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Rush's first performance with Anika Nilles

Geddy's not a young man anymore and has been struggling with the higher vocals for years now. That said, he and Alex (and Anika) play well and sound great.
It's also their first gig together, as far as I know.

When I saw Soundgarden in 2011, it was their first show since re-uniting (in Toronto) and there were plenty of mistakes. I was so happy to be there, I didn't care one bit. And being a musician, I fully related to the amount of raw emotion there must have been between the guys after a dozen years apart.
 
Geddy's vocals sound fine to me. I guess it depends on what you're comparing it to.

I've never heard the original version of that song, but I prefer the singing and playing from say, "Signals" on to the early stuff anyway.

I watched several videos from the R40 tour. Some performances were better than others. None were embarrassing.

Listening to this new clip on my phone, the vocals are way up front. So, imperfections come through stronger. I imagine with headphones or in person the mix is better.
 
OK, so nobody else is seeing what I'm seeing - it is coincidence, or is the guy playing keys dressed to look as much like Geddy as possible on purpose?

Yes, the vocals are a bit strained, and they have sounded that way...for 50 years. Geddy never had a soothing voice.
That's Loren Gold, who most recently was touring with The Who. Great player, and really great dude too. I played with him a ways back--dude can literally play anything).
 
I don't like much of the earlier Rush stuff, so I wasn't particularly pumped by this. Nothing to do with Anika. Whatever she does, she can't and won't be Neil but her paying was fine.

That's not a Neil tune. Finding my Way is a Rutsy tune but I agree and I don't think anyone expects her to be Neil Peart. That being said, she could probably play any of Neil's parts just fine.
 
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Well, they’re having fun and the audience is having fun, so more power to them.

Geddy’s vocals, always an acquired taste, are now even more so, lol. But, waddayagonna do.

Can definitely feel the old here. On the other hand, they’re alive and kicking and out there doing what they love, so there’s much to admire and even aspire to. Sounds good, but… not great.

As a long time Rush fan (though in no way a "super fan". But, I mean, I bought most of their early albums [‘Signals’ was the last I bought though; after that, their new music didn’t really do it for me], listened to their tunes a lot, saw them in concert, had many discussions with friends about them, practiced their harmonic licks among the first things I learned when starting out on guitar, read about them, thought about them, dreamed away in my basement in high school, etc., listening to their tunes and so on), I have a lot of mixed feelings watching this. Per my above.

Clearly, time marches on. But, do not go gentle into that goodnight. Neil Peart would approve.

The fawn-eyed girl with sun-browned legs
Dances on the edge of his dream
And her voice rings in his ears
Like the music of the spheres

The boy lies in the grass, unmoving
Staring at the sky
His mother starts to call him
As a hawk goes soaring by
The boy pulls down his baseball cap
And covers up his eyes

Too many hands on my time
Too many feelings —
Too many things on my mind
When I leave I don’t know
What I’m hoping to find
When I leave I don’t know
What I’m leaving behind…
 
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He can sing and that’s great out of a 72 year old. It’s just the tone is off. He is working really hard to sing and there is a straining there that causes it to just sound off. I can’t listen to it for long. It was actually worse back in 2015. Probably be similar half way through their tour.

Good luck to them. Hope their shows go well. And they still play great.

Wish Geddy would go back to the #1 Jazz. Don’t like the tone of the green bass as well. It’s good, just not as good.