Rush: R30 special edition - I listened to a lot of Rush between the ages of 12 and 17. In real time terms, that meant the "Moving Pictures," "Signals," "Grace Under Pressure," and "Power Windows" albums. Of course, I also listened to the local classic rock station, which meant that I heard all of the albums before that as well, including Side A of "2112' many many many times. And since those days I can count the number of Rush fans I have met on one hand. Having gone many years without paying them much attention, I was happy to see that they'd put out this cool set: it's a live CD and a live DVD of their 30th anniversary tour. There is also an additional DVD that shows a lot of archival footage, which means you get to see Rush haircuts and stage gear throughout the decades; the set also comes with two guitar picks, one signed by Geddy Lee and one signed by Alex Lifeson. I use these picks to play guitar. Rock and roll!!! The live DVD was filmed in Frankfurt in 2003. It starts out with a weird animated sequence that is full of either three-part objects or motifs from their album covers - the dalmation from Signals appears both solo and in a herd of charging dalmations (?!?). Those Rush guys sure have a wacky sense of humour. Some of the parts were quite Monty Python Terry Gilliam-esque, which is nice, especially the segueway from the Starman "whoa, sorry dude" to the man with the bowler hat from the Hemispheres album cover. Albums covers include Caress of Steel man, Power Windows kid, Fly By Night owl, Presto rabbits, Signals dalmation becomes dalmation herd, Counterparts nut and bolt, toys thingy, farewell to Kings mannequin, Moving Pictures' moving pictures, starman jumps out of painting to enter Hemispheres cover. Then three dinosaurs hatching from eggs saying "hello, Hel-lo, HELLO." Then the Jerry Stiller intro on the screen where he talks about Lars, Dirk, the Professor. "I hope they play Bangkok... nahhhhh, they never play Bangkok." Funny stuff. Then out pops the band for a medley of their really old old old songs from their first six albums: "Finding my Way," the first song from the first album, "Anthem," the first song from the second albume, "Bastille Day," the first song from the third album, "A Passage to Bangkok," the first song from the second side of the fourth album, "Cygnus X-1' the last song on the fifth album, and then "Hemispheres," (also known as "Cygnus X-1 Book 2') which is the first song on the sixth album. A lot of symmetry there. The whole time they showed pictures of the musicians as young men, and Jerry Stiller rocking out to "A Passage to Bangkok." That is followed by "The Spirit of Radio," and the first time you hear Geddy Lee singing. The three guys look great for fifty-year-olds! Strangely, Geddy Lee now finally looks his age, as he looked fifty-something even as a thirty-something; Alex Lifeson is a bit heavy and balding, although he finally has a haircut that doesn't look awful. From some shots you can notice that he's got a big bald patch at the back of his head. Neil Peart is a bit heavy, and a terminator behind his kit pounding out any complex rhythm with machine-like precision. It's just amazing to behold, although a little creepy too - he almost never shows any emotion at all. He has a cool kit adorned with stickers from different album covers - these guys are serious about their iconography!! Meanwhile, Neil and Geddy look like they're having the time of their lives - Geddy is wiry and animated, bouncing his right leg with the beat, Alex has that slack-jawed mindfulness of what he's playing, just an amazing musician. Geddy plays a Fender Jazz bass most of the concert, Alex plays several Paul Reed Smith guitars, a red Gibson SG, a gold Gibson Les Paul, and for Xanadu a white double-headed Gibson SG that has a six-string and a 12-string guitar in it. Cool stuff!!! Alex's side of the stage is full of amps, Geddy's has... laundry dryers spinning. They spin and they spin and they spin. There's also some sort of a vending machine up there. The concert goes on with plenty of mid-career classics like "Force Ten" and "Subdivisions." Also some new songs that I've grown to enjoy like "Animate" and "Earthshine." During "Red Barchetta" There's a great top-down shot of Neil throwing his drumstick up in the air and catching it, then you see him head-on turn the stick 180 degrees and carry on playing (39:20). They must have planned that drumstick toss shot and installed a special camera just to pick it up. I wonder if there's not a bit of post-production work there. Still, it's a great moment. "Roll The Bones" is a cool song, with some groovy animated skeleton (think Jason and the Argonauts) rapping along with Geddy. "The Seeker," a cover of the Who song is good fun. Then they go into "Darn That Dragon," a weird animated bit that shows angel rabbits, dragons selecting TV shows, popping their