DIFFERENT STAGES - LIVE

Compiled by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson whilst Neal Peart struggled to come to terms with a series of tragic events in his family life, there was a time when it appeared that Different Stages might be the final release by Rush. Happily, Peart's emotional recovery meant that this wasn't the case, but if this triple live album had been the band's last words, then they'd have gone out on a high.

The first two discs are drawn from the tours for Counterparts and Test For Echo, with most songs being drawn from a single performance in 1997 with a few exceptions here and there. These showcase Rush giving their heaviest performances since the 1970s - if not of their whole career - with classic songs being given note-perfect live renditions (including a complete run-through of 2112!) and newer songs being given a much-needed shot in the arm, transforming them from their comparatively sterile studio versions into pieces worthy of sharing a setlist with the band's best songs. This, frankly, is the best way to listen to the post-Grace Under Pressure songs included here, and if the release had been rounded off with just these two discs it'd still be decent value for money. It's not perfect - the 'rap' section in Roll the Bones still sounds goofy, there's a really tedious drum solo midway through the second disc, and the classic songs still rather outshine the newer material - but it's Rush sounding back on form for the first time in over a decade, so the first two discs would earn three stars on their own.

The third disc documents a barnstorming show in London during the Farewell to Kings tour. This is very much worth having for any fan of early (pre-Permanent Waves) Rush, and I'd say it's even a better live document of that period of their career than the hastily recorded All the World's a Stage. The band give a performance which is at once heavier and yet at the same time more technically proficient than on that album, adding little flourishes to already complex compositions and rocking the hell out of the selections from their first three albums. In fact, I'd say that the versions of Bastille Day, By-Tor and the Snow Dog, and the other pre-2112 songs here are the definitive recordings of those tracks. As for the fresher material, Something for Nothing is - rather surprisingly - the only 2112 track featured, whilst four songs from Farewell to Kings are presented, the band proving on tracks like Xanadu or Cygnus X-1 that they were fully capable of realising even their most complex compositions on stage.

On the whole, then, a very credible three-plus star performance from the 1990s and a bonus disc of five star 1970s material makes me think a four star rating is more than fair. Different Stages really puts Rush's 1990s studio albums to shame when you compare these lively, energetic renditions of that material to the versions on Roll the Bones, Test for Echo and Counterparts, and comes highly recommended to all Rush fans who like the heavier side of their work; that said, I personally find I keep revisiting the 1970s disc much more than I do the 1990s set.