RUSH - IN RIO

A fantastic live album from Canada's finest. Offering a retrospective of their entire career, Rush chooses some of their finest material and packs it into this triple-disc set.

Accompanied by a frenzied crowd of 60,000 screaming Brazilian fans, the musicians are on top-form, blistering their way through their material with real energy. Hearing the crowd interactions as they ecstatically sing along is truly amazing. There is a great mixture of the Rush's earlier Zeppelin inspired hard rock songs, along with their keyboard driven 80s material, and of course there are the modern Rush songs thrown in.

One of the main drawbacks of this album for the prog fan will be the band's resistance to perform some of their earlier epics. Although we do get treated to a great rendition of "Natural Science" in full, the versions of "Cygnus X-1" and "2112" have been shortened, although they still pack real power. For anyone in doubt, listen to the version of "Working Man", which completely blows the original away.

Overall, I'd place this along with "Exit.. Stage Left" as the best of Rush's live albums. The sound is more guitar-dominated here, rather than the instrumental-harmony of "Exit.." which may pose a problem for some, but for offering the best selection of Rush material from their long career, it is hard to beat. An amazing high-energy concert with devoted fans, you can almost imagine being there with them.