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There are quotes from Lee and Lifeson saying that they would never do Rush without Peart.
This was the old-school Rush fan's DREAM. The show started with nearly all eras of the band represented from newest to oldest. The stage set changed between nearly every song with the backline changing accordingly. The first set wasn't so eventful, but after intermission...pure Rush PERFECTION. The entire stage was nothing but amps...behind Alex was 5 full Marshall stacks, and behind Geddy was a literal WALL of Ampegs; it is doubtful any of those amps were used, but they looked great. Slowly, after every song, some amps were removed gradually until at the end of the set the entire stage was bare (as a recreation of their first high school gig) except for Geddy's original Traynor amp (talk about attention to detail), 1 amp for Alex, and Neil's drum kit...which is a replica of the REAL Neil Peart's original 70's chrome Slingerland kit, double bass (!) with a full 4 piece array of open bottom concert toms! Neil Peart HATES nostalgia, so it was a HUGE surprise that he agreed to play his "old" setup that he discarded YEARS ago. Just seeing that drum kit brought tears to my eyes. The band's first set had Neil using his modern jazz based kit...but the REAL Peart (and most would say the REAL Rush) returned for the 2nd set, which represented Moving Pictures to the first album. Geddy used about a zillion basses, a bunch of Gibsons of all things, and broke out the old black 4003 for only "Red Barchetta" and it actually sounded a bit plunky and "hard to play;" it's doubtful that it was run in stereo as he hardly touched any of his Ricks and running a separate stereo setup would be too much of a hassle when he's already switching 20 basses in the set. When Geddy doesn't run his Rick stereo he uses them with both pickups full on without the cap which takes out most of that Rickenbacker midrange aggressiveness...and that's what it sounded like. It wasn't the Geddy Rick tone of old. Surprisingly, about the best SOUNDING bass through his modern setup that sounded the most like his OLD Rick sound was what looked like a late 50's Precision that he played on the horrid song "Roll the Bones." That Precision was a great growly midrangy honky bass that provided the most old-school Geddy tone, strangely enough. The band played a jawdropping set including the long-awaited "Jacob's Ladder," "Hemispheres/Prelude," "Cygnus X-1," "2112" including "Presentation" and "Grand Finale," and the ENTIRE "Xanadu" with full intro, real Moog, real percussion, and the return of both Alex's Gibson doubleneck AND Geddy's Rickenbacker doubleneck! Whodathunk that would EVER return!??!!!?!! Truly amazing! As if that wasn't enough, they even played "Lakeside Park," a song that Geddy has stated for ages that he HATES. I NEVER thought I would hear Rush play this song again, one of my absolute favorites! Then, they played "Anthem" too!!! Just mindblowing. Geddy's voice was in GREAT form, and he NAILED "Hemispheres" (tuned down of course, but WAY better than in 1994). They even played "What You're Doing" and part of "Garden Road" once it was all over...truly one of the BEST Rush shows I've EVER seen. Neil has lost some of his finesse and technicality a bit (he takes it a bit easy on the hard fills of old), and it might be difficult for Geddy to keep up throughout this tour hitting all those high notes in the second set. But, overall, it was WAAAAY better than I anticipated, with a PERFECT setlist for the 2nd half. Rush fans are in disbelief. If this IS the last tour, they FINALLY gave us old-school Rush fans EXACTLY what we've ALWAYS wanted. Absolutely unreal!
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This was the old-school Rush fan's DREAM. The show started with nearly all eras of the band represented from newest to oldest. The stage set changed between nearly every song with the backline changing accordingly. The first set wasn't so eventful, but after intermission...pure Rush PERFECTION. The entire stage was nothing but amps...behind Alex was 5 full Marshall stacks, and behind Geddy was a literal WALL of Ampegs; it is doubtful any of those amps were used, but they looked great. Slowly, after every song, some amps were removed gradually until at the end of the set the entire stage was bare (as a recreation of their first high school gig) except for Geddy's original Traynor amp (talk about attention to detail), 1 amp for Alex, and Neil's drum kit...which is a replica of the REAL Neil Peart's original 70's chrome Slingerland kit, double bass (!) with a full 4 piece array of open bottom concert toms! Neil Peart HATES nostalgia, so it was a HUGE surprise that he agreed to play his "old" setup that he discarded YEARS ago. Just seeing that drum kit brought tears to my eyes. The band's first set had Neil using his modern jazz based kit...but the REAL Peart (and most would say the REAL Rush) returned for the 2nd set, which represented Moving Pictures to the first album. Geddy used about a zillion basses, a bunch of Gibsons of all things, and broke out the old black 4003 for only "Red Barchetta" and it actually sounded a bit plunky and "hard to play;" it's doubtful that it was run in stereo as he hardly touched any of his Ricks and running a separate stereo setup would be too much of a hassle when he's already switching 20 basses in the set. When Geddy doesn't run his Rick stereo he uses them with both pickups full on without the cap which takes out most of that Rickenbacker midrange aggressiveness...and that's what it sounded like. It wasn't the Geddy Rick tone of old. Surprisingly, about the best SOUNDING bass through his modern setup that sounded the most like his OLD Rick sound was what looked like a late 50's Precision that he played on the horrid song "Roll the Bones." That Precision was a great growly midrangy honky bass that provided the most old-school Geddy tone, strangely enough. The band played a jawdropping set including the long-awaited "Jacob's Ladder," "Hemispheres/Prelude," "Cygnus X-1," "2112" including "Presentation" and "Grand Finale," and the ENTIRE "Xanadu" with full intro, real Moog, real percussion, and the return of both Alex's Gibson doubleneck AND Geddy's Rickenbacker doubleneck! Whodathunk that would EVER return!??!!!?!! Truly amazing! As if that wasn't enough, they even played "Lakeside Park," a song that Geddy has stated for ages that he HATES. I NEVER thought I would hear Rush play this song again, one of my absolute favorites! Then, they played "Anthem" too!!! Just mindblowing. Geddy's voice was in GREAT form, and he NAILED "Hemispheres" (tuned down of course, but WAY better than in 1994). They even played "What You're Doing" and part of "Garden Road" once it was all over...truly one of the BEST Rush shows I've EVER seen. Neil has lost some of his finesse and technicality a bit (he takes it a bit easy on the hard fills of old), and it might be difficult for Geddy to keep up throughout this tour hitting all those high notes in the second set. But, overall, it was WAAAAY better than I anticipated, with a PERFECT setlist for the 2nd half. Rush fans are in disbelief. If this IS the last tour, they FINALLY gave us old-school Rush fans EXACTLY what we've ALWAYS wanted. Absolutely unreal!
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