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Rush - A Show of Hands CD (album) cover

A SHOW OF HANDS

Rush

Heavy Prog

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b_olariu
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Great live concert of this famous band re released on DVD in 2007. Concert from 1988 to promote Hold your fire album just relese prior year in 1987. Great concert full of classic Rush tunes. Brillian is for me Mission, on of my fav Rush pieces ever, great are the lyrics too, the rest are also top notch. Excellent prestation of the band, plus some brilliant and very sugestive cartoon movies shown on almost every piece. If you have the VHS is ok, if you have the DVD is also ok, in any case a must have for every Rush fan and not only. Recommended.

Report this review (#263256)
Posted Friday, January 29, 2010 | Review Permalink
AtomicCrimsonRush
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars A Show Of Hands is a 90 minutes concert experience and as such way better than the previous DVDs available, namely "Exit Stage Left" and "Grace Under Pressure". It is excellent also due to the use of animations on the big screen and the overall setlist. 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 DVD. It also has a very solid quality sound throughout and the band look great and have heaps of fun. From "Hold Your Fire" the songs appear, Mission, Prime Mover, 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 Tom Sawyer, and The Spirit of Radio. I always love to hear the magnificent Red Sector A and hard rocking Force Ten, and it was great to see them play Mission, another one rarely heard live on these DVDs.

Marathon, Territories 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 though his drums are still stationary in this era, and not as many.

The concert ends with a brilliant medley 2112, The Temples Of Syrinx, La Villa Strangiato and In The Mood. Overall a strong concert, one of the best live documents of the band and worth getting hold of above the rest.

Report this review (#752719)
Posted Sunday, May 13, 2012 | Review Permalink
Ytse_Jam
4 stars Here we have another Rush video concert. I think I'm not wrong when I say this is one of their best performance ever recorded, even better than "Exit Stage Left". The latter, in fact, though it focuses on one of their best full-length works, "Moving Pictures", suffers from some lack of sound quality. In "A Show Of Hands" we find 90 minutes of very good production, with clear sound and some interesting on-screen animations. The setlist is composed of some great songs from their latest albums, in particular "Grace Under Pressure", "Power Windows" and "Hold Your Fire", that easily conquest the crowd. We can find stuff like The Big Money, Force Ten, Marathon and so on, though featuring some good ol' classics like Closer To The Heart, The Spirit of Radio, the hit Tow Sawyer and an outstanding "2112/La Villa Strangiato/In the Mood" medley to close the concert. All songs are played perfectly, and Geddy's sound is freaking awesome, like the rest of the group. I always loved Alex's tone and playing, and Niel Peart here shows very well his majesty with drums, even with these less progressive and more pop-oriented songs. In conclusion, if you like Rush and their 80s stuff, you gonna really love this!
Report this review (#802358)
Posted Thursday, August 9, 2012 | Review Permalink
fred9000
3 stars Even though I prefer the 1977-1981 period, I'm a big fan of the so-called synthesizer era. Signals is on my top 5 and I really liked GUP and PWi (but not much HYF). That being said, A Show of Hand was recorded mostly during the Hold you Fire tour. We can hear it quickly and unfortunately it's not for the best in my opinion.

Everything sounds very cold and Instruments used by the band during that time have a lot to do with it. Alex was using Signature Guitars with active pickups and Gallien-Kruger solid state amp. His sound is unpleasant with too much high frequency and not enough warm (not to mention too much reverb).

Same thing with Geddy. His Steinberger bass with active pickups lacks the punch of his old Rickenbacker 4001 or the bottom of his Fender Jazz bass. Synthesizers are also different. In Subdivision and Wich Hunt, it's obvious Geddy no longer uses his Oberheim analog synth, but rather a bunch of digital synthesizer and sampler that takes away the special mood of these two classics.

Songs list could have been better too. Closer to the Heart brings nothing new and many of the best songs from this era are missing : Prime Mover, Middletown Dreams, The Analog Kid, The Weapons, Kid Glove, Between the wheels, etc. Of course, there are great moments (Marathon, The Mission, Distant Early Warning and The Rhythm Method), but it's not enough.

Of all Rush live albums, this is the least interesting and the most forgettable. Many fans will not agree with me, sorry. Score : 2,5 /5

Report this review (#880177)
Posted Friday, December 21, 2012 | Review Permalink

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