Artist: Rush
Label: Atlantic Records
Release: 2003
Rating: 4.5/5
And now you’re asking: “What the hell, why another live album, wasn’t there a triple live CD not that long ago?” Rush actually had a few good arguments for the move, because roughly speaking, the only thing “Different Stages” (1998) and “Rush In Rio” have in common is that both are triple-disc sets. “Different Stages” has a production that served up an extremely precise sound and is really the perfection of polished “indoor” concert audio. “Rush In Rio,” on the other hand, sounds quite different. Not worse, not better, just different. The sound is more diffuse and, in the same breath, far more voluminous, full and even more grandly epic. With a fourth member joining the band, and I mean the cathartic Brazilian people, you don’t have to guess much that on that November day last year the band was riding the crest of giant waves of an insanely electrified atmosphere, conjured up by the ecstasy of a 40,000-strong crowd. On “Rush In Rio,” which carries 29 tracks in total plus two bonus ones on top, they didn’t chop up the recordings. They laid the show down on the recording medium nicely in one piece. That way we can enjoy Geddy talking to the audience the whole way through, which “Different Stages” couldn’t exactly brag about. The crowd’s energy fired the musicians up like crazy, and they really did turn in a dreamlike performance on stage. This time the production caught the unforgettable magic, which you can tell apart from the “Diffrent Stages” recordings a mile away. This is a real live album, and Rio is undoubtedly the birthplace of noise. Waves of mass delirium keep spreading and hit their peaks spontaneously. The first time the audience seriously lifts the band onto its wings is at Geddy’s first touch of the keyboards on the opener Tom Sawyer. The crowd is vocally busy the whole time and breathes in perfect sync with the band. It’s unbelievable how they follow the complex instrumental YYZ, or Neil’s solo spot called O Baterista, which is played on the same foundations as The Rhythm Method from “Different Stages.” With the added marimba sounds and the background effects that really do bring the dragon from the cover to life, you get the feeling it joined the band on stage for a few rounds of caipirinhas (the Brazilian national drink, with a slightly higher percentage of alcohol). Neil’s drum spot is more than just a solo spot, it’s really a drum suite, made up of many meaningful, multicolored motifs that blend into a whole fantastically. It’s Neil’s own one-of-a-kind patent, and it undoubtedly puts the man among the greatest in his trade.
If I carry on comparing the new and old live albums, Geddy’s singing sounds far more emotional, the drums carry an even steelier “splashy” beat, the always raw bass tone is even bolder and more aggressive, and his lines in chords with Alex’s guitar, in perfect balance, bring even more contrast to the live sound. The untamed, always wild guitar, as the main carrier of the melody, is even angrier and sharper, and Alex’s soloing sounds even steelier, with one of the craziest solos in Free Will. Carried by the hands of a crowd like this, the band developed incredible stage magic and served up pure atmospheric fantasy that shakes everything to its core. Now I can wrap up with the impression that, compared to its live predecessor, “Rush In Rio” is simply “cut” at a completely higher level. For example, Free Will is played even faster, Roll The Bones is sung with far more feeling, and the added keyboards bring even more grandeur and epicness to its sound.
If we now put all these facts together and add the coherent chemistry that works between the trio on stage, indestructible and perfect like a “perpetuum mobile,” I can declare “Rush In Rio” a new monument of rock music. The material from “Vapor Trails” (2002), on which the band offered perhaps the hardest guitar sound in its history, with Earthshine, Ghost Rider, Secret Touch and the opening song of the second disc, One Little Victory, with a slightly nervy edge, together with the older legacy of Limelight, The Big Money, Dreamline and the closing medley By-Tor And The Snow Dog/Cygnus X-1/Working Man, offers the punchier, harder, white-hot moments of the record, while the epic poems The Pass (a live rarity!), Red Sector A, Bravado, the anthems Distant Early Warning, Natural Science and the famous 2112, plus “something wooden” called The Trees, are the epically romantic peaks. Geddy’s emotional singing especially stands out in New World Man (another live rarity!), Bravado, Resist and, of course, Closer To The Heart. The atmosphere also rolls in waves across the whole record. If I put the second disc under the microscope, it opens aggressively with newer material and the band thunders on like that until around the middle, when the mood starts taking on new dimensions with Red Sector A and hits its epic peak at the end with 2112.The triple disc contains two bonus songs, Between Sun & Moon and Vital Signs, played two months earlier on the North American tour and not on the DVD (“heh, heh, heh…” and one more “heh,” who needs DVDs, music is primarily meant for listening)!
