Rush may not be my favorite band in the world (top-five though), but they are most definitely my favorite band to see in concert. I have seen Rush in concert only four times, with the Grace Under Pressure, Counterparts, Vapor Trails, and 30th Anniversary tours, mostly because I was stationed overseas for eight years throughout the 80's and 90's. I probably would have seen them about twenty times if it wasn't for that. For every Rush concert that I have attended, I have been no less than blown away. The 30th Anniversary tour was no different. It was, quite possibly the best rock concert I have ever attended. Even better than the Vapor Trails concert. These three Canucks somehow keep besting themselves each and every tour, even after thirty years.

It was about 7:35 PM when the PA system went quiet and the giant center video screen came alive. Unfortunately it was still light out, VERY light out, as the setting sun was shining right in my face. Damn, that pissed me off! I was sitting dead-center, but more in the rear half of the covered seating area of the venue. Nissan Pavilion has a seating capacity of about 10,000, with room for another 15,000 on the lawn. This was a little farther than I would have liked, but the view was still excellent, especially since they have two giant video screens on each side of the stage, for the poor lawn dwellers. The opening video consisted of a brilliant animated segment which took you through all of the unique Rush album covers, with some hilarious animated transitions between each. The best was when the suited man from the Hemispheres album cover tosses his top-hat down to the naked guy, from the same cover, just in time to cover his "member" as he is turning towards the crowd. This all concludes with the three spheres from the Hold Your Fire album cover changing into three eggs that hatch baby dragons who start singing Rush's trademark Three Stooges intro, "hello, hello, hello". This surprisingly transitions into a bizarre segment starring Jerry Stiller (yeah, George's dad from the Seinfeld show), who appears to have awoken from a bad dream, and is wearing a Rush concert tee-shirt. He eventually starts yelling for the band to take the stage, calling them by their nicknames Lerxst, Dirk, and The Professor. This is when the magic really started.

The concert, just like with 2002's Vapor Trails tour, was divided into two long sets, each approximately 80 minutes long, with a 20-minute intermission between sets. That's two and one-half hours of jamming there folks! - and I haven't even mentioned the three song encore yet. Does Rush appear to be tiring after 30 years? I say thee nay! Here is a rundown of the set list with some brief comments on each performance:

1. "Medley" - This was one of the genuine highlights of the concert. The band played short instrumental versions of several of their best 1970's-era songs, including "Finding My Way", "Anthem", "Bastille Day", "Passage To Bangkok", and "Cygnus X-1", all while a montage of cool images of the band during various stages of their career were shown on the video screen.
2. "The Spirit Of Radio" - What needs to be said? One of their best songs, and always a concert favorite. Awesome performance to boot.
3. "Force Ten" - One of the few good songs from the Hold Your Fire album. They skipped that album in its entirety on the Vapor Trails tour, so it was nice to see it represented here.
4. "Animate" - My favorite song from the Counterparts album. I think a lot of the crowd were unfamiliar with this song, but Rush turned in a great performance. This was the only song played from that album.
5. "Subdivisions" - An awesome song from the awesome Signals album. They skipped it last tour, so I was glad to see it played this night, and so was the rest of the crowd. Their great performance was accompanied by some cool satellite image video describing vast suburban sprawl.
6. "Earthshine" - All of the Vapor Trails songs that were played during this and the last tour sounded much better than the album versions, thanks to the terrible production quality of that album.
7. "Red Barchetta" - Now we're talking! I had picked this song to open their second set, for a contest Rush had on their website. Ahhh, who needed front row seats and backstage passes anyways. I figured that they had to play this great song this tour, since they skipped it last time out. This was one of the best performances of the night, and the crowd simply ate it up.
8. "Roll The Bones" - This has been a concert staple since the album of the same name first came out. Great performance, with a cool animated skeleton video, but their were many songs I would have preferred over this one (see my closing comments). Maybe it's time to give this one a rest.
9. "Bravado" - Another song from the Roll The Bones album that I could have lived without, since I heard it last tour. How about just skipping that album altogether for a couple tours.
10. "YYZ" - (-. - -. - - ..) Hey, that's Morse code, and I used to have to copy that shit in the Navy. Only the best rock instrumental EVER, and these guys outshine themselves every time they play it. This is always the showstopper, and this night was no different.
11. "The Trees" - The classic from the Hemispheres album. Alex broke out his acoustic for the opening segment and then finished it off with some ferocious electric guitar - even interjecting a little bit of "Day Tripper" in at the end. I never tire of this song. Amazing!
12. "The Seeker" - The first of the Feedback cover songs. I wasn't that crazy about most of the songs on that album, but their live performance of this Who classic was fantastic. They "Rushified" it real good.
13. "One Little Victory" - The lead off track from the Vapor Trails album, which was given the same treatment as on that tour. The main video screen showed the monstrous animated dragon approaching from the distance, and, as it arrives, lights up a cigar with its flaming breath. It then breathes a huge stream of fire towards the screen as real flame throwers nearly engulf the entire stage, as the band kicks off the song. You've got to see it to believe it. Hey, you can. Check out how they open the second set on the awesome Rush In Rio DVD.

