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It doesn’t happen that often anymore that Rush
sets out on a major tour. But when they do decide to pack in huge
crowds you can bet your socks off they’ll do it well. Five years
after the lavish 3CD set “Different stages – live” comes the aptly
entitled “In Rio”. Again spread over three discs this is the
recording of the band’s visit to one of Brazil’s major cities where
they performed in front of 40,000 ecstatic fans. To be honest it was
never the band’s intention to release yet another collection of live
recordings so soon after “Different stages” but this time around
they found themselves in Rio where the entire concert was being
recorded for a future DVD release. Listening to the rough mixes from
the concert video, Neil Peart along with Rush’s manager felt it
wouldn’t be a bad idea to release a separate audio package of the
same concert as well. ‘After all not everyone is interested to look
at us’, said an amusing Peart. To make it even more interesting the
band decided to include some additional ‘official bootleg’ material
which can’t be found on the DVD set. So sit back and enjoy the
energy which was a constant factor during that memorable “Vapour
trails” tour.
Bearing in mind that the third disc in the
“Different stages” package was a recording from an earlier tour as
recorded in London in 1978 we nevertheless find no less than
eighteen identical tracks on both packages. Eighteen songs out of a
total of thirty one already surfaced on the band’s previous live
album yet judging from the crowd’s enthousiasm they really don’t
mind as every single Rush concert is a unique experience in itself.
Of course such classics as ‘La villa strangiato’, ‘The spirit of
radio’, ‘By-Tor and the snow dog’, ‘Cygnus X-1’ and ‘Working man’
had to be included in the set. Only one song from “Counterparts”
made it to the playlist next to two compositions from “Test for
echo” and four from the band’s latest studio effort “Vapor trails”.
So all in all it’s a rather diverse package which really offers an
insight into the complete and diverse career of Rush. Needless to
say most of the band’s recent output is more guitar oriented thus
omitting the wonderful lush keyboard textures. Nevertheless it
remains incredible to hear what a full sound these three individuals
can come up with.
Looking at the band’s fantastic output
what better song to kick off than the powerful ‘Tom Sawyer’ (pitty
the Three Stooges theme is not included !) which immediately has the
crowd sing along cheering when the recognizable synthsolo fuses with
Geddy Lee’s incredible low bass sound. During the duration of this
album it’s incredible to hear how detailed that bass sound is
embedded into the total sound of the band. ‘Tom Sawyer’ for the
Brazilian people even has more of a meaning as in this massive
country that particular song has been used on Brazilian television
as the theme song for McGyver ! Of course everyone could sing along.
So the atmosphere was set especially as towards the end of the first
set Rush had also decided to include ‘Closer to the heart’. Normally
this song was not part of the “Vapour trails” tour but as they also
played Mexico prior to those Brazilian nights only to find out that
‘Closer to the heart’ was the absolute number one Rush song in
Mexico, the band decided to quickly relearn the song so as to please
their Mexican friends. As the tour developped they then heard that
the same song also was a ‘big’ thing in Brazil so of course they
left it in the set.
The Rio concert was the final concert of a
string of 66 concerts spread between june to november 2002.
Everything was set up to also film that very last performance in
order to release it as a DVD. The day before, in Sao Paulo, in front
of 60,000 people the band performed in dreadful weather conditions.
The rain poured down on all three musicians and their equipment and
luckily for them they had wireless microphones and transmitters or
they could have been electrocuted and killed on stage ! Neil Peart’s
electronic midi-marimba which triggers all his keyboard percussion
sounds as well as tons of effects, lost his midi-mind due to the
weather conditions. It was not sure whether it would work again the
next day, the final day, the day of the filming. To make things even
worse the band was unable to do a soundcheck in Rio because all of
their equipment arrived rather late. So nu run-through for the
recording truck, no test for the camera crew and no soundcheck for
the band. Rush dived in the deep end not knowing whether at all they
would be able to swim ! Judging from this recording however they did
swim sharing the Olympic gold medals between them ! The crowd went
crazy and no doubt this concert has to go down as the most memorable
for the band probably because of the high degree of audience
participation. Have you ever heard a crowd who could sing along to
an instrumental track ? Just listen to the fabulous rendition of
‘XYZ’ and you’ll understand that both band and crowd must have lived
through an unforgettable experience ! Although the Rush music is not
your everyday cup of tea the audience nevertheless knows every
single chord, every single break, every single word which of course
makes this recording extra special as you get the music from Rush
augmented with a fourth member : the public ! And that public knows
the songs so well they show utmost respect during the silent parts
as you’ll hear during the acoustic intro for ‘The trees’. Because
Rush has been going strong for thirty years no doubt from a physical
perspective these kind of gigs are very demanding so it’s not a big
surprise to see that the band’s set is divided in two halves so as
to allow the band to have a short break. In order to finish the
first part of the concert what better way to deliver such standards
as ‘Free will’, ‘Closer to the heart’ and ‘Natural science’. Geddy
has learned the magic word ‘obrigado’ which is Brazilian for ‘thank
you’ and finishes this first part of the set with the amusing : ‘we
need to take a short break for some brain surgery, we’ll be back.’
