lerxst began with the weird guitar stuff and segued into some low kind of mumbling that you couldn't really hear much less understand, with Geddy and Neil smiling. Eventually Lerxst heightened the pitch of the rant little by little until he was squealing with his arms held up high. Then he moved into a kind of a gub-gub-gub sound made by vibrating the back of his hand under his chin before ending the rant and returning to La Villa by counting one two three, not only in Czech, but in slang Czech. He said ?Raz dva tri?, and the crowd let out a big cheer. The concert was held in the Sparta Praha national ice stadium, and during 2112 (while Geddy wore his parrot), the Rush Backstage Club's Patrick McGlocklin and pyrotechnician Kevin came on stage to fill the Maytags with coins wearing hockey jerseys: the first was wearing a Czech nationals jersey while the second wore a Team Canada jersey. As they put the coins into the dryers they started to jostle each other, then in true ice hockey style they pretended to throw gloves to the floor and started fighting with each other while the band looked on.
• Hamburg (9/27): Lerxst began with something like "mi, mi, mi, mi" (similar to Beaker from the Muppet Show) which progressed to some kind of Polka Stuff (Humba, Humba, Humba), until everybody had tears of laughter in their eyes, Neil even stopped playing and the crowd clapped along to his strange noises. Like in Frankfurt, Lerxst again counted into the return to La Villa in German ("Eins, zwei, drei, vier"). During the intro to the second half of the show Lerxst threw an empty plastic bottle at the road crew and as an response he got ten to twenty of them back from his crew and it soon turned into a bottle fight. During 2112 Lerxst had a big owl on his left shoulder which was at least three times the size of Geddys parrot. During Temples it fell of his shoulder but was still hanging on his back so Lerxst turned around a few times like a dog chasing his tail, trying to get a look at it. Later the owl fell on the ground and Lerxst kicked it to the crew. The drawf from Stuttgart returned, as the crew also positioned the dwarf and a sheep in front of his mic.
• Stockholm (9/29): Lerxst ranted about Mats Sundin. It was unclear if Sweden would never get Sundin back, or if he was sorry about Mats Sundin coming back from Toronto. This led into a blues tune that evolved into a heavy metal chant, "Come Back, Mats! Come Back, Mats! No Mats Sundin, he doesn't wanna hang out with you...no more Mats Sundin boo hoo hoo, no more NHL boo hoo hoo too bad too bad boo hoo hoo".

Snakes & Arrows Tour

"Rush scored the 6th highest tour gross of the summer with $21 million, 3rd among rock acts, according to USA TODAY. Over 38 shows, Rush had an attendance of 399,000 with 67% of seats filled. They quote Billboard's tour analyst, Ray Waddell, as saying, "Rush is a thrilling live band. Their fans know this, and their reputation keeps spreading to new generations." - Summer Tour Report , USA Today, October 10, 2007

"For the second leg of the tour, Rush came in at #8 among the year's rock and pop tours with $18.3 million in earnings, not too shabby for a second leg tour". - Midyear Music Biz Report Card - RollingStone.com, July 29, 2008

"The Snakes & Arrows tour made the top 25 grossing North American tours of 2007, coming in at 25 according to Billboard magazine. Rush netted $29,659,721 in ticket sales; attendance was 517,211 out of a 720,497 capacity over 48 shows." - Billboard.com , December 13, 2007

Snakes & Arrows Tour Dates

"The CD came out just prior to us going back out on the road - it gave us a little boost I think, in terms of making everybody aware that we were going back out for the second half of the tour. But these things take a while. To do the 5.1 mix is always time-consuming. So, we were able to get a stereo mix out quite easily." - Alex Lifeson, UGO.com, December 11, 2008

Snakes & Arrows Tour Setlists

Shows notes.

• The dryers from the previous tours were replaced by three rotisserie chicken roasters (periodic 'bassting' is required), which were as tall as Alex's stacks of H&K amplifiers and say "Henhouse" across the front of them. Like the previous two tours, before the encore the band threw t-shirts to fans in the crowd. The t-shirt used for the 2007 leg of the tour is black and does not say Rush anywhere; the front has an image of a waitress holding up a roast chicken while saying 'Feel like chicken?', while the back has the same phrase in six other languages: Dutch, German, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish; listed in the same order as they tour the respective countries. The front of the t-shirt used for the 2008 leg of the tour simply reads "Henhouse" , while the back has a detailed display of a Henhouse roaster demonstrating how to get that "hot tasty sound", etc. (This image was later published on Rush.com).
• There were multiple "Barbie Doll" groupies known as "Big Al's Babes" standing on stage in front of Alex Lifeson, holding "Post-It" signs with various sayings on them, apparently created by the roadies. Sayings included: "I Like The Drummer", "My Grampa Says Your Cool", "Can I Roll Your Bones?", "I'm A Dino-Whore AKA Suckasaurass", "I Was Conceived While My Dad Was At A Rush Concert", "I'm Not Wearing Any Panties", "My Mom Thinks Your Hot!", "I'm Only Doing This To Pay For College", "Freebird!", "I Thought ZZ Top Had Beards", "Bass Player's Cute! Is That His Real Nose?", "I Golf Naked", "Nice Dinosaurs - You Must Be A Caveman" and "If It's Too Loud You're Too Old".
• The opening video began with a dream sequence of Snakes and Arrows images, then Alex sits up in bed, saying, "Snakes? Who would dream about snakes, that's so creepy. Honey? Honey - wake up. I had this weirdest dream, it was a snake..." then the person lying next to him sits up and its Neil. They look at each other and yell in surprise...then after another sequence, Geddy wakes up in a chair and says "What did they do to my food?" and then in walks a man in a Scottish costume who speaks with a Scottish accent who tells Geddy he doesn't care how he is feeling, to "...wipe that chicken off your face and get out there!" after which they all ran out. The guy in the Scottish costume is actually Geddy, dressed in make up and wig. At the end of the show, another video of Scottish Geddy, aka "Harry Satchel" plays, where he tells people to go home because he wants to get back to eating his chicken, and "Limelight" is played on the bagpipes.
• For the first leg of the tour, the video intro for the second set was "The Plane of Dharma", featuring Alex in rare, comical form, playing several characters on the Snakes and Arrows Leela board. The board shifted around the screen and highlighted certain lines to which Alex popped up and executed various Alex rants.
• For the second leg of the tour, a new video intro was used called "What's That Smell", which included Geddy and Alex, Barbie Dolls, fried chicken, the return of both Harry Satchel (aka Geddy Lee in Scotsman garb) and Jerry Stiller, as well as a short appearance by Alex's "swami head in a box", and guest appearances by "Neil's head in a box" and others, along with lots of inside jokes for Rush fans; unfortunately, this video replaced Alex Lifeson's "Plane of Dharma" video. At the end of the outro video, where during the first leg of the tour "Limelight" was played with bagpipes, during this leg it is played with Indian sitar music. All other videos from the first leg remained, although some were modified (for example, one of the televisions from the Power Windows cover is seen blowing with the tumbleweeds during "When The Wind Blows").
• There was a video of Bob & Doug McKenzie to introduce "The Larger Bowl"
• "The Larger Bowl" has video snippets showing alternating images between the rich and the poor, etc.
• Click here for a 1:05 edit of the rearscreen animation created by Crankbunny for "The Way The Wind Blows".
• Alex played a mandola mounted on an Omega stand during "Workin' Them Angels"; the song had a video accompaniment similar to the album art of various types of workers and soldiers with angel wings.
• There was a South Park video intro to "Tom Sawyer"; during the video, the South Park characters begin playing "Tom Sawyer" but Cartman sings the wrong lyrics, "...floated down the river on a raft with a black guy", which leads to an argument with Cartman saying he's read the book and that's how the story goes, but the others quickly correct him saying "that's Huckleberry Finn, stupid!". Cartman then says "I am Geddy Lee! And I will sing whatever lyrics I want!". They then start again to count off the beginning for Rush.
• During "A Passage To Bangkok", a video played showing footage of far east trains, poppy fields, marijuana plants and many other scenes related to the lyrics.
• Geddy Lee played his 4001 Rickenbacker bass on stage for the first time in 25 years (last seen on the Signals tour).
• Geddy Lee used a minature Snakes & Arrows drum as a cup holder.
• "Digital Man", last played on the Grace Under Pressure warm-up tour, had a new arrangement and is missing the first "He's got a force field" lyric.
• The drum solo was completely revamped: the "Scars" and "Pieces of Eight" sections were dropped; there were a slew of new marimba samples which gave the middle section including the "Momo's Dance Party" bit an Oriental percussion feel; instead of "One O'clock Jump", the solo included a complete big band triggered sample of "Cotton Tail" which Neil performed with the Buddy Rich Band on Burning for Buddy Vol. I .
• "The Trees" was added for the second leg of the tour, included Geddy triggering a sample of Cartman from South Park saying "Real guitars are for old people" .
• Added for the second leg of the tour, located on a pedestal near Geddy was a minature model of Neil Peart at his Snakes & Arrows drum kit .
• During the tour and for years afterwards, Neil's House Music List was available at Rush.com

