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Rip76

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MC Fresh Breath

MC Fresh Breath 4074

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On 12/26/2022 at 9:21 AM, WhatTheBuck said:

Zepheads are the worst. 

Deadheads aren't too bad I guess.  Other than liking boring ass shit.

 

On 12/28/2022 at 9:00 PM, boilerhorn said:

Vegan crossfit jerkoffs.  Most Rush fanatics will back off if you are not a fan.  Not true for crossfitters or vegans.

Stupid.

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28775

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3 hours ago, MC Fresh Breath said:

Deadheads aren't too bad I guess.  Other than liking boring ass shit.

Yeah, Deadheads don’t care if you don’t get it. They may think the Dead are the greatest band ever but they don’t expect you to think that. They may even know why you don’t think that. No big deal. It’s your loss. The Dead aren’t for everybody. Jerry used to say that the Dead are like licorice. Not everybody likes licorice. But the people who like licorice really, really like licorice. I don’t know about you but I’ve never heard anyone speak about licorice like it was a generally accepted fact that licorice is the greatest and most important snack food ever made.

Rush and the Dead are about as opposite from one another as two bands can be. I used to be a big Rush fan. They were the first band I saw in concert (Signals Tour - 11/5/82 - Notre Dame ACC - South Bend, IN). I lost interest after the Grace Under Pressure album but still saw them live a couple more times over the years. I saw a lot of the same songs at every show, like Red Barchetta which had that same video shown along with it every time. And if you’re going to a Rush show, you’re probably going to be pretty pissed if they don’t play Tom Sawyer. You love that song. You learned to play air drums along with that song and you nail it. Of course they’re going to play it and it’s going to be note perfect with metronomic precision and you’ll nail your air drums part just like when you listen to the album. Because they play it just like it appears on the album. Every single time.

 I used to think it was a big deal when a band could perform their songs live exactly the same way they sound on the album. And it’s true that some shitty bands can’t do that. They need engineers to construct their music in the studio and they lack the talent to perform it live. Or maybe they need a click track ticking away in their in-ear monitor so they can keep time (I’m oooking at you, Justin Bieber, for one). My older brother is still a huge Rush fan. They’re his favorite band; I’m not sure if he has a second favorite band. He can go see Rush on tour for three consecutive nights and see the exact same show played the exact same way all three nights. The same songs in the same order every night. Maybe if he gets lucky they’ll stick a bonus song in the encore one night. Boom! They busted out By-Tor and the Snow Dog! Awesome!

The Dead don’t do that. You can see the Dead three nights in a row and never hear the same song twice. And the songs never sound exactly the way they sound on the album. Often they don’t sound much like the album version at all. And every time you hear them play a song it’s different from the time before. Don’t go to a Dead show expecting to hear the hits (such as they were), or your favorite song, or necessarily even songs you know. The Dead’s biggest hit was Touch of Grey. It was the first single off the album In The Dark which was released on the same day I saw my first Dead show (7/6/87 - Civic Arena - Pittsburgh, PA). They didn’t play Touch that night. Or the next night. Or the next. It was three shows later before they played it. That song peaked at #9 on the charts on 9/26/87. Six days later they kicked off a run of west coast shows, mostly in the Bay Area, leading up to NYE with three nights at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountainview, CA. Imagine going to those shows hoping to hear their big hit single. Did they play it on Friday? Nope. Did they play it on Saturday? Nope. I hope you didn’t leave early on Sunday because they waited to play it until the encore of the third night.

That was a great run of shows, btw, with no repeats. And sorry about your luck if you were hoping to hear Scarlet Begonias, Fire on the Mountain, Playing in the Band, or Uncle John’s Band, popular concert staples all, because none of them were played on that run. Fire wasn’t played until the 9th show of that leg, and that was in L.A. They didn’t play Scarlet > Fire in the Bay Area during that whole stretch. They played Scarlet > Bucket on 11/7/87 at the Henry J Kaiser and Scarlet > Samson on 12/30/87 at the Coliseum (both in Oakland).

I think the Dead’s improvisational approach is a lot more interesting than Rush’s mechanical approach. Rush was the epitome of tight. The Dead were loose. Even when they were tight they were loose. If you’re a Rush fan then you probably thought the Dead sounded sloppy. And sometimes they were. The Dead didn’t work with a fixed setlist that they played every night and which they’d rehearsed and rehearsed until they could play it mistake free. They mostly winged it, making it up as they went along. There was no such thing as a mistake free Dead show. But they covered a lot of ground and took you to some amazing highs. To get there you learn to overlook the risks they took that didn’t pan out.

