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Rating: This is yet another testament and live celebration of the Canadian triptych now reaching 30 years of career. You'd expect a reviewer bored by yet another release of this kind, which you see abundantly in all genres, but a new Rush album is always "a new Rush album" and deserves a thorough review.
Here boredom and predictability are not at home and make way for admiration and amazement in seeing three gentlemen on the verge of 60 delivering 3 hours of high-level music without dropping in performance but above all always with great acoustic, visual, and emotional impact! I imagine that various references to "Rush in Rio" are obviously obligatory, especially due to the temporal proximity of the two releases. In reality, such a comparison now seems very risky to me simply because of divergent intents. "Rush in Rio" wanted to be the memory of a show where the relationship with the audience was a fundamental part of the spectacle, and the priority was given precisely to the audience, the spectacularity of the footage, and the "impact" of the pieces. This was to the detriment of some important elements for us rush-maniacs, namely the accuracy and sound definition of the instruments and the focused shots on the singles' performance.
"R30" is set, I prayed for weeks that this could be the case, as a supplement to the forgivable flaws of "Rush in Rio". Here we find power and extreme sound definition for every instrument; here we find footage focused on the executive details, excellent bonus tracks consisting of the entire second dvd. A live extremely educational and that we fans were waiting for. So is everyone happy? Yes, if you have "Rush in Rio" in your video library to complete the circle. Almost everyone, if you accept the little audience participation and if you accept a less juicy setlist than the very long original tour tracklist. The setlist discussion is also extremely influenced by the previous dvd; only the pieces already proposed are cut, but allow me to highlight that being disappointed by this tracklist is absurd. It is about two hours of great music full of true gems like "Subdivisions," "Red Barchetta," "Mystic Rhythms," and "Between the Wheels," not to mention the already legendary intro! The audio quality is decidedly high, and I only listened to it in pcm from a personal computer with poor headphones! Every instrument and frequency is extremely distinguishable in the mix, which is excellent, and power is certainly not lacking!
If we want to nitpick, I find Geddy's voice a bit distant from the rest at times due to a reverb that is often a bit too generous. But it's just a personal opinion! Good video quality, there are fewer cameras compared to "Rush in Rio" but the direction is superb and manages to keep the vision always fluid while often focusing. I REPEAT: "R30" is an extremely educational dvd; it could easily have been titled "vivisection of a live performance" even if the term is in poor taste. Watching it means attending a music lesson; the teacher is the very history of rock in the last 30 years. A new masterpiece without a doubt then, testimony to the great success that this band is still gathering 30 years after the beginning of its activity. Let's hope all this bodes well in anticipation of a new full-length!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 The Spirit of Radio (05:05)
Begin the day with a friendly voice
A companion unobtrusive
Plays the song that's so elusive
And the magic music makes your morning mood
Off on your way, hit the open road
There is magic at your fingers
For the spirit ever lingers
Undemanding contact in your happy solitude
Invisible airwaves crackle with life
Bright antennae bristle with the energy
Emotional feedback on a timeless wavelength
Bearing a gift beyond price, almost free
All this machinery making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted, it's really just a question
Of your honesty, yeah, your honesty
One likes to believe in the freedom of music
But glittering prizes and endless compromises
Shatter the illusion of integrity, yeah
Invisible airwaves crackle with life
Bright antennae bristle with the energy
Emotional feedback on a timeless wavelength
Bearing a gift beyond price, almost free
For the words of the profits were written on the studio wall
Concert hall
And echoes with the sound of salesmen
Of salesmen, of salesmen
03 Force Ten (04:49)
Tough times demand tough talk
Demand tough hearts demand tough songs
Demand.
We can rise and fall like empires
Flow in and out like the tide
Be vain and smart, humble and dumb
We can hit and miss like pride.
We can circle around like hurricanes
Dance and dream like lovers
Attack the day like birds of prey
Or scavengers undercover.
Look in
To the eye of the storm
Look out
For the force without form
Look around
At the sight and sound
Look in, Look out, Look around.
We can move with savage grace
To the rhythms of the night
Cool and remote like dancing girls
In the heat of the beat and the lights.