Time Machine Tour

"Rush takes the No. 1 ranking on Hot Tours chart with totals reported from the Time Machine Tour that played North American venues from late June through early October..." - Billboard.com , October 21, 2010

Time Machine Tour Dates

Time machine tour setlist.

• The stage set, as noted in the tourbook, was inspired by the "steampunk" genre of science fiction with heavy use of copper accents as well as video and amplifier tubes. Alex's Hughs & Kettner amps were housed in steampunk cabinets, Neil's drumkit hardware as well as all cymbal and keyboard stands were copper plated, and in place of Geddy's amp there was a "time machine". Frequently during the show, steam released from the pipes. When not playing production videos, the primary video screen showed a split screen where onto of a steampunk background one large video screen (tv tube) featured on the right half, and two smaller ones on the left, with each band member featured on at least one screen at all times whether it's a full frontal shot, a closeup on the playing, etc. The "steampunk" background, when was featured on the screen, had gears spinning at all times, etc. During the big band section of the drum solo, a computer generated video of a steampunk robot played , and was synchronized with Neil's playing. In addition, for certain songs, a five second video of the "odometer" from the tourbook cover played before the song, where it would spin to the year that song was released, i.e. for Leave That Thing Alone it stopped at 1994, for Marathon it stopped at 1985; for The Spirit Of Radio, it stopped at 1979, and not 1980, however.
• The opening video was titled "Rash, The 'Real' History of Rush" , and featured the 'Gershons Haus of Sausage' diner with Geddy working the counter, Alex in a fatsuit eating sausage, and Neil as a second patron [Gershon is of course Geddy's real name]. A polka band, "Rash", played The Spirit of Radio on accordion, tuba and drums! After Alex brought out and used a time machine dubbed the "Gefilter", the music changed to a disco rendition of The Spirit of Radio, and after another adjustment changed to country music. After one final adjustment, the original studio version was heard as the video ends and the concert begins. Geddy usually wore a tshirt featuring either the debut logo but spelled "RASH", or a tshirt featuring the logo "Gefilter". Early in the tour (after opening night), preceding the encore, Geddy and Alex tossed tshirts to the fans. One shirt read "Gershon's" on the front and "Nobody Beats My Sausage" on the back . A second shirt read "Slobovich Says..." on the front and "The Last Time Someone Grabbed My Sausage..." on the back .
• The alternate versions of "The Spirit Of Radio" and "Closer To The Heart" (exit music) were arranged by the Dexter's Lou Pomati.
• The intro video for the second set was part 2 of "The 'Real' History of Rush" from a second/alternate timeline. This time, Alex, still in the fat suit but sporting a mullet and going by the name of Rush's real manager Ray Danniels, is the manager of the "polka band", who are now wearing the kimonos from 2112 . The band is filming a video, with Geddy made up as Andy Warhol portraying the director and Neil as the cameraman. More time machine hijinks ensued, leading into Moving Pictures ...
• Don't miss this website and photo gallery from Louise Mackintosh, makeup artist responsible for the makeup effects on the Time Machine tour.
• In the tradition of the dryer tenders and chicken basters of recent tours, twice during the show people appeared on stage pushing a shopping cart containing "rubber chickens" to "feed" the sausage machine (the chickens were dropped into the large funnel closest to Neil's kit).
• The Moving Pictures videos: each song had an all new ~20 second Monty Python-esque video featuring the Parliament Building and/or the movers in the red suits in one way or another. For "Red Barchetta", a Ferrari 166MM Barchetta race car with number 2112 on the door pulls up to the Parliament Building, the movers get in and drive away. For "YYZ", a biplane lands in front of the Parliament Building, and then airplanes are shown circling Toronto's CN Tower which is being climbed not by King Kong but rather a giant mover. For Limelight, a light switch is shown, which when switched on turns on a few light bulbs, and then the movers are seen walking a tightrope. "The Camera Eye" features camera bulbs at the beginning, and then each segment shows fast paced videos of New York or London. "Witch Hunt" features the movers chasing a litte girl witch through a forest with sausages on pitchforks for roasting on the fire. "Vital Signs" featured the movers, a robot and an EKG.
• During "Red Barchetta", we heard Daffy Duck saying "No more for me thanks, I'm driving" , previously heard during the 2009 leg of the Snakes And Arrows Tour.
• Near the end of "The Camera Eye", we first heard Austin Powers' "Yeah Baby!" , followed by a sample from Family Guy ( Stewie: "Nobody likes you here man." New Brian: "Well, I disagree. I think everybody likes me." Stewie: "No we don't." ), followed by a sample from Monty Python's The Holy Grail ( "Bring Out Your Dead" ).
• The video at the end of the show was titled "I Still Love You Man" , and featured Paul Rudd and Jason Segel reprising their roles from I Love You Man . They have snuck into the band's dressing room, and are still there when the band walk in after the show.
• "Faithless" had a video showing butterflies and seashells in a dream landscape, and a business man holding a briefcase and umbrella. He sprouts butterfly wings and floats around. Video ends with a moral(?) compass swinging on a string.
• This was the first tour since its inception that Neil Peart did not utilitze the rear/electronic drums for any of the songs performed, with the exception of his drum solo.
• For the encore, the band started playing an all new polka piece, with Geddy and Alex playing the accordian and tuba sounds on the keyboards and pedals. This morphed into the beginning of La Villa Strangiato.