The Dead could swing. I know Neil Peart tried to loosen up later in his career, to add some jazz influence to his playing and not be so rigid. From what I heard I’d say he had mixed results with that and I think he would have agreed. The Dead were a dance band. I never saw anybody dance at a Rush show. (Didn’t see many chicks, either. A Rush show was a sausage fest.) In psychological terms you could think of Rush having OCD while the Dead were bi-polar. Both great bands but on totally opposite ends of the spectrum.

There was nothing like a Grateful Dead show. Can’t say that about Rush. (But if you’re looking for a band that has similarities to both, try King Crimson.)

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28775

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Okay, I suppose this is obligatory. I’ll go live/studio for the first and studio/live for the second. Touch of Grey isn’t the best example to show the difference between studio and live Dead because In The Dark was recorded “live” in the studio and was one of their better attempts at capturing their live sound in the studio. But I was discussing it and it’s a fun video and a good song so there we go.


Studio version:

Spoiler

 

 


Live:

Spoiler

 

 

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28775

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7 hours ago, C-Man said:

Rush = nails on a chalkboard for me. The only time they've ever been tolerable to me is their inclusion in the movie I LOVE YOU, MAN or Geddy Lee's appearance on the McKenzie Brothers' comedy album.

Ooh, I need to drop into the Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, and Chris Stapleton thread to let everyone know how much I think their music sucks. Is there a Taylor Swift thread anywhere? Let me at ‘em.

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28775

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19 hours ago, Litig8r said:

If there was a thread on most polarizing bands, Rush would be near the top of the list

Maybe. They’d be behind the Grateful Dead. There are a lot of people who just don’t know about Rush and who have no opinion about them one way or the other. Rush fans can be hardcore, though not evangelical, and the people who hate them can hate them emphatically. But a great number of people, especially of the female persuasion, are blissfully ignorant.

There are people who have never heard one single note of their music who don’t like the Grateful Dead. I know. My mom is one of them. 

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Mr. Drummond

Mr. Drummond 2198

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I get that Geddy's vocals are polarizing, but he stopped screeching after Hemispheres.    And by say Counterparts, it is pretty much in a completely natural register.

My wife loves Pwaves- MP- Signals.   Tolerates anything after with some favorite songs she likes in the later years- she really like counterparts.    But leaves the room if i throw on Necromancer - Its all fine.   Their music changed so much over 40 years, there is something for everyone.

But listen, don't listen, it doesn't matter to me.   It's their loss.   There are plenty of bands i don't get either.

I saw them on every tour since Grace usually multiple texas shows.   And met Geddy and Alex for 2 minutes at a Snakes and  Arrows meet and greet.    And met Geddy again at his book signing last year.

I just got a Rush Pinball machine.  Hell in the mid 2000s i bought at BMW R1150GS in red because that's what Neil had.    I am a fan HA.

But i don't think i have ever tried to get anyone to listen to one second of their music, other than if they are in my car and it was on. 

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Hermanator

Hermanator 7032

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22 hours ago, Litig8r said:

If there was a thread on most polarizing bands, Rush would be near the top of the list

 

Which is really weird. I guess it 100 percent has to do with obnoxious fans because there's nothing controversial or polarizing about those 3 guys. They're just 3 normal Canadian dudes who are very technically proficient and make their own brand of prog rock

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28775

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17 hours ago, Horn_Spanker said:

Wish my wife could name Rush albums.

I was 15 when 2112 came out, blew me away, so that is the Rush I know and love!

That was my first, too. My older brother’s, actually. He’s probably about your age. He was in high school, I was still in junior high. He got 2112 in his first batch of records from Columbia House (or maybe it was RCA). He’d never heard Rush, only heard about the album. We took to it pretty quickly. I was a sci-fi geek so that aspect appealed to me. It didn’t hurt that my older brother liked it. I don’t know how much that influenced me because he really liked Kiss, too, and I wasn’t that much of a fan.

My brother also heard that Rush was influenced by Ayn Rand and so that was our introduction to her writing. He read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and then so did I. I read Anthem, I’m not sure if he ever did. As many of you probably know, 2112 was based on that story, except in the book the protagonist discovers an old battery, not a guitar. (I still have copies of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. I don’t know what happened to my copy of Anthem.)