The guys also thought of a heaping dose of fun and spiced up La Villa Strangiato (surprise!) with an insert where Alex introduces Geddy as “…a guy from Ipanema…”, and Geddy jumps in the same breath with his bass into the main motif of the grandparents’ proto-evergreen called A Girl From Ipanema, while Neil “on the skins” is named Mr. Milton Banana.
The production is phenomenal, actually perfect. It caught the real “feel” of an open-air show. So it won’t be hard for you to join the band and the crowd in the general revelry as you listen. Simply put, there’s no European, Japanese or North American stadium that could boast an audience like South America’s. This is no ordinary audience. They sing along together to the verses of every song and greet every gesture, every move, every inhale and exhale of the band on stage with such zeal and enthusiasm. I simply can’t find the words to describe this fantasy. You have to see for yourself, with your own ears. It was an unforgettable night for the band, a night you can’t imagine anywhere else on this planet.
So how to wrap this up? This live document radiates the gentlemanly calm that comes with the years, a kind of higher intellect, a maturity compared to the instinctive fury of the band’s first decade. But that doesn’t mean Rush aren’t still “driving” at undiminished power. They burn with balls! Seasoned old cats, standing firmly upright after thirty years, full of working drive, enthusiasm and untamed energy, which they radiate on stage in full glory. “Rush In Rio” is a live document that can stand proudly alongside “Made In Japan” (Deep Purple), “Live ’73” (Uriah Heep) or “The Song Remains The Same” (Led Zeppelin), and it really only proves that Rush are surely one of the best stage acts ever to crawl across this planet, even though when you listen to them, it’s hard to believe they’re earthlings.A live album this juicy, crowned with the kind of ceremonial magic that only the Lee/Peart/Lifeson trio can conjure, is simply not something you hear every day. It’s undoubtedly the live album of 2003. Time will tell whether it will take first place in the category of live album of the decade, of two decades, of three decades,… This is an album that, as music lovers, you simply have to own. It’s a rock masterpiece that beautifully combines rebellious arrogance, wildness and intellect!
Lineup
Geddy Lee – bass, vocals
Alex Lifeson – guitar, mandola
Neil Peart – drums
Tracklist
CD 1: 70:50
1. Tom Sawyer (5:04)
2. Distant Early Warning (4:50)
3. New World Man (4:04)
4. Roll the Bones (6:15)
5. Earthshine (5:44)
6. YYZ (4:56)
7. The Pass (4:52)
8. Bravado (6:18)
9. The Big Money (6:03)
10. The Trees (5:12)
11. Free Will (5:48)
12. Closer To the Heart (3:04)
13. Natural Science (8:34)
CD 2: 59:08
1. One Little Victory (5:32)
2. Driven (5:22)
3. Ghost Rider (5:36)
4. Secret Touch (7:00)
5. Dreamline (5:10)
6. Red Sector A (5:16)
7. Leave That Thing Alone (4:59)
8. O Baterista (8:54)
9. Resist (4:23)
10. 2112 (6:52)
CD 3: 43:28
1. Limelight (4:29)
2. La Villa Strangiato (10:05)
3. The Spirit of Radio (5:28)
4. By-Tor And the Snow Dog (4:34)
5. Cygnus X-1 (3:12)
6. Working Man (5:48)
7. Between Sun And Moon* (4:51)
8. Vital Signs* (4:59)
*TRACKS INCLUDED ONLY ON THE CD RELEASE
Album length: 173:26
