Review of Rush: Live In Rio

Introduction

Rush are an enduring band from Canada that have been around since the late 60’s, although their debut album proper arrived in 1974. Comprising of Geddy Lee (vocals/bass/synths), Alex Lifeson (guitar) and Neil Peart (drums), the band have released seventeen studio albums as well as six live albums. The live album equivalent of this DVD has sold around half a million copies at least after going Gold.

This live footage sees them on the last leg of the Vapour Trails tour, touring the album of the same name. Vapour Trails was the first studio album from the band in six years after some very personal and traumatic events in the life of drummer Neil Peart. These events are alluded to a couple of times in the documentary but never elaborated upon, but they are well documented if you know where to look.

This last tour leg sees the band in unfamiliar territory, having never played Brazil before. As they played to roughly 25,000 people in Porto Alegre, 60,000 in Sao Paolo and then 40,000 in Rio itself, I think it’s safe to say they may go back there again. These were the biggest audiences that Rush have played to, their usual crowd being around 12,000.

The last two concerts had a mass of problems too. When the band played Sao Paolo, they find themselves paying in torrential rain which played havoc with some of the equipment, particularly some of Peart’s equipment. For the Rio gig, there was not only the risk that some of the faulty kit from the previous night would still be unworkable. The trucks of equipment didn’t arrive in Rio until early afternoon and so it was touch and go as to whether the whole thing would be set up in time. As it was, there was no time for a sound check and no time for the camera crews to check their cameras were working properly. This meant that the concert that was due to be recorded for posterity was essentially played and recorded blind, with band and crew not really knowing how it would all go.

This is the triumphant result…

Video

The concert itself is non-anamorphic 1.78:1, filmed with 22 cameras so there is a wide variety of shots used. Editing is like the musicianship, very tight.

Audio

The main concert has a very impressive (and loud) 5.1 surround track. There is also a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo soundtrack available, but sadly no subtitles anywhere. The latter would have been nice as just so I could work out the lyrics as the vocals weren’t as clear as I would have liked. On the other hand the music was simply phenomenal.

Features

Commemorative booklet with liner notes written by Peart.

The Boys In Brazil – an hour long documentary covering this segment of the Vapour Trails tour

Multi-angle versions of YYZ, O Baterista and La Villa Strangiato

By-Tor movie – this is the actual film screened during the concert for the track By-Tor and the Snow Dog. You can access this by pressing ‘enter’ when this is mentioned during the main documentary.

Another easter egg is the promo video for Anthem 1975 which I’m guessing involves the numbers 2112, but I haven’t figured that bit out yet.

Conclusion

Have to admit that I’m not over familiar with this band, the only Canadian band I have a CD collection of are Men Without Hats (who?), although I also have a smattering of Bryan Adams. I certainly remember The Spirit of Radio from a couple of soft rock compilations in the 80’s though, but it certainly doesn’t fall into a typical stadium rock song format.

I’m also familiar with the concept of Rush being frowned upon or not taken too seriously be mainstream critics. Well, this live DVD document should force them all to eat their words as it is quite phenomenal and I can see I may have to buy a few albums to see how they sound in the studio.

The concert itself is simply breathtaking as each individual players excels individually and collectively as probably one of the tightest live bands I have seen since Ultravox in the early 80’s. The sound isn’t the same, of course, although Geddy Lee does sound similar to Midge Ure vocally on more than one occasion. These guys are loud and are encouraged to turn it up to eleven by one of the most enthusiastic crowds ever. The Brazilian crowd, all 40,000 of them in Rio, dance, clap and sing along to every song; which would be normal you think at a rock concert, but watch them sing along to YYZ, an instrumental track. You can’t help but think that Rush were inspired by such a response, even counting in the fact that they were playing to their second largest audience ever in as many days.

The documentary is a welcome addition but it fairly light in detail, only really covering the Brazilian aspect of the tour and not really looking at the band in any detail.

Rush don’t play ordinary rock in the usual power chord and stadium friendly manner of say U2 or any of their contemporaries, it’s certainly not as radio-friendly. They hail from the prog rock era and are exulted musicians, each member recognised as individual players as well as a band. This cacophony of guitar, bass and drums is a masterpiece that may be judged as one of THE great live performances in years to come.