Clockwork Angels Tour

Clockwork angels tour dates, clockwork angels tour setlists.

• There were three videos played during the show: the show opened with "Gearing Up"; the second set opened with "The Appoinment"; and the show ended with "Office Of The Watchmaker".
• During the film "The Appoinment", the doorbell first plays "Closer To The Heart" and then "Tom Sawyer".
• At the end of the "Office Of The Watchmaker", we hear "Tom Sawyer" (Calliope version).
• Geddy's backline included a popcorn machine and a large floating brain in a giant jar.
• There was a small stage behind the drumkit with a small staircase leading up to it from both sides for the string section, which came out and performed for the entire second set, leaving before the encore.
• Alex had a keyboard (same as on the Time Machine tour), which he used to play the piano on "The Garden".
• Beginning the fifth show in Chicago, the starman appeared in the opening video for "2112", then Stewie from Family Guy kicked the starman off the screen and took his place.

R40 Live Tour

R40 tour dates, r40 live tour setlists.

• During the opening video, a roadsign appeared listing the current city and its population (which is reportedly accurate), and a city slogan. To the right of the roadsign was pictured an actual physical landmark, person or mascot, etc., unique to that city.
• "Roll The Bones"' rapping skeleton was replaced by celebrity rappers including the Trailer Park Boys, Paul Rudd & Jason Segel, Jay Baruchel, Les Claypool, Tom Morello, Chad Smith and Peter Dinklage , brother of violinist Jonathan Dinklage, who was a member of the Clockwork Angels String Ensemble.
• "The Camera Eye" was dedicated "in loving memory" to Rush's long time photograher Andrew MacNaughtan who shockingly passed away in 2012 due to a heart attack in 2012 at the young age of 47. It returned after last being played on the Time Machine tour, and in fact, Alex Lifeson said that on the Time Machine tour "it ended up being our favorite song to play on a nightly basis...We'll continue to play it on [the Clockwork Angels ] tour." - Guitar Player , November 2012; one can assume it was dropped from the preplanned Clockwork Angels setlists due to time constraints.
• "Mel's Rockpile" starring Eugene Levy had been a recurring skit on SCTV .
• "Jacob's Ladder" was a song that Alex Lifeson had said they would play on the Time Machine Tour, but which was shot down by Neil Peart with the statement "you can't go back".
• "Xanadu" was performed by Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee with both of them using their doubleneck guitars for the first time in decades.
• "Natural Science" included sounds of R2D2 beeping at the lyric "computerized clinics" instead of the computerized sounds heard in the studio version.
• "The Camera Eye" included a sample of the conversation "Surely you can't be serious?" "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley" from the movie Airplane! .
• "The Big Money" was listed in the tour book's rear screen film credits but was not included in any of the final setlists, indicating it may have been planned to be included but dropped due to time constraints.
• Fly By Night
• Caress of Steel
• All The World's a Stage
• A Farewell to Kings
• Hemispheres
• Permanent Waves warm-up
• Permanent Waves
• Moving Pictures warm-up
• Moving Pictures
• Exit Stage Left
• Signals warm-up
• Grace Under Pressure warm-up
• Grace Under Pressure
• Power Windoows warm-up
• Power Windows
• Hold Your Fire
• Roll The Bones
• Counterparts
• Test for Echo
• Vapor Trails
• Snakes & Arrows
• Time Machine
• Clockwork Angels

Short Shows

"We always play basically the same show; sometimes what we'll do is shorten the show a little bit if we're playing an area that isn't as familiar with our material as another area. So sometimes we'll make that a slightly more condensed version of the show. And some countries, if we're not bringing the entire show with us, we might condense the show for that reason as well." - Geddy Lee, "Rockline", December 4, 1989

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• December 14, 1982 Setlist

Rush Setlist at Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA, USA

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Tour: Signals Tour statistics Add setlist

• The Spirit of Radio Play Video
• Tom Sawyer Play Video
• Freewill Play Video
• Digital Man Play Video
• Subdivisions Play Video
• Vital Signs Play Video
• The Camera Eye Play Video
• Closer to the Heart Play Video
• Chemistry Play Video
• The Analog Kid Play Video
• Broon's Bane Play Video
• The Trees Play Video
• Red Barchetta Play Video
• The Weapon Play Video
• New World Man Play Video
• Limelight Play Video
• Countdown Play Video
• 2112 Part I: Overture Play Video
• 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx Play Video
• Xanadu Play Video
• La Villa Strangiato Play Video
• In the Mood Play Video
• YYZ Play Video
• Drum Solo Play Video

Edits and Comments

7 activities (last edit by bendobrin , 1 Feb 2020, 19:00 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• Digital Man
• New World Man
• Subdivisions
• The Analog Kid
• Red Barchetta
• The Camera Eye
• Vital Signs
• 2112 Part I: Overture
• 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx
• Closer to the Heart
• La Villa Strangiato
• The Spirit of Radio
• Broon's Bane
• In the Mood

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Rush Gig Timeline

• Dec 11 1982 New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum New Haven, CT, USA Add time Add time
• Dec 13 1982 Spectrum Philadelphia, PA, USA Add time Add time
• Dec 14 1982 Spectrum This Setlist Philadelphia, PA, USA Add time Add time
• Dec 15 1982 Centrum in Worcester Worcester, MA, USA Add time Add time
• Feb 11 1983 Tingley Coliseum Albuquerque, NM, USA Add time Add time

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What band opened for Rush on the signals tour?

