EXIT... STAGE LEFT

Rush

Heavy Prog

4.05 | 645 ratings

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toroddfuglesteg

A long time friend of mine finally being reviewed.

There are live albums and there are compilation live albums. The first one is one gig, one recording with few or any overdubs made in studio. Then we have the compilation live albums where recordings is taken from various gigs. There are very few excellent gigs of the first category. How The West Was Won is taken from two gigs. Made In Japan from three gigs. So most legally released live albums is compilation albums from various live recordings which has been spliced and cleaned up in the studio. Judas Priest once famously released an album called Unleashed In The East which most people now only knows as Unleashed In The Studio due the extensive doctoring and overdubs it got in a studio.

Exit Stage Left is not as doctored as that. But I am not overly impressed with the compilation/splicing of this supposed-to-be-a-live album. It is rather shoddy work and a lot of life has been taken out of this album before it reached the shops. Not even remastering can alter that. And that is my only gripe with this live album, the second ever Rush live album.

The reason why Exit.....Stage Left is figuring high on both mine and others lists of great live albums is the quality of the music here. Exit.....Stage Left is like a battleship, unleashing all it's guns. Some of the songs here is jawdropping. Xanadu, The Trees, the interlude called Broon's Bane followed by Jacob's Ladder, YYZ and La Villa Strangiato. Goodness me, what a canonade !

The songs is what makes this album the classic live album it is. But it could had been a lot better in my view with a bit better production. But this is still a great live album.

4 stars

toroddfuglesteg | 4/5 | 2011-6-19

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