RUSH IS A BAND

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Opening night open thread

UPDATE - 6/29@3:25PM: Gross Sales: $505,255
Attendance: 8,998
Capacity: 15,949

UPDATE - 6/16@2:20PM: Check out the user reviews of the show here.

UPDATE - 6/15@7:13AM: More YouTube bootleg vids here (SPOILER - includes opening video), here (SPOILER) and here (SPOILER).

UPDATE - 6/14@10:29PM: Reader Chris M found another bootleg video on YouTube. Watch it here (SPOILER). And the Digital Rush Experience has now cataloged the first available recording from the Snakes & Arrows tour, Overnight Delivery. This audience recording is now up on dimeadozen at this link. Also, a bunch of images are now uploaded in the tour gallery for the Atlanta show (yes- its' fixed now).

UPDATE - 6/14@5:44PM: I've been able to get most things up and running, but the one thing that will require some time is the tour photo upload feature. :( So for now I've had to take that down. Very sorry about that. I'll try and get it resolved asap.

UPDATE - 6/14@3:24PM: *** SPOILER UPDATE 6 *** Power Windows has a nice summary of the setlist and a list of several items of note over on his site. I've included them here below the fold as well.

UPDATE - 6/14@2:38PM: Readers Digital Rush Experience and Dave S let me know that an audience recording of the Atlanta show is now up on dimeadozen at this link.

UPDATE - 6/14@1:03PM: I've moved the site to a bigger/faster server and so far it seems to be working like a charm except for a few minor things (the calendar for instance). Hopefully this will prevent any future crashes. Thanks for all the words of encouragement.

If you saw the show, don't forget to post your review in the tour section (as well as in this post if you like). Also, if you have any photos, upload them here.

----- snip -----

UPDATE - 6/14@12:23PM: There are a bunch of pro-shot pics up at AccessAtlanta.com. Thanks profit of doom and gttim for the heads up.

UPDATE - 6/14@9:54AM: You've probably noticed that althought the site is up, it's still running slow. I'm going to try a few things to alleviate this. In the meantime I'll need to shutdown comments again. Hopefully it won't be for more than an hour or so.

UPDATE - 6/14@8:23AM: Thanks to reader gttim we now have our first bootleg video from last night's show. It's Far Cry and you can check it out here (SPOILER).

UPDATE - 6/14@6:20AM: I just added several more SPOILER updates below the fold; just miscellaneous observations from reader Justin about the show.

UPDATE - 6/14@5:25AM: Everything is back up for now (fingers crossed).

UPDATE - 6/13@11:07PM: Before I sign off for the evening I just wanted to give an update as to the status of the site. I'm going to leave this page up overnight and hopefully have the regular site up tomorrow morning. The amount of traffic I was pulling in totally took me by surprise and I apologize for the site being down. I'll do whatever it takes to get things back up and running. And finally, many thanks to reader Justin for texting me all the updates throughout the evening!

UPDATE - 6/13@10:57PM: *** SPOILER UPDATE 4 *** Updates regarding encore below the fold.

UPDATE - 6/13@10:36PM: *** SPOILER UPDATE 3 *** Updates up through end of regular set below the fold.

UPDATE - 6/13@10:23PM: *** SPOILER UPDATE 2 *** The setlist as revealed earlier today has been confirmed up through the drum solo in the second set. For more details on the setlist and the opening videos read below the fold.

UPDATE - 6/13@8:09PM: *** SPOILER UPDATE 1 *** Updates below the fold; first 3 songs plus other details.

UPDATE - 6/13@7:55PM: ATTENTION: I had to shut down comments temporarily to give my server a break... you guys are killing it! :) I will have them back up asap.

UPDATE - 6/13@7:36PM: There's now a pre-show picture of the stage setup in the gallery.

The time is now again - time for a Rush tour! Tonight is opening night for the Rush Snakes & Arrows tour at the HiFi Buys Amphitheatre in Atlanta, Georgia. For those of you who want to know, the entire rehearsal setlist has been posted to the net and can be seen in this post (SPOILER). I will be using this thread to post updates throughout the evening and will be sure to keep any and all spoiler information hidden. If you get any photos from tonight's show (or pre-show activities), please upload them here. To view photos from the show go here (there's nothing there yet as of this post). Also, once the show commences, you'll notice that under the Atlanta show in the tour section a new comments thread under the discuss heading for show reviews will magically appear. If you're attending the show please post your opinions/experiences in that thread when you get the chance.

A couple of other related items ...

Reader Mountaineerfan just called HiFI Buys amphitheater and was told that small digital cameras are allowed, just not professional cameras! You can call the venue at 404-443-5000 to check for yourself. Cool.

Jess of the Rush to Fight AIDS project made a last-minute decision to attend the show tonight and asked me to relay that, although she won't have her complete setup onhand, she'd love to meet up with folks from the site and also will take donations. Just check out the latest blog entry on the project's mySpace page for details.

Atlantic put out an official press release on the tour yesterday afternoon.

With all the opening-night excitement I totally forgot that fan presales for the Madision Square Garden show on September 17th began yesterday at 10AM. The presale will run through noon tomorrow and regular sales begin this Saturday at 10AM. Details in this post.

