Date: Thursday, May 14, 2015
City: St. Louis, MO
Venue: Scottrade Center
Opening act(s): N/A
Headlining act: Rush
Rush Setlist:
The Anarchist
Clockwork Angels
Headlong Flight
Far Cry
The Main Monkey Business
One Little Victory
Animate
Roll The Bones
Distant Early Warning
Subdivisions
———————
Tom Sawyer
Red Barchetta
The Spirit Of Radio
Jacob’s Ladder
Cygnus X-1 Book Two: Hemispheres – Prelude
Cygnus X-1 Book One – The Voyage: Part 1
The Story So Far (Neil Peart Drum Solo)
Cygnus X-1 Book One – The Voyage: Part 3
Closer To The Heart
Xanadu
2112 Overture/The Temples of Syrinx/Presentation/Grand Finale
———————
Lakeside Park
Anthem
What You’re Doing
Working Man
Notes:
- The entire set was played in reverse chronological order, with the stage props changing throughout the show to reflect each corresponding time period.
- First time seeing “Animate,” “Red Barchetta,” “Jacob’s Ladder,” “Cygnus X-1 Book Two: Hemispheres – Prelude,” “Closer To The Heart,” “Xanadu,” “2112 Part IV: Presentation,” “Lakeside Park,” “Anthem,” and “What You’re Doing” live.
- Show #5 at this venue; first since September 22, 2012.
Videos:
Review: (to be expanded)
The show started around 7:45 went went on till about 10:45, with a 20 minute intermission in the middle.
Rush opened with “The Anarchist,” one of my favorite songs from their most recent album, 2013’s Clockwork Angels. They continued with “Clockwork Angels” and “Headlong Flight” from the same album. “Headlong Flight” was one of the highlights of the night, as it gave each band member a chance to shine. Plus it’s an amazing, and heavy, song.
“Far Cry,” another favorite of mine, followed. I soon caught on to the fact that the setlist was going to flow in reverse chronological order. I was happy when “One Little Victory” from 2002’s Vapor Trails album popped up. A few albums were skipped, but most were represented.
As the band played, stagehands (dressed in red jumpsuits as seen on the cover of 1981’s Moving Pictures album) changed the scenery on the stage to reflect the era of whatever song they were playing. It was a really cool touch and neat way to celebrate the band’s history.
The videos sprinkled throughout and between the sets were also career spanning, featuring outtakes from bits they had done and new pieces, like celebrities lip syncing the (terrible) rap portion of “Roll The Bones.”
The first set took the band all the way from 2013’s Clockwork Angels to 1982’s Signals, meaning they would be returning with 1981’s Moving Pictures album. Sure enough, “Tom Sawyer” opened the second set, and featured part of the same South Park video that led into the song the first time I saw them in 2002.
Some deep cuts were sprinkled throughout, featuring songs that hadn’t been played in years or even decades.
By the encore, the stage was decorated as it would be for a concert in a high school gym, while the band played songs from their first three albums. It was a great end to a great show.
Media Review:
Rush hints at last hurrah at sold-out Scottrade show
As he left the stage at the sold-out Scottrade Center Thursday night, Rush bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee told the crowd, “Maybe we’ll see you again one day.”
That hint of uncertainty is part and parcel of Rush’s R40 Tour. On the one hand, it’s a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Canadian power trio’s long-enduring lineup — drummer Neil Peart was the last to join in 1974 — and a showcase for the deep catalog of music the band has amassed since then.
On the other, it’s perhaps a fond farewell. Band members have hinted in recent interviews that this may be the last time that Rush tours, at least in such a big way.
But big is what Rush does best: big stage, big spectacle, big songs — lyrically complex, multipart epics replete with Lee’s thundering bass, Alex Lifeson’s shredding guitar work and Peart’s drum solos (plural).
And they still do it so well.
The show functioned as a giant time machine as Rush played material from all eras of its history, moving, as Lee put it, “slowly backwards.” As the trio started with “The Anarchist” and “Clockwork Angels,” the stage was decorated with familiar props from a recent tour.
Throughout the evening, stagehands casually strolled in and out while the band was playing and removed or added items to give the set a look from days gone by. By the time they were finished, the stage looked like a high school gymnasium, ready for a fledgling band to take flight.
The hourlong opening set featured a number of songs the band hadn’t played in concert for years, including “Distant Early Warning,” “Animate” and “One Little Victory.”
The crowd roared its approval for favorites “Roll the Bones” and “Subdivisions.” But the highlight was “Headlong Flight,” which gave each of the band members chances to shine; especially Lee, who was in full roar with his still strong, impossibly high-pitched vocals, and Peart, who turned in the first of the show’s two drum solos.
