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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

London show #2 open thread
Posted at 6:08PM | comments (16)

UPDATE - 10/17@2:10PM: Here's a great gallery of pro-shot pics from this show (thanks Graham B).

UPDATE - 10/13@9:48AM: Here's a review from The Guardian (thanks Fiat).

Sorry this is late. The site had technical issues and I was out of town.

Date/Time: Wednesday, October 10th @ 7:30PM (local time)
Show Number: 54
Venue: Wembley Arena
Place: London, UK

gallery: [view] [upload] [bootleg videos]
reviews: [reviews]

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COMMENTS
#1 - Posted 10/10/07 @6:42PM by joannee [contact]

Rock on London!!!!
#2 - Posted 10/10/07 @7:04PM by Liverpool.78

Let's hope we get a few more reviews and some PHOTOS, from what 'Interimsleibenden' reckoned was 'The centre of the Universe'.

Come on guys! your in London for Chrissake!! Show the world that you know ow to celebrate RUSH!!!

Liver.
#3 - Posted 10/10/07 @9:19PM by kenster2112@sbcglobal.net [contact]

3rd times a charm.
#4 - Posted 10/10/07 @9:56PM by missionman [contact]

Is there not many RUSH fans in London? Maybe?
#5 - Posted 10/11/07 @12:54AM by jmreidfo [contact]

Hey, the Indy show was kickass - that was over six weeks ago and I'm STILL STOKED! It's still worth mentioning.

Were there any 'LCS games on tonight? I had to work late...
#6 - Posted 10/11/07 @1:40AM by missionman [contact]

I sat third row at the St. Louis show and I'm still stoked myself. I saw RUSH 21 times and that one was the best of them all by far. I held up a sign that said happy birthday lerxt and he looked rite at me and said thank you. One of the best times of my life!!! It was sooo cool!
#7 - Posted 10/11/07 @2:26AM by scott2112

No games tonight jmreidfo. I was at the Indy show also...my 28th Rush concert. Absolutely spectacular!! Can't wait until the tour comes back in March 2008, I'm going for 29 and maybe 30 if I'm lucky! LCS games start tonight by the way.
#8 - Posted 10/11/07 @7:48AM by AndyP [contact]

Saw the boys last night....I was front row, right in the middle and they were just awesome....and to see them up so close was just something to remember. They were right on the top of their game.....Lerxst nailed everything. Great atmosphere too.... I can die a happy man :-).........oh by the way it was DEW not SB....
#9 - Posted 10/11/07 @8:06AM by waveydavey [contact]

Wow what a night in London last night. The guys were on great form but oddly most of the audience was really restrained. At times I felt embarassed to be a Londoner - come on show these guys you know how to rock!
I was going ape while everyone around me was sitting down and taking it all in. This is Wembley not the Royal Albert Hall, you are allowed to go nuts!
The band came on at 7.45 which caught a couple of thousand people out, there were still many empty seats which filled up after a few songs.
The beginning was brilliant, Alex was so early with the opening riffs of Limelight that he was the only one on stage and had to stop for about 15 seconds while Neil sat down and Geddy got the bass strap over his head. Ged came over to Alex and gave him the bunny ears sign over his head as he began the song again.
The best bits for me in the first half were 'Mission' which sounded fantastic, 'Circumstances' (Ged really nailed the high notes) and 'BTW' which was just awesome.
The 2nd half highlights were Natural Science and DEW which has replaced Summertime Blues.
The new stuff sounded much heavier live and seemed to go down well. Lowlights for me were Spindrift and One Little Victory during which I could sense the crowd getting a bit restless.
Now for the incredible bit, I actually saw many people leaving during the 1st encore song 'OLV' they were going to miss Bangkok and YYZ just to get the tube home a bit earlier. I just cannot understand that type of thinking!
I hope we'll see them again in London as they don't come across as a band thinking of stopping, they're still way to good for that and seem to be enjoying it still.
#10 - Posted 10/11/07 @8:11AM by Graham GB38457 [contact]

I was there for both nights. They played a hell of a lot better on the second night. For me to many from Snakes songs but can't blame them for playing the new stuff. After all its just great there over here. Superb show from a great band.

