Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Consistently Rush, Consistently Good, April 16, 2008
I was at the St. Louis show, so this cd is a nice reminder of a very nice night for me and my son. Many have complained about Rush's frequency of live releases and song list, to them I would respond, check out live King Crimson. I love that band too, but they put out a ton of live stuff, many of the same tracks repeated over and over. I don't think Rush is guilty of milking the cash cow, I think they're doing a nice service to us fans.
The live recording itself is imaculate. The sound quality is first rate. The band is performing at a very high level, and consistently well, as Rush usually does. Perhaps they could mix things up a bit, but seeing a live Rush show is seeing a band that's been together as a unit for many years, a tight band that does what it's supposed to do, put on a consistently great show.
The new album Snakes & Arrows is emphasized in the set list, as this tour was to promote that album. I for one liked that album. Beyond that there are a few old gems such as Circumstances, Entres Nous, and Witch Hunt which are very nice to hear live. Mixed amongst all this are the classic tracks, such as Tom Sawyer, Freewill, etc.
I have looked forward to this album since I first heard about it, and was not disappointed. 5 stars.
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42 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
4 1/2 stars-- Another great live performance., April 15, 2008
I have to confess, even as a diehard Rush fan, I'm starting to wonder a bit about live album saturation. To be fair, Rush doesn't exactly inject a lot of variances in their performances over the years-- "Spirit of Radio" hasn't changed a whole lots since 1980. The band had a tendency to "bookend" their studio records with a live album-- All the World's a Stage, Exit...Stage Left and A Show of Hands each provided pretty much a live "best of" from the four studio records that came before (with the latter two each drawing a pair of songs from earlier material).
Starting with 1998's Different Stages: Live, Rush's live albums have had less to do with a period of time and more a pretty straight echo of a live performance. And for a band that released four live albums over the course of their first 28 years, when their last two live records came out in reasonably rapid succession (2003's Rush in Rio and the audio CD portion of 2005's Rush - R30 - 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition), I have to confess to wondering, "do I really need these?". 2008's "Snakes & Arrows Live" evoked a similar response from me.
But hey, who am I kidding? I am a diehard, and this record is fantastic-- taken from the band's tour behind 2007's Snakes & Arrows, the material is a bit heavy from that record, but both the new and the old material gets great readings. The band is downright haunting on "Witch Hunt", bristling with intensity on "Mission", and primed to explode on "Dreamline" and "Far Cry" and just stunning on "Secret Touch"-- it gets just an unbelievable reading. I could go on and on about different pieces-- it's a nice mix of hits ("Spirit of Radio", "Subdivisions", "Tom Sawyer", et.al.), fan favorites ("Natural Science", "A Passage to Bangkok") and rarities ("Entre Nous", "Circumstances", "Between the Wheels") to pretty much satisfy anyone.
.... which leads me back to a more casual fan-- maybe not quite one of the "crazy Rush fans" (an expression Aimee Mann assured me was redundant when I bumped into her years ago, and not without cause-- we are kind of an obsessive bunch). If you're a bit more casual, do you need this? Maybe, I've enjoyed this one vastly more than Rush in Rio (which while it has its own charm, I suspect is an album only a diehard could love), but if you've invested in Rush - R30 - 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, you probably don't need this one. If you haven't, by all means, check this out, it's a good record.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The world is still their stage!, April 16, 2008
As every fan knows, Rush excel at playing live. It is a distinct part of what makes them so great. And they have finally broken out of the limited pattern of 4 studio albums followed by a live recording. They have been giving fans an abundance of live works lately. And while it may appear to some as a ploy to make a few extra bucks for nothing, each and every release has been a high-quality package, offering the fans another chance at a road-trip to see the band. They always manage to throw in an old classic not previously captured to tape or played quite the same way before.
Rush have always been conscientious about giving their fans good value for the money. And the bar is always set high by them and by us. Snakes & Arrows Live is another hurdle over that bar. It's fun, it rocks, and it's a great addition to your Rush collection.
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