The second disc immediately kicks off with the second part of the
show as performed that night in Rio de Janeiro. It strikes me how
close to vintage Black Sabbath the band comes during ‘One little
victory’. Another highlight for bass addicts certainly has to be
Geddy’s solo during ‘Driven’. Mindblowing ! A huge reception is
reserved for ‘Red sector A’ which from the very first chord onwards
can count on a very enthousiastic and energetic crowd. For sure
their cheers will have something to do with the concert visuals as
well so next to this release no doubt we’ll have to track down the
DVD as well ! And even more bass highlights during the intro for
‘Leave that thing alone’. Chris Squire eat your heart out ! This
track gives way to a drummer’s absolute wet dream in the form of a
8’54” long Neil Peart drumsolo where electronics and acoustics are
having a ball. The most incredible part comes right at the very end
where Neil suddenly unleashes a real swing/jazz big band from his
box of tricks. Only one single cosmic synthsound has the entire
crowd go beserk as this of course introduces the titletrack of the
band’s “2112” album.
Contrary to the “Different stages live” 3CD set
where the third disc contained material from a completely different
concert, disc three in the “Rush in Rio” set continues the show with
what seems to be six of the band’s alltime highs. I was so pleased
to see that one of my alltime favourites, ‘La villa strangiato’ is
once again present this time around augmented by loud cheers from
the audience. This composition for sure remains a true diamond in
the history of progressive rock. There’s so much happening in one
single song, it’s magnificent ! Here the band steers the song
towards authentic jazz which serves as a background for some jokes
courtesy of Alex Lifeson. He introduces Geddy Lee as the ‘guy from
Ipanema’ before introducing himself as Stan Getz. Humour and Rush :
I never thought it was possible ! By now everyone in the stadium is
100% ‘loco’ from the Rush music and it gets even worse when ‘The
spirit of radio’ is played. From what you can hear on the album
Geddy says one more time ‘obrigado’ before leaving the stage. Then
it’s time for the first encore of the night by means of yet an older
song, ‘By-Tor and the snow dog’. It still sounds as fresh today as
when it was first recorded way back in 1975. The final songs of this
incredible concert come as a package. Indeed the instrumental
‘Cygnus X-1’ has been bundled with ‘Working man’ in order to finish
this experience the way it started over two hours ago : on a high !
Don’t forget ‘Working man’ goes back to the band’s debut album
released in 1974 ! And with this song the Rio concert comes to a
close whilst our three friends can finally seek comfort in the bar
of their hotel. This however doesn’t end this 3CD set as two more
songs have been added. These ‘board bootlegs’ are exclusive to this
3CD set as these are not available on the 2DVD set ! The first song,
‘Between sun & moon’ was recorded in Phoenix, AZ on 27th september
2002 and offers a more ‘direct’ sound of course having been recorded
inside as opposed to outside like the Rio set. The result is that
you don’t get such a ‘full’ sound as especially Neil’s drumsound
suffers from a good recording. The final track was recorded on 19th
october 2002 in Quebec City. ‘Vital signs’ sounds again very direct
with the keyboards being ‘panned’ to one side of the stereo
spectrum. Here the drums sound much better but then again they don’t
get such a prominent role as the song itself tends to flirt with
some reggae riffs in the same way Sting and The Police introduced
these influences. Nice as a bonus but nothing more as the real
highlight of course concerns every single second from the Rio
concert.
I lift my glass of caipirinhas and salute
Geddy, Alex and Neil and also James ‘Jimbo’ Barton for delivering
this great audio souvenir from one of the most incredible shows in
the history of Rush. Now all I have to do is get myself a copy of
that DVD and I’ll be there myself !
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