own fire-breath popcorn, then a great show of an animated bobblehead Rush "featuring Dirrk, Lerxst, and Pratt" (i.e. Geddy, Alex and Neil). There's a star alert, a dragon is attacking the city, Rush intercept in their Cygnus X-2 Rockership, the dragon tries to burn down the asbestos factory, bobble heads sweat, he burns down the Rush Merchandise stall. This means war!!! They fire "the ultimate weapon," the dragon trips over the metro and falls onto the high tension wires. Bobble heads bobbing in tune with the music, which changes with every scene to another high-powered Rush early classic. Great great stuff that phases into "Tom Sawyer." Cool. Alex singing along on "Between The Wheels," which they dug out of the vaults, chest hair popping out of shirt (1:10:00). Slack-jawed while soloing, then thumping body to keep the vibrato going. Mystic Rhythms very cool to watch - there's so much going on between Neil's two hands and two feet. This, of course, leads in to the 9-minute drum solo that is really soooooo boring to listen to on the CD, but quite captivating to watch on the DVD. For example, there is one part where he's tapping out on the drums, and then reaches up to tap an electric xylophone pad. He repeats the same pattern several times, always managing to hit that same little pad again and again, playing with his head turned the other direction, meaning that he's playing blind!!! I'm not a fan of drum solos, but this one was quite amazing to watch and study. The highlight was when the drum kit rotated 180 degrees (while Neil stayed still), to show a big bass drum with the starman logo on it. Cool. After that there's a bit of an acoustic set - "Resist" and the Yardbirds classic "Heart Full of Soul" - before the big moment of the concert: 2112!!! The intro seems like it was recorded, as the stage was cast in darkness, then when the guitars come in - light! Here the band's eccentric sense of humour gets the better of them and for a brief moment there are pirates onstage swashbuckling. Who swashbuckles any more these days? Geddy also has a stuffed parrot on his shoulder, which just looks out of place. But it's a great song, and Alex is playing a gorgeous black Les Paul... The band plays two more covers during their encore, "Summertime Blues" (a la the Blue Cheer version) and "Crossroads," as well as the very appropriate "Limelight." Lovely. DVD 2 is divided between interviews through the ages, and classic live recordings. There's a 1979 one with Geddy only that is tres serious. He's talking about how the band recorded "Hemispheres," and is mentioning "Permanent Waves," which is a "non-concept" album, a first for the band, that they were getting ready to go into the studio for at the time, but wasn't fully formed yet. It's a windy day and his hair is blowing all over his face, but I got to learn that the band is really into Yes, and especially their drummer, Bill Bruford. The next one is in 1981 and is with all three. Neil Peart is really serious but still a good sport, Geddy is wearing super ugly glasses and smoking cigarettes (?!?), while Alex nearly doesn't speak at all and seems really awkward. One "funny" point that was made was how during the recording of "Caress of Steel" recording sessions they took a night off and went to see Yes play, and after that they didn't want to finish the album (it ended up being one of their worst-selling records). There were interesting "Artist of the Decade" interviews, that shows Alex finally speaking up more, and also a Juno awards Hall of Fame induction that has a serious Tom Cochrane talking about the band, with video messages from Mike Myers and Sebastian Bach and The Barenaked Ladies. Then there is the "Vapour Trails" interview from 2002 with Alex and Geddy that was done after the band had come back together following Neil Peart's dual tragedy (his daughter was killed in a car wreck in 1997, his wife died of grief a year later) to record and tour again. An interesting point of Geddy's is that on this album he was playing his bass more guitar-like while Alex was playing his guitar more bass-like. The interview sets are followed by great archival footage. "Fly By Night" looks like it was recorded on the set of Hilarious House of Frightenstein. "Finding My Way" is very Led Zeppelin. "In the Mood" is very Led Zeppelin and very embarassing (lyrically). "La Villa Strangiato" is fantastic virtuoso musicianship, much like 2112 or Xanadu. "A Farewell To Kings" is set in a forest and a castle before switching to a "stage" environment. Geddy Lee is wearing this awful bathrobe over his regular clothes, very yucky. The clothes of that era were terrible, making you appreciate how these good these old guys look wearing jeans onstage. There are more recent live shows, such as Toronto Rocks in 2003, and even a soundcheck. Hey, why not throw in everything? The fans will sure be happy.