Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Rush
Label: Mercury Records
Released: 1989
Length: 74:22
Rating: 4/5
“A Show Of Hands”, the third officially released live album from Canadian art rock giants Rush, carries on the tradition of the band’s previous two live releases. Its release wraps up the band’s eighties development era, in which synthesizers took an equal role in the arrangements, in places even a dominant one, and electronic drums became more and more common too. After this live album, Rush transformed once again in line with their musical vision, as confirmed by the new studio album “Presto”, released in 1989.
“A Show Of Hands” is a condensed summary of the two tours Rush played, first in 1986 to promote “Power Windows” (1985) and then in 1988 to promote “Hold Your Fire” (1987). A concert video came out alongside the live album as a VHS tape, with even more material than the audio release (a double vinyl at the time). Both were later reissued. The vinyl was replaced by a CD edition, while the VHS was first replaced by a DVD edition, included in the triple DVD set “Rush Replay X 3” in 2006. Just a year later, “A Show Of Hands” also showed up as a standalone (single) DVD. As a curiosity, it’s worth mentioning that in 1989, besides the double vinyl of “A Show Of Hands”, the live album also came out on laserdisc, with an extra track added, Lock And Key (placed right after Force Ten), which you can’t find on any other audio or audio-visual release. Not on the first official release, not on any of the later “reissue” versions.
After the opening “jingle” from “Three Stooges”, which Rush used to open most shows on both tours, the band kicks in with the “Power Windows” marching anthem The Big Money, and the stage version instantly stuns with how closely it follows the studio original. The crystal-clear sound, almost too perfect for a live recording, is there from the very start of this album. The main building blocks that give the band’s sound its three-dimensional contrast this time are Lifeson’s guitar, drenched in howling, echoing effects, Neil Peart’s electronic drums and, of course, the indispensable synthesizers of Geddy Lee. Even though Geddy masterfully fills the available space with his bass, using his innate feel for melody, and the energy of his playing is clearly and unmistakably there, the bass sounds a little “too thin” in the production. But it’s hard to come away with any other impression, given the musical direction Rush were committed to at the time. The vocal performance is simply superior.
The overall sound comes across as cold rather than warm, especially because you don’t really feel any true interaction between crowd and band. Of course that interaction was there, but the recording doesn’t capture it as effectively as on the band’s previous two live albums. All that’s left of the audience is preserved in the breaks, as a very distant but euphoric, unified roar of a stadium.
Witch Hunt, one of the few reminders of the pre-synth Rush era, sounds reworked, and for where Rush stood in 1989 it’s in a completely updated sonic outfit, so it fits in more than well with the rest of the material on this live record. Judging by the character of its lead melodies, this “Moving Pictures” (1981) standard remains the darkest moment on the album. Interestingly, when putting this album together Rush decided to keep the classic Closer To The Heart on it, when stylistically it would have made much more sense to add Tom Sawyer, which was also part of the set on both tours. Closer To The Heart just doesn’t ignite as convincingly as it does in its classic version on “Exit… Stage Left” (1981).
A special standout on the album is the excellent “Grace Under Pressure” (1984) classic Red Sector A, where the “A Show Of Hands” version puts extra emphasis on the programmed undercurrent loop, which deepens the highly vibrant mood of the song. The track itself achieves an even bigger effect in creating its desired dramatic atmosphere than the studio original, so both its music and its lyrical message touch the listener in a particularly intimate way as the emotions pile up.
“A Show Of Hands” is the ideal gift for all fans of Rush’s sonic trail, as it sums up the era of studio releases between 1982 and 1987. The stage re-definition of songs like The Big Money, Subdivisons, Marathon, Force Ten, Mytic Rhythms, Mission, Time Stands Still, Distant Early Warning, Red Sector A,…, brings them to the listener in the best possible way sonically and performance-wise. Anyone who gets the eighties Rush era won’t go looking for the “warmth” of sound that a stripped-down, raw, rocked-up guitar tone, a classic drum kit and close-up audience reactions would supposedly create. The sound production of this album is therefore tuned optimally for the ears of the gourmets and for all of you who put the eighties Rush era at the top of Rush’s career. Geddy’s frenetic way of singing, which he gave up even before Rush entered the synth era, doesn’t belong in this kind of production and arranging approach either!
“A Show Of Hands” is an excellent live document that, as a sort of “compilation”, can serve as a handy first guide to get an unmistakable insight into the essence of the band through the eighties synth era, and gives you a first “taste” of what to expect from the albums “Signals”, “Grace Under Pressure”, “Power Windows” and “Hold Your Fire”. Let me also point out that it’s precisely on these albums (across the band’s entire discography) that their innate feel for an effective fusion of pure punchy, infectious melodic compactness with an art “weirdness” really flourishes, the thing that gives Rush their special place on the rock planet. Because “A Show Of Hands” sums up the band’s studio work between 1982 and 1987, it keeps a great deal of stylistic tolerance between the album’s tracks, which makes it an incredibly listenable release that at the same time floors the listener with a constant stream of brilliant and unique Rush artistry.
Lineup
Geddy Lee – bass guitar, synthesizers, vocals
Alex Lifeson – guitar, synthesizers
Neil Peart – drums, percussion
Production
Rush
Track list
1. Intro (0:53)
2. The Big Money (5:59)
3. Subdivisions (5:22)
4. Marathon (6:39)
5. Turn the Page (4:41)
6. Manhattan Project (5:18)
7. Mission (5:46)
8. Distant Early Warning (5:15)
9. Mystic Rhythms (5:32)
10. Witch Hunt (Pt. III of Fear) (4:00)
11. The Rhythm Method (4:37)
12. Force Ten (4:55)
13. Time Stand Still (5:13)
14. Red Sector A (5:18)
15. Closer to the Heart(4:54)