I used to have 2112, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures, and Signals on vinyl, and Grace Under Pressure on cassette. I still have vivid memories of listening to that tape on my Walkman as I walked across the OSU campus under gray winter skies. Currently the only Rush album I own is 2112 on CD. I also own one bootleg disc. (More on that to come...)

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28775

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Oh! I just remembered I also had A Farewell to Kings on vinyl.

Anyway, sometime in the late 90’s, a friend of mine from Cleveland won a contest on the local rock station WMMS (“Home of the buzzard”) and the prize was a CD of a Rush concert performed at Cleveland’s Agora Theater back on 8/26/74 and broadcast on their station. The disc he received was just one long track. He wasn’t really a Rush fan and, being one long track, the disc wasn’t very listenable so he gave it to me. I had the software to rip it, split it up into separate tracks, and burn it back to disc. It’s a great recording and a nice piece of history. I gave a copy to my brother.

Rush got early playing time on WMMS thanks to their music director Donna Halper and built a following in that blue collar town. Rush has long had a strong following in Cleveland. I saw my second Rush concert there at the Richfield Coliseum on 12/19/85 during the Power Windows tour. That’s where the Cavs used to play before they moved to a new arena downtown. There are a number of personal and jam band parallels here so I’ll share more than is really necessary. I drove out from my home in northern Indiana for that show. I’ve seen the Dead at Richfield a bunch of times. The only time I’ve been to the Agora was to see Umphrey’s McGee. They’re a jam band who was formed when they were students at Notre Dame (where I saw my first Rush show). They do a great cover of YYZ.

Back to that Agora ‘74 show. Neil Peart had just joined the band. Remember how I said my first Dead show was at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena? Coincidentally, Neil’s first Rush show was at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena just 12 days before the Cleveland gig. (How’s about that for mind blowing, eh?) And check out the Working Man they played that night. Back in ‘74, Rush jammed.

Rush has since made an official release out of that recording.

1B10CCC8-94C1-47FE-80A4-17CEA8B97977.png.12de1d85a61fc064a0a3440f07361d04.png

That includes the filler from 1975 which features the first live performance of Fly By Night. My bootleg also includes an interview with Donna Halper. I couldn’t find that on YouTube but the rest of the stuff is all up there. And if you search “Donna Halper” and “Rush” you can find plenty of other interviews in case you’re interested. 

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Mr. Drummond

Mr. Drummond 2198

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23 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Oh! I just remembered I also had A Farewell to Kings on vinyl.

Anyway, sometime in the late 90’s, a friend of mine from Cleveland won a contest on the local rock station WMMS (“Home of the buzzard”) and the prize was a CD of a Rush concert performed at Cleveland’s Agora Theater back on 8/26/74 and broadcast on their station. The disc he received was just one long track. He wasn’t really a Rush fan and, being one long track, the disc wasn’t very listenable so he gave it to me. I had the software to rip it, split it up into separate tracks, and burn it back to disc. It’s a great recording and a nice piece of history. I gave a copy to my brother.

Rush got early playing time on WMMS thanks to their music director Donna Halper and built a following in that blue collar town. Rush has long had a strong following in Cleveland. I saw my second Rush concert there at the Richfield Coliseum on 12/19/85 during the Power Windows tour. That’s where the Cavs used to play before they moved to a new arena downtown. There are a number of personal and jam band parallels here so I’ll share more than is really necessary. I drove out from my home in northern Indiana for that show. I’ve seen the Dead at Richfield a bunch of times. The only time I’ve been to the Agora was to see Umphrey’s McGee. They’re a jam band who was formed when they were students at Notre Dame (where I saw my first Rush show). They do a great cover of YYZ.

Back to that Agora ‘74 show. Neil Peart had just joined the band. Remember how I said my first Dead show was at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena? Coincidentally, Neil’s first Rush show was at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena just 12 days before the Cleveland gig. (How’s about that for mind blowing, eh?) And check out the Working Man they played that night. Back in ‘74, Rush jammed.

Rush has since made an official release out of that recording.

1B10CCC8-94C1-47FE-80A4-17CEA8B97977.png.12de1d85a61fc064a0a3440f07361d04.png

That includes the filler from 1975 which features the first live performance of Fly By Night. My bootleg also includes an interview with Donna Halper. I couldn’t find that on YouTube but the rest of the stuff is all up there. And if you search “Donna Halper” and “Rush” you can find plenty of other interviews in case you’re interested. 