The tour in support of "Snakes and Arrows" took place in 2007-2008, and there was no opening act. It was three hours of Rush at their best, punctuated by several clever videos and some interesting special effects.

Add your answer:

What band opened for the Osmond Brothers on the 1971 tour?

The Heygoods

Who were the Opening bands for rush moving pictures concert tour?

A Toronto band named "FM", one of their members plays the electric violin on the Rush song "Losing It".

Why is geddy lee from the band rush wearing a shirt with the word rash on the front of it instead of rush and what does it mean?

In the band's 2010 Time Machine tour, they start the concert with an amusing video claiming to expose the TRUE HISTORY of Rush. In this video, the band started out as an accordion/tuba/drum polka band named Rash. More hi-jinx followed... :-)

What is RASH by the rock group Rush?

It's a comedy bit, in which the guys from Rush play the members of a polka band named Rash. This comedy bit was first seen in a video that was shown at the beginning of Rush's concerts, during the 2010 Time Machine tour. It was another example of how the band incorporated humor and satire into their shows.

Who is the opening act for Dave Matthews band?

I don't know who the opening act for that show was, but Gravity Kills and Goldfinger opened for them on some shows for that tour. The show in Memphis was on April 8th, 1996 at Mud Island Amphitheater and it was the "Filthy Lucre" tour if anyone can use that to research more. The Sex Pistols played the Taliesyn Ballroom in Memphis in January 1978, a band called Quo Jr. opened for them.

Who is opening up for big time rush tour?

One Direction has opened up for Big Time Rush in the past.

Which successful band did One Direction tour with in the US?

Big time rush

Who opened for the band AC DC on their razors edge tour?

I actually went to this concert, but can't remember who opened for them.

Is there a front band for the 2008 rush concert tour?

In 2008, Rush toured in support of their "Snakes and Arrows" album, and there was no opening act.

Who did Hedley tour with?

one second too late was the name of the band that opened the show i was at one of the concerts

Did the band The Who ever open for Herman's Hermits?

Yes, The Who opened for Herman's Hermits on their U.S. tour in 1967.

What band opened on tour for Miley Cyrus?

On the Hannah Montana\Miley Cyrus 2007 - 2008 concert tour, the Jonas Brothers were the opening act.

Who is the band Before You Exit?

they are a band ?! oo hahaha. okay.. they start in 2007 and are friends from childhood!With public attention on the band, Before You Exit decided to tour. Entitled The Next Big Thing Tour, the boys opened the shows already established bands like All Time Low and TheRocket To The Moon. Recently, not to rush, and the band is following the band Allstar Weekend in his new tour.In the same hectic pace, since 2012 the guys starts boiling, with the release of new single End of the World, the band starts to warm up the fans eager for the release of their first album, which has the help of his friend Alex Gaskarth tour , All Time Low.

Did katelyn tarver quit Big Time Rush in 2013?

No her band went on tour so she had to leave and that's why there is Big Time Breakup

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Opening acts

By alphseeker , February 3, 2006 in Rush

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Who was the best opening act for rush?

I personally can't think back that far - I think it was FX for the moving pictures tour but not sure - I remember i wasn't too impressed -

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Mustard Death

Blue Oyster Cult on the Power Windows tour? I don't remember that but it was a long long time ago. I remember Golden Earring opened for them on the Signals tour I believe it was.

Who I remember was:

And probably a three more or so that I can't recall. Primus was the best.

Primus opened for them during the Roll The Bones tour. I was never a fan, and it did nothing for me.

For the Counterparts tour, Candlebox was this little known band (to me). I saw that show two nights in a row, and 2nd time being front row in front of where Geddy plays.

Candlebox, on both nights - blew my f'ing head off. They were amazing. Bought their CD because of those shows, and was blown away by that, too. Been a fan ever since.

Mr. Big.... No comment.

The best opening act for Rush is: no opening act.

It was a very good thing, that in 1996 they saw it your way as well.

Digital Man

Yeah, but only for about a dozen shows, mostly back east. Out here in CA it was Steve Morse. I saw it but I do not remember Morse at all.

Red Porschetta

Grandpa Grizz

I missed the HYF tour, but all three of the other bands mentioned here were okay. Primus was prolly the best, IMO.

JohnnyBlaze

The Mighty Dudad

Marillion was the best I saw. Saw them open for Rush at the Montreal Forum in 1986 on the Power Windows tour. They came out, said something like "Rush wants to play extra long tonight, this is Misplaced Childhood", nad proceeded to play pretty much the whole album. Then Rush came out and blew everyone away. Very cool.

vital signz

*Slaps self*

afansince74

For AF2K tour(my first), and it was Max Webster (which I missed) and UFO, who were very good, really rocked out from what I recall (that's been way too long!).

Signals was Golden Earring. I even bought on of their concert tee-shirts (still have it somewhere around here, the one with the card being cut in-two by the bullet, if anyone remembers that!) The sounded very good.

I remember Mr. Big for Presto too,... so-so I recall.

crushtopher

I saw alot of different openers for Rush . Three that i thought were excellent were Blue oyster cult, Steve Morse Band , and Eric Johnson.

Others i saw ....MR.Big- did nothing for me, Candlebox- wheres the beer stand,Primus.....i liked but felt like it was halloween music, Fastway.....they were pretty good, Marilion- decent act couldnt figure out why Peter Gabriel painted his face like a fish(just kidding but he does sound alot like Gabriel)

By far the best opener for Rush was.....No one

When they stopped having openers is when their concerts got longer and i heard more of what we all came to hear. Two long Rush Sets

I hope they never go back to having an opener again. Stay the Course!!!

floydfanatic111

Candlebox were despicable. Many booed them when I saw them(I was one of the lenching mob).

Noisy Bastard

Primus was also on the Counterparts tour. They are the only band that ever opened for Rush that I was "into". Granted, they're a love it or hate it band. Even the friends I have that are into some pretty off-the-wall stuff, only a few will last more than a couple of minutes with Primus on. But that's another thread altogether.

The first time I saw Rush, they weren't the headliner. Starcastle opened up first, then Rush, and lastly Boston. This was early 1977 and Boston only had one album out. They played EVERY song from that album. About an hour at best, maybe only 45 minutes. Rush played for right at an hour, IIRC. That was the one and only time I ever saw Rush where they were not the headliner. Starcastle and Boston were decent, but my friends and I went purposely to see Rush.

Very shortly after that Rush had Rick Derringer as a warm up act. Definitely one of the better openers of any Rush tour. Like Primus, another memorable/likeable, fun opening band would be Max Webster.