We can wear the rose of romance
An air of joie de vivre
Too tender hearts upon our sleeves
Or skin as thick as thieves.
Rising falling at force ten
We twist the world and ride the wind.
Look in
Look the storm in the eye
Look out
To the sea and the sky
Look around
At the sight and sound
Look in, look out, look around.
04 Animate (05:49)
POLARIZE ME
SENSITIZE ME
CRITICIZE ME
CIVILIZE ME
COMPENSATE ME
ANIMATE ME
COMPLICATE ME
ELEVATE ME
Goddess in my garden
Sister in my soul
Angel in my armor
Actress in my role
Daughter of a demon-lover
Empress of the hidden face
Priestess of the pagan mother
Ancient queen of inner space
Spirit in my psyche
Double in my role
Alter in my image
Struggle for control
Mistress of the dark unconscious
Mermaid of the lunar sea
Daughter of the great enchantress
Sister to the boy inside of me
My counterpart -- my foolish heart
A man must learn to rule his tender part
A warming trend -- a gentle friend
A man must build a fortress to defend
A secret face -- a touch of grace
A man must learn to give a little space
A peaceful state -- a submissive trait
A man must learn to gently dominate
05 Subdivisions (06:09)
Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown
Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer
Or the misfit so alone
Subdivisions -
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions -
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help disprove
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth
Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night
Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight
Somewhere out of a memory
Of lighted streets on quiet nights...
06 Earthshine (05:41)
On certain nights
When the angles are right
And the moon is a slender crescent
Its circle shows
In a ghostly glow
Of earthly luminescence
Earthshine
A beacon in the night
I can raise my eyes to
Earthshine
Earthshine
A jewel out of reach
For a dream to rise to
Earthshine
Floating high
In the evening sky
I see my faint reflection
Pale facsimile
Like what others see
When they look in my direction
Earthshine
Streching out your hand
Full of starlit diamonds
Earthshine
Reflected light
To another's sight
And the moon tells a lover's story
My borrowed face
And my third-hand grace
Only reflect your glory
You're still out of reach
For a dream to rise to
Earthshine.
07 Red Barchetta (06:49)
My uncle has a country place, that no one knows about
He says it used to be a farm, before the Motor Law
And on Sundays I elude the 'Eyes', and hop the Turbine freight
To far outside the Wire, where my white-haired uncle waits
Jump to the ground
As the Turbo slows to cross the borderline
Run like the wind
As excitement shivers up and down my spine
Down in his barn
My uncle preserved for me an old machine -
For fifty-odd years
To keep it as new has been his dearest dream
I strip away the old debris, that hides a shining car
A brilliant red Barchetta, from a better, vanished time
Fire up the willing engine, responding with a roar!
Tires spitting gravel, I commit my weekly crime...
Wind in my hair -
Shifting and drifting -
Mechanical music -
Adrenalin surge -
Well-weathered leather
Hot metal and oil
The scented country air
Sunlight on chrome
The blur of the landscape
Every nerve aware
Suddenly, ahead of me, across the mountainside
A gleaming alloy air-car, shoots towards me, two lanes wide
I spin around with shrieking tires, to run the deadly race
Go screaming through the valley as another joins the chase
Run like the wind
Straining the limits of machine and man
Laughing out loud
With fear and hope, I've got a desperate plan
At the one-lane bridge
I leave the giants stranded
At the riverside
Race back to the farm
To dream with my uncle
At the fireside...
08 Roll the Bones (06:22)
Well, you can stake that claim --
Good work is the key to good fortune
Winners take that praise
Losers seldom take that blame
If they don't take that game
And sometimes the winner takes nothing
We draw our own designs
But fortune has to make that frame
We go out in the world and take our chances
Fate is just the weight of circumstances
That's the way that lady luck dances
Roll the bones
-Chorus-
Why are we here?
Because we're here
Roll the bones, roll the bones
Why does it happen?
Because it happens
Roll the bones, roll the bones
Faith is cold as ice --
Why are little ones born only to suffer
For the want of immunity
Or a bowl of rice?