For everyone going to the show tonight ... have fun and be safe! :)

SPOILER UPDATE 6: From Power Windows, a nice little setlist summary:

Based on opening night only...the setlist for this tour is quite a bit more varied than recent tours; 9 of the 13 tracks from the new album are played live (performing this many songs in support of a new album has not been done since the Power Windows tour!), and for the first time ever, "Entre Nous" is played live. In addition, many songs are back after a long rest ("Circumstances" [tuned down a full step], not heard since the Hemispheres tour; "Digital Man" [with a new arrangement, possibly abbreviated] since the Grace Under Pressure warm-up tour, "Witch Hunt" since the Power Windows tour, and "Mission" since the Presto tour). This is only the second tour to not include either "2112" or "La Villa Strangiato" in the setlist (the other time was the Counterparts tour), and it is also worthy to note that "Roll The Bones" is dropped for the first time ever. Keeping score on the songs played: only 5 songs are played from albums released between Moving Pictures and Vapor Trails (only 1 is from the 90's), and not including the drum solo, of the 27 songs played, 17 are from PeW, MP or S&A; that is roughly 2/3 of the concert.

And some items of note:

* The dryers have been replaced by three rotisserie chicken roasters which are as tall as Alex's stacks of H&K amplifiers, and are believed to say "Hen House" across the front of them.

* The opening video begins with a dream sequence with the Alex and Neil, reminiscent of the Jerry Stiller video from R30: Alex wakes up and taps someone sleeping beside him. Neil rolls over, and they both look at each other and yell 'AHHHHHHHHHHH", then after an animated sequence, Alex wakes up and says something to the affect of "What did they do to my food?"...it then cuts to Geddy who is sitting in a chair approached by an old man in a Scottish kilt who speaks with a Scottish accent who tells Geddy he doesn't care how he is feeling, that the show must go on etc, and threatens him with humorous threats IF he doesn't get up and go do the show to which they all ran out. The guy in the Scottish costume is actually Geddy, dressed in make up and wig.

* At the end of the show, another video of Scottish Geddy plays, where he tells people to go home because he wants to get back to eating his chicken.

* The video intro for the second set is all Alex in rare, comical form, playing several characters on the Snakes and Arrows Leela board. The board shifts around the screen and highlights certain lines to which Alex pops up and executes typical Alex rants.

* There is a video of Bob & Doug McKenzie to introduce The Larger Bowl.

* There is a South Park video intro to Tom Sawyer; during the video, the South Park characters begin playing Tom Sawyer but Cartman sings the wrong lyrics, "I traveled down the river with a black guy", which leads to an argument about the lyrics revolving around one of them saying that he's actually read the book and that's how the story goes, but the other quickly corrects him saying "that was Huckleberry Finn". Cartman then says "I'm Geddy LEE and I can sing it however I want". They then agree to start again to "get it right" and count off the beginning where Rush takes over and plays.

* During "A Passage To Bangkok", a video plays showing footage of far east trains, poppy fields, marijuana plants and many other scenes that relate to the song lyrics.

* Alex plays a mandola mounted on an Omega stand during "Workin' Them Angels"

* "Digital Man" may have been abbreviated, missing the first "He's got a force field" lyric.

SPOILER UPDATE 5: Here are some random observations from reader Justin:

- very first song, alex starting playing but the other guys weren't ready yet... he rang out the first few notes til they got set then restarted limelight
- Alex used omega stand during Entre Nous for 12 string acoustic, also used during Workin' them angels for whatever instrument he does the solo with, then again during TWTWB i think....
- They seemed a little sluggish at first, or maybe just neil... but i can def. understand that.. by the time Entre Nous rolled around they were into it full tilt
- Alex really hated his guitar tech it seemed like at the beginning of between the wheels... neil and ged kept repeating the beginning but then ged started the lyrics and Alex's guitar still wasn't fixed.... finally they got it and he picked up wherever they were in the song... he GLARED at his tech a few times after that during BTW.
- The drum solo was COMPLETELY changed and it felt like it was shorter than the previous two versions,,, did anyone else get that feeling?
- I did notice Geddy could not sing the high parts of songs like Circumstances and Bangkok, and instead they must have had them tuned down to be easier to sing..
- Neil dropped a couple of sticks but picked right up where he left off, missed the big toss up in the air during YYZ.
- Neil uses the back kit ONLY ONCE...for the solo
- It looked like Al had a wammy bar added onto a Les Paul... isn't that unusual? Maybe not... i'm not very knowledgeable on that topic. But he used that guitar alot. It looked like he used a PRS, Les Paul w/ wammy, and maybe one or two other LPs and thats it, plus a 12 string acoustic and that odd stringed instrument for Working them angels

SPOILER UPDATE 4: The encore was just as advertised and there was a closing video featuring Geddy. Here's the entire setlist - 27 songs total plus the drum solo. There was no mystery song at the end of the first set, but otherwise the rumors from earlier today hold true.

Set 1:

Video Intro (features all three band members and Alex and Neil waking up in bed together)

Limelight
Digital Man
Entre Nous
Mission
Freewill
The Main Monkey Business
The Larger Bowl (Bob & Doug video intro)
Secret Touch
Circumstances
Between The Wheels
Dreamline

Intermission

Set 2:

Video Intro (features Alex)

Far Cry
Workin' Them Angels
Armor And Sword
Spindrift
The Way The Wind Blows
Subdivisions
Natural Science
Witch Hunt
MalNar
Drum Solo
Hope
Summertime Blues
The Spirit Of Radio
Tom Sawyer (South Park video intro)

Encore:

One Little Victory
A Passage to Bangkok
YYZ

Video outro (features Geddy)

SPOILER UPDATE 3: The drum solo is totally new and there's a South Park video intro to Tom Sawyer.

SPOILER UPDATE 2: The opening video featured all three band members and Alex and Neil waking up in bed together?! :) The video opening up the 2nd set features Alex. There's a Bob & Doug McKenzie video intro to The Larger Bowl.

SPOILER UPDATE 1: Geddy Lee has rotisary chicken roasters instead of dryers. Alex is using a Les Paul fitted with a wammy bar. The first 3 songs are indeed Limelight, Digital Man and Entre Nous.