Other openers -- longer list here -- UFO, Saxon, FM, Rory Gallagher, Jon Butcher Axis, Fastway, Gary Moore, Helix, Michael Schenker (sp?) Group, Mr. Big, and Eric Johnson. After 42 Rush concerts, I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

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Who Was Mr. Tambourine Man? The Inspiration Behind Dylan’s Song

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For a band known for its reinventions, this album might have been the biggest reinvention of all.

Published on

Rush was always celebrated for reinventing their sound on each album. But 1982’s Signals may have been the biggest reinvention of them all. Signals was the start of the “keyboard era” – the first of a string of albums that gave synthesizers equal prominence with Alex Lifeson’s guitar. Just as importantly, though, Signals saw the group streamlining its songwriting: Epic-length tracks were out and arrangements were crafted to push the melodies forward. This meant that you could start to hear the band taking inspiration from the best of modern rock: Hints of The Police , Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, and even Bob Marley were all given a uniquely Rush twist on Signals . Rush was now less of a “prog” band, and more of a truly progressive one.

Order the 40th-anniversary edition of Signals now .

Appropriately, it was the first Rush album to have an atmospheric opening track instead of a barnstormer. “Subdivisions” largely replaces lead guitar with the textural sound of a Minimoog. (The keys were all played by Lifeson and Geddy Lee, who’d now be doing double duty onstage.) There were other new wrinkles as well: Lee was now singing with greater range and subtlety. while Neil Peart traded his sci-fi lyrical themes for blunt social commentary. “Subdivisions” fits the rock & roll tradition of songs about the stifling nature of the suburbs. But it goes a step further by pointing out that nonconformist kids are still pressured to be the right kind of nonconformist: “Be cool or be cast out.”

‘Nursery Cryme’: Phil Collins And Steve Hackett Join The Genesis Cast

‘the single factor’: a camel classic that wears its years lightly, ‘fish rising’: the maiden solo voyage of steve hillage.

The surprises keep coming. Continuing the “Fear” trilogy begun on Moving Pictures , “The Weapon” builds tension for six minutes, with some well-placed drum accents from Peart. “The Analog Kid” returns briefly to a guitar-heavy sound, but adds a lush, emotive chorus. “Digital Man” borrows some Rastafarian imagery in the lyrics, and finds Rush incorporating reggae for the first time. That influence pops up again on “New World Man,” a song that became the most successful single of Rush’s career. (It was the only one to ever hit the Top 40 in the US, and it hit No.1 in Canada.)

Up until this point, Signals ’s sound is melodic but muscular. But then come the two closing tracks, which are unlike anything Rush did before or since. “Losing It” has a near-Baroque intro and is augmented by violin throughout. One of Rush’s most haunting songs, its lyrics address the loss of creative power over time. It’s a topic that most 80s rock stars weren’t keen on addressing, but it’s something Rush would come back to on their next album, the moody Grace Under Pressure .

In contrast, “Countdown” is quite literally an uplift. The group wrote the song after witnessing the takeoff of NASA’s first Columbia space shuttle. And “Countdown” is a literal musical picture of the event, with sound effects playing a crucial role in the arrangement. The band responds to cues from the control tower throughout, and engines are heard revving up beneath. Lyrically, it celebrates one of Rush’s favorite themes, the glories of human achievement. It also serves as a good metaphor for Signals as a whole: Blasting off to brave new worlds is exactly what this album was about.

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Rush: Signals - Album Of The Week Club review

An album that split rush's following clean down the middle, signals saw the canadian trio beginning to experiment with keyboards.

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

Subdivisions The Analog Kid Chemistry Digital Man The Weapon New World Man Losing It Countdown

Following the live  Exit… Stage   Left , Rush simply picked up from  Moving   Pictures   and added more keyboards. Lots more. The result was an album that split the band’s following clean down the middle.

Where  Signals  saw the trio beginning to experiment with keys, played by bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee , it meant that the potency of Alex Lifeson ’s guitar was sometimes sacrificed. For some, this was tantamount to heresy. However, The sheer quality of songs like  New World Man ,  Subdivisions  and  The Analog Kid  render such quibbles pointless.

More radical changes to the Rush soundscape, though, are in evidence on  Chemistry  and  Digital Man , both of which further explore Police-style techno-reggae (this a full year ahead of The Police’s  Synchronicity ), and  The   Weapon , built on a dance music drum pattern. Then after a brilliant guest solo by electric violinist Ben Mink on  Losing It , Rush reach for the stars with  Countdown , based on watching a shuttle launch as VIP guests of NASA.

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Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute. 

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Other albums released in September 1982

• It's Hard - The Who
• Peter Gabriel 4 - Peter Gabriel
• The Dreaming - Kate Bush
• New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) - Simple Minds
• The Philip Lynott Album - Philip Lynott
• Under the Blade - Twisted Sister
• Love over Gold - Dire Straits
• Forever Now - The Psychedelic Furs
• Nebraska - Bruce Springsteen
• Acting Very Strange - Mike Rutherford
• Death Penalty - Witchfinder General
• Ice Cream for Crow - Captain Beefheart
• Magic - Gillan
• Zombie Birdhouse - Iggy Pop

What they said...

"On their twelfth album, Rush makes a strong argument for the view that advanced technology is not necessarily the same thing as progress. Unfortunately, they do so largely by screwing up. Although Signals is chockablock with state-of-the-studio gadgetry, ranging from the requisite banks of synthesizers to the latest in digital recording and mixing, none of these electronic add-ons enhances the group’s music." ( Rolling Stone )

"While other rock bands suddenly added keyboards to their sound to widen their appeal, Rush gradually merged electronics into their music over the years, so such tracks as the popular MTV video Subdivisions did not come as a shock to longtime fans. And Rush didn't forget how to rock out – The Analog Kid and Digital Man were some of their most up-tempo compositions in years." ( AllMusic ) 

"Every single song has something special be it the epic chorus of The Analog Kid (“ You move me ” part is just fucking epic) the simple complexity of Chemistry the amazing melodic intro of The Weapon played out again in the chorus and the lovely vocal lines of New World Man . If you look at it in terms of progressiveness, yeah sure it doesn’t touch their previous albums, but in terms of sheer enjoyment and replay ability the album does stand proudly with the giants." ( Encyclopaedia Metallum ) 

What you said...

Vinnie Evanko: To be honest, I started to lose interest in Rush somewhat around this time. As a fan of the more progressive, guitar driven 70s sound I was not crazy about the change. To top it off I saw them live around this time and being in my early 20s I saw mostly 15 year old boys at the show and I felt old. Eventually I did circle back and I now find this album to be excellent.

