A SHOW OF HANDS

A Show Of Hands is a quality concert experience and is a summary of the 80s albums "Signals' (1982), "Grace Under Pressure" (1984), "Power Windows" (1985) and "Hold Your Fire" (1987). These albums are not the best of Rush but live the songs tend to be better than the sound on the studio releases. The songs are from "Hold Your Fire" mostly and I believe they are better heard live than on that album so that is a drawcard of this particular recording. It also has a very solid quality sound throughout.

From "Hold Your Fire" the songs appear, Mission, Force Ten, and Turn The Page so there is a lot from their latest at the time.

Closer To The Heart is always present of course along with quintessential The Spirit of Radio. I always love to hear the magnificent Red Sector A and hard rocking Force Ten, and it was great to hear Mission, another one rarely heard live.

Marathon, Manhattan Project and The Big Money from "Power Windows" are good rockers for the crowd to get into. The drum solo by Peart is terrific, with his vibes section and patented cymbal jazz splashes along with some incredible triplet work.

The concert is overall very strong, but it is better to get hold of the DVD which features extra songs and great visuals; one of the best live documents of the band and worth getting hold of above the rest.