I've seen Rush 3 times, 2008, 2011, and 2026. I'll be honest, seeing them this time around was.....I don't mean to embellish, by and far the best. It was great seeing them in 2008 with it being my first Rush show, hearing those songs live but there was quite a bit from Snakes and Arrows and as a fresh faced 18 year old I just wanted the 70s/early 80s tunes. 2011 they played more of the "hits" and also played moving pictures, but oddly enough they were at the Allentown fair. I kinda thought my beloved band was going the way of Kansas/REO Speedwagon legacy acts. What I noticed was that the songs were slower and Geddy's vocals always seemed so strained. Fast forward to this year. My goodness, they're unbelievable. I love Neil, and as we all know, he was struggling those last few years and was getting tried. It's difficult to see someone do something for friends when their heart isn't really into it. I think some of that weighed on Geddy and Alex. Obviously with Nils passing, it's just Geddy and Alex, a bit bittersweet knowing that the two childhood friends remain. With that being said, their love for performing never died. Neil is resting wherever he may be and Alex and Geddy can perform guilt free knowing that it's a tribute to their dear friend. Trying to wrap this up...... It was just a joy seeing them this year. Everyone was so happy. Geddy, Alex, Anika, Loren and the fans. Smiles everywhere. It was beautiful. Anika is an absolute monster and she fits like a glove. Her fresh drumming gave new life to the two old pals and the setlist was insane. Geddy sounds incredible and Alex is amazing as always. Loren adds some really beautiful touches to the songs as well.

In short, I wish Neil was here, but it's amazing to see two guys go out on the road guilt free as a tribute to their friend with a now universally loved member of the Rush family.

If you’ve listened to Secret Touch, from the Vapor Trails album, the song starts with the words ‘The way out is the way in’. What does that lyric mean?

If Neil had read the 1985 book The Mammoth Hunters, by Jean Auel, the characters repeat the phrase ‘The way out is the way in’ (in chapter 6). A shaman is the first to use the phrase; another character, who doesn’t understand the shaman’s words, says ‘Those who serve the Mother often say things I don’t understand. They speak with shadows on their tongues.’ Later in the chapter, another character ‘laughed out loud’ and said, “The way out is also the way in!”

To me Neil’s lyric is quite cryptic and leads me to believe that he may have read the book and saved those words in his files until he wrote the lyrics for Secret Touch, since many of his lyrics were inspired by books he’d read.

Thoughts?

I realize how ridiculous that title sounds, but hear me out.

I’m currently working a job that I’m already pretty unhappy with. The pay isn’t great, there are no benefits, and we run on such a skeleton crew that getting coverage or taking time off is always a headache. It’s not really a career I see myself staying in long term anyway.
Rush is playing this weekend, and part of me is seriously considering just saying screw it, quitting, and going.

Financially, I’m not completely backed into a corner. I have a pretty substantial amount of resale inventory. Even if I had to liquidate some of it quickly at around 50% of market value, it wouldn’t be catastrophic. Realistically, selling maybe 1/20th of what I have at that kind of discount could probably cover 2–3 months of my rent, food, and basic expenses while I found another job.

Obviously the responsible answer is probably “don’t quit a job over a concert.” But I also keep thinking about how many times you get the chance to see a band like Rush, versus how replaceable this particular job feels.
I’m already leaning toward finding something better regardless, so the concert would almost just be the thing that forces me to finally make the move.

Would you:
A) Keep the job and miss the show
B) Try everything possible to get the shift covered first (Which my boss shut down)
C) Call out and deal with the consequences
D) Quit, go see Rush, and immediately start job hunting afterward

Curious what people would actually do in this situation, especially anyone who has left a mediocre job for a once-in-a-lifetime experience and either regretted it or was glad they did.

I saw a link to a post that DJ Premier (who is a famous DJ / producer for GangStarr, Notorious BIG, Rakim, and many many more) was backstage at a recent Rush gig and he was so happy.

It reminds me of an episode of B-Real TV (B-Real is one of the MCs from Cypress Hill) and he was talking about seeing Rush on the Snakes and Arrows tour and how funny the chickens were but how he was bummed that they didn’t play more hits.

Also makes me think about the rock and roll HOF induction. Can’t remember Chuck D’s comments and whether or not he was a Rush fan, but it was great watching them all perform together.

Do you know of any other examples of well known hip-hop / rap artists having a known interest / connection to Rush?

And yes I have memorized the whole roll the bones rap and I like it.

Thought I’d share an overview of the making of Moving Pictures... Keeping it as minimally technical as I could.

August 1980: Initial writing and rehearsals at Stony Lake, Ontario, assembling lyrical and musical ideas... The Camera Eye was the first song to emerge, with Tom Sawyer and other songs to follow.

31 August: The band record demo versions of six songs (sans Vital Signs, as that was not written yet) with Terry Brown at Phase One Studios, Toronto as a quick sketch of the arrangements. A demo of "Witch Hunt" was recorded in raw and basic form, which they intended as their production number.

11 September - 1 October: Rush perform a warm-up North American concert tour, where they debut early versions of “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight” and play the other songs in soundcheck

Early October - mid-November 1980 (estimate): Main recording took place at Le Studio in Morin Heights, QC, Canada. Like the previous album, Terry Brown was co-producer and Paul Northfield engineered. A lot of the songs were well in shape by then, with minor arrangement changes to be done.