• INTERMISSION - Rush takes a deserved 20 minute break. Before taking the stage again, the video screen starts showing the same dragon scene that started last year's tour, and then suddenly goes to static, and switches to the dragon sitting in a recliner, eating popcorn, and channel surfing the TV with his remote control. All of the programs are dragon related and he eventually stops on a show featuring the hilarious Rush bobble-head dolls that they were selling with their other merchandise. The show was very retro-Thunderbirds looking, and featured the bobble-heads in a spaceship fighting off the dragon, who is threatening to burn up all of their merchandise. This was laugh out loud funny. Set two then gets underway with:

14. "Tom Sawyer" - What a way to start the second set. It is now almost completely dark out and the spectacular Rush stage show can finally be fully appreciated. People sure seem to go crazy for this here little song, and I can understand why - because it frigging ROCKS!
15. "Dreamline" - OK, so don't skip Roll The Bones altogether, because this song kicks ass! Not only was the performance incredible, but they totally blew their wad with the laser and light show on this baby. I have never seen a laser show that looked so awesome, and the way they synched it with the synthesizer riffs was incredible.
16. "Secret Touch" - Another great song from Vapor Trails, and as I pointed out before, much better than the album version.
17. "Between The Wheels" - Awesome! They usually always play "Distant Early Warning", from the Grace Under Pressure album, but they decided to dust off this gem of a tune instead. It is one of my favorites from that album and contains the classic lines; "now you know how that rabbit feels, going under you speeding wheels...bright images flashing by, like a windshield towards a fly".
18. "Mystic Rhythms" - One of the best songs from Power Windows. A slower paced, beautiful song that is even more majestic sounding live. No "Big Money" this year. Crap.
19. "Red Sector A" - Another classic from the Grace Under Pressure album that they never seem to leave off the set. Probably because it is always amazing live.
20. "Drum Solo" - Neal is still "The Professor" - trust me. Almost identical to his solo on the last tour, which means it was incredible. My drummer friend who was with me, about lost his mind watching his idol do his thing.
21. "Resist" - While Neal takes a break, Alex and Geddy take the stage with acoustic guitars to perform the acoustic version of this song, which they had arranged for the last tour. I like this version much better than the album version.
22. "Heart Full Of Soul" - The Yardbirds cover from the Feedback album, and Geddy and Alex keep the acoustic thing going. Neal joined in on drums about half-way through the song. Once again, this version topped the album version, which I wasn't too crazy about to begin with.
23. "2112" (Overture, Temples Of Syrinx, Finale) - When the opening, futuristic, synthesizer riff blared across the speakers, the crowd literally went nuts. They just take this classic to a new level when they perform it live, and it sounds better ever time I see them do it.
24. "La Villa Strangiato" - This is Alex's tour de force. Quite simply an instrumental-rock orgasm, almost as good as "YYZ". The past few concerts have featured a breakdown in the middle of the song where Alex does some strange noodlings on the guitar, and then rambles incoherently about some strange subject. (Last tour was some avant-garde jazz, followed by "Jazz is cool!"). I can't remember exactly what he rambled about this year, but I remember it was funny. Geddy was standing over by Neal and they were both grinning at him like "this guy is a complete loon!" He ended up playing some ferocious blues-rock licks and ended by saying "that shit is easy!". 
25. "By-Tor And The Snow Dog" - That silly little song from the Fly By Night album, which they dusted off for this and their last tour. I never was crazy about this song, and wish they would have played "Fly By Night", the song, instead.
26. "Xanadu" - Rush's magnum opus. Prog-rock the way prog-rock should be. The original song is over ten minutes long but unfortunately they cut it down to about six minutes this night. I was just happy to hear it at all, since they skipped it last tour. One of my top-five favorite Rush songs.
27. "Working Man" - No better way to end the concert than with this classic rock-fest from their very first album. This song always smokes, and this night was no different. They even improvised a little bit, mixing in some reggae licks toward the end.

• ENCORE - When Rush took the stage again, they first went over to the two clothes dryers, which were leftovers from last tour's stage props, and removed the clothes that had been spinning in each dryer. They then tossed them out into the very appreciative crowd. I was too far away to tell what exactly they were. Probably tour tee-shirts. The encore began with:

28. "Summertime Blues" - This was one of the better songs from the Feedback album and Rush once again made it pale in comparison to this smoking live version.
29. "Crossroads" - This version totally "out-muscled" Cream's version of this Robert Johnson classic. This was my favorite performance on the Feedback album, and the boys simply rocked-out on this one.
30. "Limelight" - A killer song, featuring one of Lifeson's best guitar solos ever. I expect to hear this one every time I see them. No excuses! A fitting way to send everyone home - completely satisfied.

After Rush finally left the stage, for good, most of the crowd stayed and continued to cheer, hoping for another encore. Greedy bastards! Eventually, the video screen came back to life and there again was Jerry Stiller amusingly admonishing the remaining crowd, "What? Thirty songs weren't enough for you!? It's Over! Go Home!" This was a fitting end to a spectacular show.

Now I will do some nitpicking of the set list if you don't mind. Where the hell was "Freewill", "Natural Science", "Analog Kid", "New World Man", "The Big Money", "Show Don't Tell".....blah, blah, blah. OK, so they played most of these during the last tour, but I (how do you emphasize "I" when it is only one letter?) want to hear these songs every time I see them. I didn't really need to hear three cover songs, although they were good. Two would have been plenty. Same with Vapor Trails. Lose "Bravado" and "By-Tor", add more Signals and Permanent Waves songs, and now we're frigging talking. Oh, just listen to me bitch, after almost everyone nearly wrote these guys off when they took a five year hiatus (like a lot of bands do routinely), they came roaring back with two incredible tours, a couple of decent albums, and an awesome DVD. I'll be first in line again for tickets to the next tour.

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