Jonathan Spatz: This is the album that turned me into a Rush fan. I was 13 and the first time I heard those opening keyboard chords I was hooked! I have loved every phase of Rush. Only two albums I am not a big fan of are Hold Your Fire and Presto . But this was the one that started it for me. As always, amazing drum work, but I think it stands out a lot on this album.

Charlie Davidson: This was my cut-off point with Rush. Their subsequent albums left me cold. It's readily apparent that big changes were underway here but any album with Subdivisions on it can't be all bad!

Jack Meldrum: Thing I’ve always loved about Rush is that even though they evolved their sound around this time, however polarising it might have been, they were always technically incredible in a musical sense. Some people prefer the 70s rock stuff and some people prefer the more commercial 80s stuff but every time they managed to produce incredible music. Which really is all just testament to how talented this band really is.

Bill Griffin: The last of the bands 'classic' albums and I think the loss of Terry Brown has a lot more to do with that than the keyboards did. He was the constant while they improved as musicians, songwriters and arrangers. He was the anchor for their experimentation. Ironically perhaps, my favourite song on the album is the one that caused the rift; Digital Man .

I did have an issue with the promotional tour though; as was always their practice, all of this album, save one track, made the setlist. My problem is that, because Moving Pictures was so popular, so did most of it and that left very little room for older tracks.

Wade Babineau: Last Rush album produced by Terry Brown. I had gotten into Rush via the Exit... Stage Left live album and this came out afterwards. The video for Subdivisions drew me in to buy this. Haven't played this one in awhile, but upon a refreshed listening I was brought back to being 13 when this came out. Not a bum track in the lot. Had part two of the "Fear" trilogy with The Weapon . Analog Kid was another standout along with New World Man . 9/10 and a very appropriate choice this week after the news of Neil Peart's passing.

Arthur Comix: I bailed after this. The songs are weak, the "progression" turned them into a cheap copy of The Police (as did many other bands at the time), and the tour was dull. Time has not improved it for me either. Sorry, but not for me. 3/10

Joe Cogan: I was in high school at the time, so Subdivisions hit really close to home for me. It's still my favourite Rush song, and the album is a sentimental favourite as well; the keys don't dominate over every other element like they would on subsequent 80s efforts, and the songs themselves are excellent, striking a balance between accessibility and virtuosity. 9/10.

John Stout: To those of us who'd discovered Rush through heavy metal, Signals felt like a step too far towards the trendy synth-pop bands in the singles charts. But with the benefit of hindsight, it was simply the band progressing in a logical new direction started in Permanent Waves . Now it's one of my favourite Rush albums, with Subdivisions as worthy a classic as Tom Sawyer or The Spirit Of Radio . Terry Brown's last production for the band brought out the best in all three players, and while the synths, drums and bass might be upfront in the mix, close listening shows that Alex Lifeson's guitar was as active creative as always.

Ian Kingston: The great thing about Rush is that the band never stopped evolving. For me, Signals is part of the superb run of albums that began with 2112 (I never cared much for the first three albums) and ended with Grace Under Pressure .

While never my favourite Rush album (that would be Permanent Waves ), Signals is a very listenable collection of songs. Only the last track, Countdown , feels like filler. The standout tracks are Subdivisions, New World Man (which feels like a more nuanced update of Tom Sawyer ) and Losing It , and those hold up well against anything that went before.

There are still plenty of riffs, and the synthesizers never seem to take over unnecessarily. It's the sound of a band that wants to expand its musical range and is continuing to mature without losing its youthful excitement. And the album is definitely less pretentious - more grounded in the real world - than some of its predecessors.

Jonathan Novajosky: There are things about Signals that I really like and things I do not. It starts out great with my all-time favourite Rush song, Subdivisions . The lyrics are some of the best in any rock song in my opinion, and that opening synth is just so smooth and catchy. I imagine the song is meaningful to a lot of people given its subject matter and feeling of being different or an outcast. The Analog Kid is also solid; I love the opening riff and how it almost "goes together" with New World Man later on the album. Between those two songs, I start to lose interest in the album. Chemistry, Digital Man , and The Weapon are forgettable when compared to the opening tracks.

I'm sure a lot of people were turned off by the heavy synths in Signals , and while I think they aren't too overbearing for the most part, they overstay their welcome in a few of these songs. Fortunately, New World Man saves the album from being very one-sided. The riff and bass during the hook are so groovy (it somehow reminds me of Siberian Khatru ) and Lee's vocals are some of the best on any Rush song. Losing It is decent, but sort of a snoozer and Countdown is only slightly better. 

Overall, I wish Signals was a little better start to finish, but any album that is tasked with following Moving Pictures is held to high standards. Still, Signals has Subdivisions and a few other songs worth going back to that earn it a good score. 8/10.

Roland Bearne: The thing about Rush is that most often the new album doesn't just slap you in the face with instant brilliance. They open up as you invest your time and indeed as circumstances arise in your life. For instance, on first listen Losing It for example might have seemed a bit fay to a something-teen year old lad looking forward to "starting it!", whereas Subdivisons hit some social nails right on the teenage bonce. 

Actually, it took me a few years to get Signals . At the time I yearned for the sounds of the earlier albums. The penny actually dropped with the arrival of Grace Under Pressure . The sounds and songs on that album hit me almost immediately, they seemed to have their "crunch" back (let's ignore Ged's horrendous mullet!) So, I tentatively slipped Signals back on the turntable and ...sapristi! 

There it was, in full bloom with my ears ready to accept its new and nuanced approach. It has since remained one of my absolutely favourite Rush releases. It was then that the pattern of Rush's continued evolution started to emerge, the phases, the growth and it always felt as though my infinitesimally little journey was sort of guided by this, or indeed their music felt like a constant, an emotional anchor almost. 

That's the thing about the band both musically and in Maestro Peart's incomparable lyrics. They endure, they have relevance over the years in different circumstances and for different moods. I still know of no other band who are even comparable. Neal Peart is a devastating loss and you know, it feels almost like a personal loss. Signals is a triumph within a triumphant canon of achievement. 

Yes, "suddenly you were gone" but, what a catalogue, what a lot of music, of thoughts, sensibilities, stories and perceptions and Signals stands proud as a pivotal moment in their evolution. My first 10!

Randy Banner: This album was the logical progression from Moving Pictures and the last stop before diving headlong into the eighties. While enjoyable, it sounds very much of its time, though it doesn't sound as dated as, say, Hold Your Fire . As always, excellent musicianship and good songs, but every release through the rest of the decade sounds (to me) very "same-y". 7/10

David Ferguson: Cut my teeth on 2112, All The World's a Stage and A Farewell To Kings , so Signals was a bit of a disappointment for me. Some good songs on there to be sure but I didn't like the direction Rush was taking with the move towards more of a pop sound, more synths, thinner sounding guitars and Geddy's toned down vocal approach. Ended up taking a two decade hiatus from them as a result. 

