The Vapor Trails tour is underway. I took the 3 hour hike up to Scranton, PA to go see it on its second night on the second stop of the tour at a venue known as Montage Mountain. I know there are some fans out there because I found this forum on a search engine when I was looking for info on the new album a few months back before it was released. Despite a bad Scranton experience, I had a good Rush concert. Despite the blue collar white trash money gouging town (hotel prices at more than double the normal rate because for those nights that there are concerts, people actually WANT to be in Scranton) and a venue that is in the middle of nowhere with only one road leading up to it (over an hour and a half to get out of the parking lot and back to the main roads). The concert itself was great overall. Not sure about the venue. I only know one other stop on the tour and it (like Montage) is an outside covered pavilion of seats with a lawn area behind it. Due to the late summer daylight, the laser/light/video screen show was vertually non-existant during the first set of the show. It would have been wasted in the light of day anyway. So for the first half of the show, it seemed like it would be a slow, sub par performance (for Rush anyway, which is still better than most bands). But after a 15 minute or so intermission, the second set started after the sun had dropped and the real show kicked in, and I mean kicked. I'll list at the end what songs I remember off the top of my head, but most of it was older stuff, with some more recent and only three songs from Vapor Trails. The encore exploded in three old songs, when rock was really rock. And teh audio in that place was somewhat poor, especially on the loud, hard tracks. Unless it was the equipment, but there was a good bit of unnecessary ringing and static type sounds, and on parts, the guitar was drowning out Geddy. I'll try to note the set, if I can remember: Rush: Working Man (Encore) Fly by Night: By-Tor and the Snow Dog (Encore) 2112: 2112: Overature and Temple of Syrinx (Second Set) A Farewell to Kings: Cygnus X-1 (Encore, no lyrics, or maybe this was from Hemispheres) Permanant Waves: Spirit of Radio (second set) Natural Science (second set) Moving Pictures: Tom Sawyer (first set, opening song) Limelight (second set) YYZ Grace under Pressure: Distant Early Warning Red Sector A Power Windows: Big Money Presto: The Pass Roll the Bones: Bravado Roll the Bones (Ah, the wonders of Rush's rap. The video on the lip synching skeleton -same from the original RTB tour- were off of the lyrics.) Where's my Thing? Counterparts: Between Sun and Moon Leave that Thing alone Test for Echo: Driven Resist Vapor Trails: - oddly enough, this is the sketchiest. Maybe because I was listeneing to the album ont eh three hour drive. Maybe because I hadn't heard it enough to know all teh songs and all the lyrics. I know for sure ghost rider was done and am sure One little victory was too. Pretty sure the only other one was Earthshine. One little victory (Start of Second Set, complete with dragon video and flame geysers) Earthshine Ghost Rider
Knew- just knew that there'd be some Rush fans "up in here." They're playing out here in Denver on August 24. Last time I saw them, back in 1992 or so... Roll the Bones tour... (searching)... (searching)... oh yeah Primus opened up (who are these jokers, someone said), and Rush played mostly stuff post moving pictures. Hey... now, hold on. I like some of that stuff. Definitely. Mad props, as the kids say. But I gots to have me some fly by night or something! (oh yeah now I remember they played a medley - I ****ing hate medleys - of old stuff and my blood boiled). My first Rush concert, too. So I passed on later ones, and people kept telling me "dude it's all old stuff. It was awesome!" Yeah that's great. So I'm pissed this summer because I had to work when Jethro Tull came through (saw them two years ago- best concert ever - phenomenal musicians!) so now I see my old running mate Rush on the slate. So I'm thinking about getting the time off to do this. This looks like an excellent play list... I wouldn't think that this is the order that they played in, though. I had doubts about Tull, being jurassic rockers, but they sounded, to me, like a new and innovative band as ever. They grooved and they danced. Talking about tull again, sorry... So I just want to know if this will be a similarly sweet event, to justify the long haul down to Denver. Discuss. John Le Coq
