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Thu, Mar 28, 2024

Rush R40 Live tour Atlanta open thread

Tue, May 26, 2015@12:03PM | comments

UPDATE - 5/28@9:29AM: Atlanta sportscaster Ben Bolton paid tribute to Rush on air before the show as seen in this video.

Date/Time: Tuesday, May 26th @ 8:00PM
Show Number: 10
Venue: Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Place: Alpharetta, GA (outside Atlanta)
Twitter: #R40ATL | #R40Live
Instagram: #R40ATL
YouTube: Atlanta Rush R40 Live Tour
Setlist: Version A
Photos: Cygnus-X1.net
Reviews: Gwinnett Citizen

UPDATE - 5/27@4:50PM: Here's a review from the Gwinnett Citizen.

UPDATE - 5/27@12:53PM: There were a couple of celebrity sightings at the show last night. Blackberry Smoke keyboardist Brandon Still was at the show as seen in this Instagram post, and former Rush producer Peter Collins was also spotted. If you look closely, you can see John Roberts and Kyra Phillips of CNN in the background of that last photo!

UPDATE - 5/27@9:08AM: Here's a gallery of photos from Cygnus-X1.net.

UPDATE - 5/26@11:17PM: The show has wrapped up in Atlanta and the Version A setlist was played as expected. Good night!

UPDATE - 5/26@7:11PM: The show will be getting underway in a little over an hour from now. It's still raining and likely will keep raining for at least a couple more hours, so those on the lawn should be prepared to get wet. Rush is expected to play their Version A setlist as shown here. If anything changes, I'll let everyone know. Have fun Atlanta!

Rush will have Georgia on their minds tonight when they take the R40 Live tour to the Peach State to play the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre outside Atlanta. It'll be the 10th show (can you believe it?!) of the tour, and only the second outdoor show. After tonight the band will finish off this first leg of the tour with shows in Greensboro and Washington D.C. in the coming week, then take a little over a week off before picking things up again on June 8th in Columbus. Rush is expected to play their Version A setlist for tonight's show, and I've entered that setlist into the Atlanta setlist page for now. I'll be sure to update it if anything changes, and finalize it once the show is over. Despite the expectations of the A set, there's always an outside chance that Rush will surprise us with something different. For more discussion on that, check out the pre-show SPOILER review below the fold. Tonight's show has an 8PM start time listed, so the boys will likely hit the stage around 8:15-ish. The parking lots open at 6PM and doors to the show at 6:30PM. The forecast is calling for the possibility of some rain, so keep an eye on the weather and be prepared. For everyone going to the show, have fun, stay safe (and dry) and make sure to share your reports, reviews, photos and video with us. RUUSSSHHHH!!!!!

*** WARNING ***

*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

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*** pre-show SPOILER review *** Rush is expected to play their Version A setlist tonight and there's no reason to think they'll surprise us with anything else. They continue to soundcheck Losing It on a regular basis without including it in the live set. This goes along with the current rumor that they will only be playing it at a few select shows centered around the inclusion of a guest violinist (Ben Mink? Clockwork Angels stringer?), with Toronto (where the DVD will be filmed), NYC, Vancouver and Los Angeles being the likely candidates. The only other question is whether it would replace Subdivisions in the set or be added in before or after it. In his recent Classic Rock interview Alex had this to say about the setlist and tour:

"... We've dug deep. We've pulled out some songs that we haven't played in a very long time. We've pulled out some real fan favourites. And we're enjoying playing them. We've revisited every era except maybe the mid-eighties era, which we covered in a good portion of the set on the last tour. We've not included anything from Power Windows or Hold Your Fire, but there's something from just about every other record. ... We're bringing the Hemispheres Prelude and Jacob's Ladder and Cygnus X-1. It's fun and exciting to play these old songs. Jacob's Ladder sounds amazing! For years we've discounted it, although it was always a fans' favourite. We've got three sets - A, B, C - which we'll be rotating throughout the tour. ... Ged and I have gone crazy on bringing out all of our old instruments and buying up vintage gear all over the place. His goal is to play a different bass for every song in the show. ..."

Note that he says that nothing from Power Windows will be played which would count out The Big Money despite it being listed in the tourbook credits. However, it's possible that the tourbook credit refers to the fact that a snippet of the song was included in the opening video.

Photos from Instagram using hashtag #R40ATL:

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