With the passage of time, I'd put it dead in the middle of the Rush canon - better than just about everything they put out post Signals , but not as good any of their prior output. 5/10.

Rick Averdahl: Rush/Geddy Lee stated early, even right after the release of Moving Pictures , that Vital Signs was their way of moving forward, being heavily inspired by The Police. And he was right, they delivered what they promised, a Policeified version of Rush, short songs, keyboards and reggae rhythms along with sort of heavier/obscure/darker tracks, just as The Police on Ghost In The Machine released the year before. I loved it then, I love it now.

Steve Torrens: I don’t mind it, I liked The Police so the change to that kind of sound didn’t really bother me unduly, but following the perfection that is Moving Pictures was always going to be a tall order.

Looking back this was where Rush was lost to me until Counterparts . I liked the odd song or two from other albums, and Grace Under Pressure was okay, but Rush was about a huge guitar heavy sound in my mind and they strayed too far from that over the albums in between. I missed the heft, and I still don’t like their synth years to this day.

New World Man and Subdivisions are excellent but the rest of the album is, for Rush, a little pedestrian.

Richard Cardenas: At this point I had moved to punk and felt this record was a bit sterile. As I’ve gotten older I’ve circled back and have listened to their entire collection finding jewels in all of them. Funny thing is, listening to it now makes me realise it was still part of my soundtrack and it stirs some great memories. I give it an eight.

Jochen Scholl: When it was released I was 13 and depending on my brother to bring new music in my life on tape. I still remember he selected Losing It (still my favourite) and Countdown . After playing the LP I only added Subdivisions . The other songs I discovered 10 years later after becoming a Rush Fan and owner of all the CDs. Now this album was the one I listened to very often because all the others I'd already heard a 1000 times. As a result I can't judge it. But I must name another song highlight: New World Man is a lyrical masterpiece... they can't replace Neil Peart as a poet.

Graham Tarry: Having been a fan for many years, I remember being disappointed when I first played it. Too many keyboards, and I didn't like the reggae guitar (The Police were a big influence apparently), but many of the songs have stuck with me over the years, though it pales in comparison with the earlier classics.

Brian Corry : At the time, I didn't love it. Thought it was ok. However, over the years it has become one of my fave albums from them. Not a bad track. Love the deep cuts like Chemistry and Losing It , and Subdivisions is a top five of mine. The live shows from the era are incredible as well.

Gavin Norman: just listened to this on vinyl: my first Rush album, and I've still got it along with all the others. It’s stood the test of time well, and Subdivisions may be my favourite track of theirs. It’s beautifully produced, with thoughtful lyrics. A great listen. 9/10.

Mauricio Telles: Same as some other fellows here: shocked at first listen, but you cannot give away Rush.

I insisted and it grew over me after time. They were becoming more commercial since Permanent Waves but always in a slow and consistent way... In those years the majority of the bands were trying synths and I think Rush did that brilliantly.

I remember arguing with friends that Rush was turning New Wave, and when Grace Under Pressure was released we tried to put some songs like Kid Gloves in our garage parties to dance with the girls together with Devo and B52, and it worked!

After many years, Signals became one of my top five Rush albums, I absolutely love Digital Man, Subdivisions, Losing It and Chemistry . 9 of 10.

David Bunting: When I first got into Rush I bought 2112 first. My next album was Signals and was so shocked when I heard it I had to double check the sleeve notes to check it was actually the same band. I wasn’t too sure of the album at first but it became one of my favourites and most played, along with Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves .

Andy Price: I wasn’t a great fan of the album when it was first released but it’s probably the one Rush album that has grown on me over the years. Some fantastic tracks including Subdivisions, The Analog Kid and Losing It . Considering it was released in the 80s the production has also stood the test of time. 9/10.

Adam Ranger: Not the best Rush album by a long way in my opinion. Not a big fan of the first few albums released after Moving Pictures . This one has a lot of synth, it sounds very 80s and quite dated now as a result. To me at least. I cant say it's terrible, but it's a long way from my favourite Rush. More background music than music that makes me want to listen. 6/10.

James Last: To me this is equal to if not better than Moving Pictures , it's definitely a companion piece as well as the next logical progression like most of Rush's albums were in those days. Some liked it, others thought it was a step too far. To each their own. All the songs are strong, but I'm particularly fond of The Weapon , and Losing It . I think both are quite unique in Rush's catalogue, they really did a song like either again.

Mike Knoop: I really enjoyed re-listening to this album. 80s Rush may have evolved into a softer, gentler Rush, but the songwriting and musicianship are still impeccable. In particular, the lyrics are some of Neil Peart’s best. They are his most direct and accessible, less literary and obtuse than the 70s output while not as self-help new age or overtly “lecturey” as later in the 80s. 

Subdivisions is so on point that my throat still clenches up sometimes when I hear that song. Same with Losing It and its gorgeous electric violin. Those downbeat songs are balanced by the downright breezy Analog Kid, Digital Man , and New World Man . Even The Weapon is light when compared to the rest of the Fear Trilogy . And what a great first-person account of the shuttle launch in Countdown . 

Geddy Lee’s voice also adopts a warmer tone; much more singing, less shrieking. And while there are keyboards by the kilo, it’s not like Alex Lifeson is just sitting on his hands. His solos are still great throughout and, while my understanding is that there is little to no guitar on Losing It , Lifeson still came up with the song. The 80s were a decade smothered in keyboards, but Rush was one the bands to use them best.

Shane Reho: This album will alienate people who don't like synths, but when synth-driven music is good, it's good. This album certainly fits that bill. Granted, calling it a synth album is an oversight, as Alex Lifeson gets plenty of time to shine, even if it is less than on any previous album. 

The album's opening two tracks are one of the best one-two punches that ever opened a Rush album. Subdivisions sets the tone perfectly from an instrumental standpoint and has one of Neil Peart's (RIP) best sets of lyrics, something that anyone who's ever set foot in a high school can relate to. The Analog Kid is a cut that deserves more attention, it probably wouldn't have sounded out of place on Permanent Waves or Moving Pictures. 

Chemistry isn't all that great, but it isn't bad either. Digital Man might've been better as an instrumental, the lyrics on the chorus aren't up to par (I know how wrong it is to say that one week after Peart's death, sue me). The Weapon is one of their coolest songs, hard-hitting both lyrically and musically. It's easy to see why New World Man was a hit, it's got all the makings of a good single, while being arty enough to feel right on a Rush album. 