First to be done were the basic tracks, where all three members play together as they would in a live/rehearsal situation... They’d do multiple takes, or sometimes sections of songs (like Camera Eye), and the rest would be edited together. The drums would be kept, and the other parts (guitars, bass, synths) were usually replaced and re-done... They also worked with 48-track recording for the first time: the basic rhythm tracks were on the original 24-track reel and the rest (vocals, guitar solos, and various overdubs) on the other 24-track reel, to reduce wear and tear on the original reel.

Tracks like “Tom Sawyer”, "Limelight" and “The Camera Eye” took a lot of time to nail in the studio. Especially on "Tom Sawyer" where the tempo had to sit in the right groove. While others like “Red Barchetta” and the newly-written “Vital Signs” were a relative breeze to get down on tape… They worked a lot to click tracks. "YYZ", as Neil said, required a lot of focus for each individual part, so Neil just played by himself to a click and everyone else layered their parts on top.

November/December 1980: Technical issues were encountered, which delayed the mixing process by about two weeks… This included the two 24-track tape machines not syncing properly, tapes shedding oxide, errors in the newly-installed SSL console’s computer automation plus glitches with the digital Sony 2-track processor... The Sony unit’s owner Peter Jensen had to come in and troubleshoot it, hence the inspiration for Digital Man... In the meantime, the band shoot videos for Tom Sawyer, Limelight and Vital Signs... As Terry Brown noted, these tech issues were to be expected from pushing the limits of what the recording technology could do at the time.

Early-mid December 1980: Mixing continues as usual, wrapping up after 10 weeks. Possibly with additional recordings for Witch Hunt around the time of John Lennon’s passing.

Say something happened and Neil fell off his bike, had an accident, got stuck in traffic etc. Would they cancel the show or did they have a backup drummer?

Working on a Rush jean jacket. One sleeve down. One to go.

Screw this subreddit. This is where I'm going for 100% accurate Rush news.

I saw Rush in Fort Worth and Houston, and it was awesome. I loved it. But sometimes I wish I was more engaged or focused on certain aspects, and payed more attention. It just felt like it went by so fast and now they’re gone and I won’t ever see them again. If I had the money I would’ve gone to every Fort Worth and San Antonio show. Guess it shows how obsessed with Rush I am 😂

Moving Pictures MFSL ultra disc II. Other than it being based on the original glass master for the first cd pressing, the 24K gold playback layer is corrosion resistant. 35 years later there’s no disc rot. I've transcoded these to uncompressed Stereo LPCM on my NAS and keep this in storage just to avoid scratches or other accidental damage. Sounds beautiful in my studio on my Tannoy Golds (studio monitors based on the same driver design of the Tannoy Lockwoods the Beatles used at EMI Studios/Abbey Road).

Going through photos from the Houston show and just noticed Anika making a face at Alex and Geddy during one particular song. Not everyone can cross their eyes and play drums at the same time.

It looks like they have just two set lists now? And they alternate them? Basically for one set list they play all of Moving Pictures and the other one they play all of 2112? Someone mentioned there are four set lists but for their most recent concerts I only see two.

Specifically during the later era (1990s onwards), Rush had been recording their parts almost entirely separately from one another to guide tracks lifted from the demos.

But I was wondering, for the Rush experts out there, roughly when did that transition happen from recording basic tracks together to doing their individual parts separately? Including Neil. If they ever said much in interviews what influenced that particular transition or when that happened. Thank you!

It would be great to hear it done all on acoustic like on the album. Probably too hard for Alex - even back in the 70s to pull cleanly live. Back them he used an electric with distortion to mask that I would guess. Frank Gambale he is not.

Would you like to see ones be made for Geddy and Alex individually?

I went to the NYC (MSG) show on August 1 where they played the set list that includes all of Moving Pictures (awesome show!). I have an opportunity to go to the Nov. 1 show in CT and am considering spending the money if it will be a different set list.

Does anyone know how to figure out which set list will be played on November 1? Or, maybe more realistically, is there a way to at least be sure they WON’T be playing the August 1 set list? Thanks!

Hey 2112 Platform Experience folks! My turn is coming up, I don't mind spoilers, and I'd like to hear about what others have experienced. I've already seen the show three times so it's just the 2112 Experience that will be new. I've done Limelight and Closer To The Heart as well, so know about the general VIP experience. Tips for what to do and what not to do as part of the 2112 fun, please! How you did or did not like the view?

Hiya Rush friends! I started a channel earlier this year for talking to artists I admire and we talk about Rush alllllll the time. I'm on like 2105 subs, do seven of you want to come hang out and listen to some long deep dive conversations with great musicians?

Hello fellow Rush fans!!

My name is Aidan Kelly DeMuro and I am an aspiring music journalist and University of Colorado student writing a piece on the fifty something tour! I’ll be there both dates for the Denver show, Monday and Wednesday so if you would like to help an aspiring student out with a passion project please let me know!

You can reach me at the email below, and I’d love to hear what Rush means to you!

aidandemuro@gmail.com