ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE

Rush is a great live band and this album appropriately catches them in the full power of their early phase. While I used to thing the next two phases of the band were far superior I'm questioning that the older I get. The first four albums are fantastic gutpunches of energy and youthful spark.

This live album documents those first four albums well with a nice smattering of material from each. However the sound is a bit of a problem, mediocre would be the word. And that's why I would recommend just sticking with the studio albums. All of the first four studio albums sound great themselves, crisp and vibrant, and the performances are really just as good as those here. Plus you get the material in context and as it was meant to be heard. This is a nice keepsake but the first four studio albums are the anchor of any Rush collection.