The album ends with two of Rush's most underrated songs. Losing It is a perfect meditation on growing old and losing the ability to achieve what was once so easy. Another one of Neil's best sets of lyrics. It's hard not to get a little pumped up during Countdown , aside from Analog Kid it's the album's most upbeat song, and captures the buildup of a rocket launch quite well. Overall, sure this album was a change for Rush, but a damn good one at that. 9/10. RIP Neil.

John Davidson: Let me set the tone first by saying Rush were the band that I most admired as a teenager. In a time before being a geek was cool, these guys were icons for the demographic where Heavy Rock met D&D in the front of the science class.

Signals was their ninth studio album (to put that in context: Led Zeppelin produced eight) and while it might not be my favourite it certainly isn't bad by any standards.

Rush endured, thrived even, because they evolved over time and took on new instruments and new approaches but always managed to sound like Rush. It does no harm at all to observe that all three are (were) outstanding musicians at the top of their field and still hungry to improve.

I first heard Subdivisions on the Exit Stage Left tour at Ingliston (just outside Edinburgh) in November 1981. The song it most reminded me of was Vital Signs - the last and my least favoured track on the otherwise superlative Moving Pictures . I confess I was not blown away, but the rest of the set was packed full of gems and I kind of forgot about it.

Fast forward to the back end of 1982 and it kicked off their next album in fine style. Maybe they changed it, maybe I changed. Either way I now think it is one of their stronger tracks.

As an album overall, Signals sees Rush in one of their more obvious transitional phases as they got to grips with new synth sounds, played with reggae style beats and generally lightened up a bit. Lyrically they (Neil Peart) largely dropped the science fiction and literary allusions and started to concentrate more on human stories and while the band had used synths and electronic sounds to fill out their songs and provide atmosphere in the past, Signals sees the first real use in carrying the melody and otherwise being central to the majority of songs.

Subdivisions is typical of the album, great lyrics, strong guitar - definitely a song that spoke to me as a young person trying to find my place in the world. Analog Kid is a great guitar led rocker with fine sing a long lyrics. Chemistry is again a personal favourite with clever but accessible lyrics and great instrumentation Digital Man on the other hand is a song I sometimes struggle with. The guitar work is fantastic and the playing all round is flawless, but the ska/reggae rhythm is something I have to be in the mood for.

Side two starts off strongly with The Weapon - a companion piece to Moving Pictures'   Witch Hunt - that examines how our fear is used as a weapon against us. Frankly it's a message and song that would be just as valid if released today. New World Man is a bit of froth and bubble and shows that even a Rush filler track can be a killer. Losing It is (I know) very popular, but to be honest I find it lyrically a little trite and unsubtle. The violin is a lovely touch, but without Lifeson's guitar binding the song together it just doesn't work so well for me. Countdown is a fanboy/man-crush on NASA and on that basis alone I should love this song, but unusually the lyrics aren't complemented with a song structure that conveys the wonder and excitement of the subject.

Of the four 'synth heavy' albums of the 80s ( Signals, Grace, Power Windows and Hold Your Fire ) I'd put Signals second behind Power Windows - which is the album where they perfected that era of their sound and had the right production/mix to really get the best from it.

Marco LG: My introduction to Rush was fairly late both in my life and in their career: it was 1998 and they published the live album Different Stages . The two things that left a permanent impression on me about those live performances were the energy of the trio and that incredible drum solo. Up until that point I could not imagine a drum solo being actually exciting, listening to Neil Peart changed my mind forever. The only song from Signals contained in Different Stages is Analog Kid , which is great because it is probably my favourite song on the album. The melody is delicate and Alex’s guitar solo is intense.

The discography of Rush is signposted by a live album every four studio albums, and Signals came at the beginning of such a sequence: published after Exit… Stage Left and documented in A Show of Hands . Although the only song from the album to make it into A Show of Hands is Subdivisions . Another immortal tune, which in this version acquires more energy than in the studio.

The third highlight for me on Signals is the song Losing It , which was not performed live until the very end of their career, and appears on the R40 video. Rush fans like to quote this song to explain the ability of the trio to choose the right moment to retire: “ Sadder still to watch it die/ Than never to have known it ” (it being the skills of the artist). The presence of an electric violin makes the tune particularly poignant, the lyrics of course being curtesy of Neil Peart, The Professor.

It is a fact Signals marked the beginning of Rush’s ‘keyboard period’, and with that an inevitable evolution away from the heavier sound of the previous albums. But one thing they never lost is the ability to combine their incredible musicianship with some form of poetry, which doesn’t just mean lyrics. Case in point is Countdown . A song celebrating the height of the space age, oozing excitement not only for the launch that it describes but more generally for what this means for the future of mankind.

Ultimately Signals marked a turning point in the career of Rush and contains some of their best loved songs, together with the anthem which perfectly accompanies the final curtain of their last show. It’s a great album, and deserves a high score for that.

Chris Downie: Despite tragic recent circumstances, there is a case to be made for reappraisal of sections of the Rush back catalogue outside the immortal five album run that saw them raise the bar and ultimately lay waste to the prog and hard rock playing fields between 1976-81. 

Whatever retrospective appeal their vast catalogue enjoys, the so-called "keyboard era" of 1982-87, which saw four experimental studio albums and culminated in the underrated live album A Show of Hands the following year, will forever remain their most controversial and divisive era. For some, it was a step too far from the majesty of their epic, heavier period, while many saw it as a continuing natural evolution of one of the most naturally gifted bands in history.

Listening back to Signals , there is no disputing the quality of songwriting, whether it be the timeless hits Subdivisions or New World Man (both of which remained live favourites to the end) or the experimental but undeniably Rush-sounding classics The Analogue Kid and The Weapon , the latter of which continued Neil Peart's insightful multi-part "Fear" concept piece. The sombre Losing It , famously rolled out for their farewell R40 tour in 2015, sounds more profound than ever and will now serve as one of their most poignant moments on record.

Where Signals falls just short of classic status however, is in the disappointing production. It is notable for being their last with long-time collaborator Terry Brown and for the unbalanced mix, in which (with the notable exception of the excellent deep cut Chemistry ) Alex Lifeson's guitar is reduced in impact, particularly in the aforementioned opener Subdivisions . This flaw is compounded by the fact live versions of many of its eight tracks always sounded superior.

Ultimately, Signals falls roughly at the midpoint of their 19 studio album output, both chronologically and in terms of quality. It is nonetheless an essential part of their evolution, for it paved the way for their new direction, one they would better on the next two albums, the superb Grace Under Pressure and equally classy Power Windows , before the watershed Hold Your Fire saw them re-evaluate and ultimately take steps back towards their revered 'power trio' approach.

Final Score: 8.06 ⁄10 (329 votes cast, with a total score of 2655)

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