Love those old working man bootlegs pre Fly by night.   Go to 5.55 - alex is playing by-tor in there.

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28775

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5 hours ago, Mr. Drummond said:

Love those old working man bootlegs pre Fly by night.   Go to 5.55 - alex is playing by-tor in there.

That begs the question. Was he playing By-Tor at the time? Or did what he was playing become part of By-Tor later on? I don’t know enough about early Rush. But I’ve seen similar evolution in the music of artists I know better, where a musical idea will grow into a separate song, or part of a jam will get used in another song. I’ve seen/heard that in the music of the Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa, and Phish (who were influenced by both of those other two artists and probably Rush to a certain extent too although, whereas they’ve covered music by the Dead and Zappa, they’ve never covered a Rush song).

Speaking of Rush covers and jam bands, though, here’s Umphrey’s McGee covering YYZ:

 

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tbone_

tbone_ 14109

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Same here.  I was 13.  I immediately worked back through the first 3 and then kept up through Moving Pictures and the subsequent release, which turned me off anything new from there on.

I was 12 when moving pictures came out. So Tom Sawyer was the first Rush song I heard. I worked backwards and forward from there. To say me and my buddies were Rush nerds in hs in early 80s would be an understatement.

I’m probably the only one on the planet that digs Grace Under Pressure.
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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45887

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I only saw them once, in March 1981 at The Checkerdome in St. Louis.  The setlist was absolutely perfect:

  1. 2112 Part I: Overture
  2. 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx
  3. Freewill
  4. Limelight
  5. Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part I: Prelude
  6. Beneath, Between & Behind
  7. The Camera Eye
  8. YYZ
  9. Drum Solo
  10. Broon's Bane
  11. The Trees
  12. Xanadu
  13. The Spirit of Radio
  14. Red Barchetta
  15. Closer to the Heart
  16. Tom Sawyer
  17. Vital Signs
  18. Natural Science
  19. Working Man
  20. Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part IV: Armageddon
  21. By-Tor & The Snow Dog
  22. In the End
  23. In the Mood
  24. 2112 Part VII: Grand Finale
  25. La Villa Strangiato
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Rip76

Rip76 4924

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16 hours ago, tbone_ said:


I was 12 when moving pictures came out. So Tom Sawyer was the first Rush song I heard. I worked backwards and forward from there. To say me and my buddies were Rush nerds in hs in early 80s would be an understatement.

I’m probably the only one on the planet that digs Grace Under Pressure.

G/P is a great album.

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Mr. Drummond

Mr. Drummond 2198

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Back of napkin here is my ranking.  Inside the tiers can change at anytime.     Order is left to right, so Feedback is number 20, Hemispheres is number 1.

Tier 4:  Feedback, Test for Echo

Tier 3:  Snakes and Arrows, Vapor Trails, Presto, Roll the Bones, Caress of Steel

Tier 2:  Rush, Fly by Night, Counter Parts, Hold Your Fire, Clockwork angels, power windows

Tier 1:  2112, Farewell to kings, Grace under pressure, Signals, Moving Pictures, Permanent Waves, Hemispheres

 

 

 

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deadshank

deadshank 24652

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20 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I only saw them once, in March 1981 at The Checkerdome in St. Louis.  The setlist was absolutely perfect:

  1. 2112 Part I: Overture
  2. 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx
  3. Freewill
  4. Limelight
  5. Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part I: Prelude
  6. Beneath, Between & Behind
  7. The Camera Eye
  8. YYZ
  9. Drum Solo
  10. Broon's Bane
  11. The Trees
  12. Xanadu
  13. The Spirit of Radio
  14. Red Barchetta
  15. Closer to the Heart
  16. Tom Sawyer
  17. Vital Signs
  18. Natural Science
  19. Working Man
  20. Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part IV: Armageddon
  21. By-Tor & The Snow Dog
  22. In the End
  23. In the Mood
  24. 2112 Part VII: Grand Finale
  25. La Villa Strangiato

The same.  Tarrant County Convention Center.  Max Webster opened.  

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Mr. Drummond

Mr. Drummond 2198

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14 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'd put "Fly By Night" in Tier 1, and P/G + Signals down.  "Caress of Steel" is better than those two.

The list was determined by an extremely rigorous method, judging each album based on how much I like it.    Keep in mind this is just my own opinion and therefore indisputable fact.   

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