ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE

A truly great live album should really transport you to that moment in time when it occurred, making you wish you were there, feeling the power of the band and the atmosphere of the crowd. In this respect, 'All The World's A Stage' really holds up well. At the time of its release, Rush had just started to taste success and were hungry for it. The band is captured in its most ragged, yet glorious form.

The set list is pretty complete, focusing on their ongoing progressive direction, yet remaining faithful to their hard rock sound. In most cases, the tracks here fare very well from their original release, with 'By-Tor' and 'In The End' coming out the strongest with them expanding the sonic template from the studio. In particular, I really enjoy the heavy use of echo on 'In The End'. '2112' lacks a little polish, but is played with a lot of zest, and I had forgotten how much I liked 'What You're Doing', a great floor-stomping track.

The only area I feel is weak is 'Working Man/Finding My Way' combo which seem to drag on with little energy. Geddy's vocals do get a little screechy at points, so a newcomer to Rush might beware, but overall this is a solid release from our Canadian power trio.