Crowd were going mad where I was which was 15 rows from the front. Presume the guy above was not o the ground floor. With regards to the comments above about are there any Rush fans in London, England. Well just look at their albums sales here and I think your get your answer.
#11 - Posted 10/11/07 @8:24AM by TheSaltire [contact]

GREAT SHOW!!! Third time seeing them on the tour (Charlotte, Indianapolis, and London). They sounded great...maybe the best sound I've ever heard. Crowd didn't really get into it until later into the show...but then it was rockin'. I'll post some pics...
#12 - Posted 10/11/07 @8:53AM by Fiat [contact]

Graham GB38457,

I would love to look at their album sales. Where can I do that?
#13 - Posted 10/11/07 @9:09AM by Tom [contact]

Wow. My 2nd time (last time R30) so only that and live dvd/cds to go on but YYZ was the best they've ever played it to my ears.

The first set was good, but the 2nd miles better. Highlights were Main monkey business and Dreamline (i've never really liked that song but last night it just sounded great). Liked the ending to digital man which sounded quite uptempo. Did n't go for Mission, other than the guitars..i thought it sapped energy out of the show a bit. S&A came over very well - Far Cry in particular (having seen this live i think it's one of their "classics"), the other tracks sounded harder (better in this case) as well as some of the oldies: Witchunt, SOR...good use of graphics and a few surprises. as for the drum solo, it was great, very different but the drum sounds used in the industrial section could have been a bit more lively, or responsive to neil's playing. noticed people taking out chickens out of the ovens and putting them in front of neil! at least they did n't start throwing chickens at us at the end of the show.

The crowd, (at least where I was 19 rows back) seemed to be into it. The band were definitely giving it some. I think it was just in the tiers that people were sitting down some of the time. It looked 95% or more full to me - except for the bits right next to the stage which i guess would n't be for sale.

It'll probably be another 3 years before they come back here again so if i can make a vacation of it, seriously considering seeing them in us/canada in 2008 as they were that good.
#14 - Posted 10/11/07 @2:32PM by e2 [contact]

I was there on both nights. The second night was a tad better (perhaps the extra rest afforded by not having to tear-down, move, and set-up?). Overall great performances and the new songs translate really well live, but I have an issue with the amount of samples playing during the songs from SnA. Worst of all was Spindrift which left me feeling at times like they were playing along to a tape. I know there weren't and I get that they trigger everything themselves (was in a great position on night two to watch the footwork), but it's just too much. On night one, during Armor and Sword, it seemed like Geddy was screaming just to make himself heard over the recording of himself. And Big Al just looks dumb singing along to Geddy's backing vocal (not to mention the "extra guitarists" in Far Cry and Spindrift). I remember an interview from the mid 80s where Neil said they hadn't played Witch Hunt before because they just couldn't pull it off live. They need to return to that attitude. How about this: let the crowd handle the backing vocals. We'll do it. Cheap too.

As far as the audiences were concerned, I was stunned by how calm Londoners were. At one point, the guy next to me was asked to calm down and sit down. What the hell is that all about London? I met a nice chap from Glasgow who explained that London is a subdued place, but crowds around the rest of the UK would be insanely enthusiastic. I guess I picked the wrong town to see Rush in.

Bottom line: Great show. Can't wait to see them in Milan!
#15 - Posted 10/12/07 @11:42AM by sciencebase [contact]

I was there second night. Wembley Arena ain't gonna win awards for acoustics but the show was fantastic, they upped the pace in the second half and there was no one sitting near where I stood (about 40 yards back from the stage, close enough to feel the dragon's heat)

Anyway, I did a mini-review in my usual style - link and namecheck a few fellow scientists with a Penchant for all things LLP.

Dave Bradley
#16 - Posted 10/13/07 @5:12PM by How f---ing cool is Geddy Lee. [contact]

I could have lived without that "review" from The Guardian. I'm surprised he gave it 3/5 stars.

You know, the first review of S&A that came out pre-release in late April, the guy started off with a comment like: "Nothing concentrates the mind like the prospect of a new release from Rush." I thought, "What a great, if over-wrought, way to put it." That is until I heard or read the original quote that he was making a variation on: "Nothing concentrates the mind like the prospect of imminent death" or something like that.

Reviewers suck ass.

(Strangley enough, it was a pretty good review -- I just wonder why he had to put in a backhanded slap using an obscure quote that most people wouldn't pick up on.)

PESLUDRI: What I tell PESL when it's my turn to wash the dishes.

HowF-ingCool
 

 

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