The second set, which also clocked in at about an hour, came charging out of the gate with the hits “Tom Sawyer” and “The Spirit of Radio,” plus fan favorite “Red Barchetta” and the deepest of deep cuts, “Jacob’s Ladder.”
The “Cygnus X-1” suite was the piece that epitomized just what makes Rush a one-of-a-kind act: No other hard rock band of its era exhibited such pronounced prog-rock tendencies and no prog band rocked that hard, nor with such instrumental dexterity. The song featured multiple parts, shifting tempos, conceptual lyrics abstruse enough to require a decoder ring, and of course, another drum solo.
If that wasn’t enough, Lifeson and Lee broke out the double-necked guitars for “Xanadu,” then played most of side one (from back when albums had sides) of the opus “2112.”
Any group that far out there had better also have a sense of humor about itself, and Rush proved that it does. The video screen showed recorded bits featuring actors Paul Rudd, Jason Segel and Eugene Levy, among others, and the cartoon characters of “South Park,” who let a little air out of the band’s balloon. Good move.
The encore reached back to the band’s earliest albums for songs such as “Anthem” and “Working Man.”
Lee remarked near the top of the show that, “We’ve played here almost as much, if not more than any other American city. We’re always comfortable here.” If this was indeed Rush’s last hurrah in St. Louis, the band went out in fine fashion.
By Daniel Durchholz @ St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 2015
Rush turned back the clocks in Saint Louis Thursday
Prog-rock icons Rush brought their “R40 North American Tour 2015” to a near capacity crowd at Scottrade Center in St. Louis Thursday and the resulting show was twice what most other bands half their age would perform.
Amid speculation that this would be the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band’s final show ever in the Gateway City the band performed a plethora of songs to soothe even the heartiest of Rush appetites. In celebrating the band’s 40th anniversary of their first album they released as a trio they played songs from every era of their storied career.
While that is nothing new for this band, they have constantly tried to be as well rounded as possible in previous tours, what was new were some of the deep album cuts that the band hasn’t played in years, or in some cases decades. For instance they broke out “Jacob’s Ladder” from Permanent Waves and haven’t played that since that album’s 1980 tour. Likewise for “Lakeside Park” (not played live since 1978) and a real treat in “What You’re Doing”, side two, song one (for those that know what I am talking about) of their self-titled LP from 1974 and not played since the summer of 1977.
It was the deep cuts like these that made it seem like the talk of this being their final large tour all that more real. But to include those tracks the band had to choose some fan favorites to keep off the list. Gone were staples like “YYZ”, “Limelight” and “Freewill”. With a catalogue as deep as Rush has if they tried to include everything all the fans wanted to hear the show would be six hours instead of the three it was.
Be it as it may, the band (vocalist/bassist/keyboardist Geddy Lee, giuitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart) chose the selection they did as a thank you to the longtime fans while still appeasing the more recent fans, as well as showcasing a deep history of the band – almost as if to give one final harrah.
Alas, if they wanted to go out swinging the first half of the show went out with a bang. Rocking harder over an hour and 20 minutes than I have ever seen them (9 times to be exact) the band seemed as if to say “Old? Us? We will show you old!” as they steamrolled through the set.
The band was flanked by three large video screens that showed clips from the bands’ music videos, outtakes from said videos and short films, classic images of the band and help from many friends of the band- including Paul Rudd, Jason Segal, Eugene Levy and Les Claypool.
The show itself was a fluid dynamic of incredible sight and sound. This included a moving light rig, lasers, smoke, pyro and large columns of flame to compliment the bands incredibly full sound. By no means was this a distraction, but instead a well-orchestrated component that clicked well with the incredible intricacies of the music emanating from only three incredibly talented individuals who are virtuoso’s in their own right.
The stage itself started off like the previous tours had, with washing machines and megaphones and other nick knacks. Throughout the show stagehands (dressed in the red jumpsuits made famous by the “Moving Pictures” album cover) kept meticulously added stacks of amps behind Lifeson and Lee, before taking them down again. The stage setup changed so much that if you turned away you might have missed something. Even Peart played with two completely different drum sets, changing them during the intermission.
Peart played two drum solos and was perfect, as usual in his delivery. Lee’s vocals sounded as strong as ever and Lifeson seemed to be transported back in time, shredding the axe like he was 25. But that’s really what this tour is – a time capsule of the band. And if this was the band’s last stop in St. Louis (Lee stated at the end “Maybe we will see you again” as opposed to his customary “We will see you next time”) and let’s hope that is not the case, but if it is then there is not a more perfect way to end their run here: with a memorably powerful epic show that made us all feel young again.
By Sean Derrick @ Examiner.com, 2015
TurnToDust86 