Well, who would hold a price
On the heads of the innocent children
If there's some immortal power
To control the dice?
We come into the world to take our chances
Fate is just the weight of circumstances
That's the way that lady luck dances
Roll the bones, roll the bones
-Repeat Chorus 2x-
Jack -- relax.
Get busy with the facts.
No zodiacs or almanacs,
No maniacs in polyester slacks.
Just the facts.
Gonna kick some gluteus max.
It's a parallax -- you dig?
You move around
The small gets big. It's a rig.
It's action -- reaction --
Random interaction.
So who's afraid
Of a little abstraction?
Can't get no satisfaction
From the facts?
Better run, homeboy --
A fact's a fact
From Nome to Rome boy.
What's the deal? Spin the wheel.
If the dice are hot -- take a shot.
Play your cards. Show us what you got --
What you're holding.
If the cards are cold,
Don't go folding.
Lady luck is golden;
She favors the bold. That's cold.
Stop throwing stones --
The night has a thousand saxophones.
So get out there and rock,
And roll the bones.
Get busy!
Roll the bones
-Repeat Chorus 4x Fade Out-
09 The Seeker (03:27)
I've looked under chairs
I've looked under tables
I've tried to find the key
To fifty million fables
[Chorus:]
They call me The Seeker
I've been searching low and high
I won't get to get what I'm after
Till the day I die
I asked Bobby Dylan
I asked The Beatles
I asked Timothy Leary
But he couldn't help me either
[Chorus]
People tend to hate me
'Cause I never smile
As I ransack their homes
They want to shake my hand
Focusing on nowhere
Investigating miles
I'm a seeker
I'm a really desperate man
I won't get to get what I'm after
Till the day I die
I learned how to raise my voice in anger
Yeah, but look at my face, ain't this a smile?
I'm happy when life's good
And when it's bad I cry
I've got values but I don't know how or why
I'm looking for me
You're looking for you
We're looking in at each other
And we don't know what to do
[Chorus]
10 Tom Sawyer (05:00)
A modern day warrior
Mean mean stride
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean mean pride
Though his mind is not for rent
Don't put him down as arrogant
His reserve, a quiet defense
Riding out the day's events -
The river
What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
- Catch the mist - Catch the myth
- Catch the mystery - Catch the drift
The world is the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his skies are wide
Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the space he invades
He gets by on you
No, his mind is not for rent
To any god or government
Always hopeful, yet discontent
He knows changes aren't permanent -
But change is
What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
- Catch the witness - Catch the wit
- Catch the spirit - Catch the spit
The world is the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his eyes are wide
Exit the warrior
Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
The energy you trade
He gets right on to
The friction of the day
11 Dreamline (05:20)
He's got a road map of Jupiter
A radar fix on the stars
All along the highway
She's got a liquid-crystal compass
A picture book of the rivers
Under the Sahara
They travel in the time of the prophets
On a desert highway straight to the heart of the sun
Like lovers and heroes, and the restless part of everyone
We're only at home when we're on the run
On the run
He's got a star map of Hollywood
A list of cheap motels
All along the freeway
She's got a sister out in Vegas
The promise of a decent job
Far away from her hometown
They travel on the road to redemption
A highway out of yesterday -- that tomorrow will bring
Like lovers and heroes, birds in the last days of spring
We're only at home when we're on the wing
On the wing
We are young
Wandering the face of the Earth
Wondering what our dreams might be worth
Learning that we're only immortal
For a limited time
(x2)
Time is a gypsy caravan
Steals away in the night
To leave you stranded in Dreamland
Distance is a long-range filter
Memory, a flickering light
Left behind in the heartland
We travel in the dark of the new moon
A starry highway traced on the map of the sky
Like lovers and heroes, lonely as eagle's cry
We're only at home when we're on the fly
On the fly
We are young
Wandering the face of the Earth
Wondering what our dreams might be worth
Learning that we're only immortal
For a limited time
(x3)
We travel on the road to adventure
On a desert highway straight to the heart of the sun
Like lovers and heroes, and the restless part of everyone
We're only at home when we're on the run
On the run...
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