DIFFERENT STAGES - LIVE

The best Rush live album is a 3 CD feast of all that is great about the power trio. The CDs are all over an hour of pure proto metal and feature a wide variety of tracks from most of the classic albums. It works as a kind of live greatest Rush tracks as this features the legendary songs that have made them so popular.

There have been other live albums of course, namely 1976 All the World's a Stage, 1981 Exit... Stage Left, and 1989 A Show of Hands but those albums are more or less promotional tools when the band were touring respective albums. Nine years later they have released this penultimate live experience and unlike previous live albums this one features a much greater range of tracks spannign all their albums. The live tracks featured are taken from classic Rush as well as the more recent at the time 1994 Counterparts and 1997 Test for Echo tours. CD 3 is a terrific nostalgic romp through the classic material performed during 1978 A Farewell to Kings tour.

There are no complaints if you are into high quality proto metal or prog. Highlights include: on CD 1 - Nobody's Hero (5:00); Closer To The Heart (5:13); 2112: (21:29) the full vesion! On Cd 2 Test For Echo (6:15); Freewill (5:36); Leave that thing alone (4:46); Natural science (8:06) - the first time I had heard this leading me to buy the actual album. On CD 3 Bastille Day (5:00); By-Tor and the snow dog (5:05); Xanadu (12:17); Farewell to kings (6:07); Cygnus X-1 (10:23); Anthem (4:39).

With all those highlights and more this is an irresistible album for the Rush addict. I rate it as high as possible as it the absolute best live record for the band thus far.

Share this RUSH review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to AtomicCrimsonRush
• Report this review (#536893)
• Buy RUSH music online with PA partners
• Show all RUSH MP3/Stream
• Go to RUSH page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Different Stages - Live page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for RUSH related discussions