Rush - Rush In Rio
On October 21, 2003, "Rush" released their live album "Rush In Rio".
About a year earlier, on November 23, 2002, Rush appeared in front of 40,000 spectators at the famous Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to give their 66th show on the tour, designed to promote the album "Vapor Trails". This is the band's first tour in over five years of hiatus.
Heavy rain struck the São Paulo show the previous night. According to Neil Peart, intermittent rain and late-arriving trucks delayed setup in Rio, leaving the band to perform without a soundcheck or a trial run for the recording and camera crews.
It's not clear if the band members were motivated by the tension and madness of the day's events, or if they just came with a clear intention to give it their all, explode, knowing it's their last show on tour, but "Rush" has never sounded so great on an officially released live show. Geddy Lee's bass playing is crueler, more powerful, and aggressive than ever, Alex Lifeson's guitar work is virtuoso, moving, brilliant, and sweeping throughout the entire setlist, and what about Neil Peart? His drumming continues to inspire awe and admiration. He pushes the whole band in an unprecedented rhythm attack and just gave his all in every note and song.
This show brings us together with a band that goes to the end, a band that manages to surpass itself in perfect playing and precise and tight performance. And the sound, what a sound ... real, authentic, very alive, dynamic. And not only does the band make it through despite all the difficulties, but it also gives its best live performance ever.
But it does not end there. Because in this show "Rush" has 4 members for the first time. Geddy, Alex, Neil, and "The Audience." They sweep the band after them in their madness and with the endless energies they have. 40,000 voices singing as one and pushing the band forward, to give one of their best performances.
Never was an audience who "sang" an instrumental piece like the Brazilian audience sang "YYZ".
From the first note in the opening song "Tom Sawyer" this audience does not rest for a second and accompanies the band as an additional musical instrument, singing the riffs and Melodies with the band. For example, listen to their singing accompanying the riffs and their roars at every break in "2112". After this piece went under the throat of this psychic audience, it no longer sounded the same, and any audience that came after it was already obligated to emulate the vocal accompaniment of the mighty Brazilian audience.
Another perfect example of the band's explosive and unimaginable energy on that historic evening is the performance of the masterclass instrumental track "Leave That Thing Alone." Stripped of any studio polish or manipulation, the track transforms on stage into a powerful and unrestrained display of force. The entire piece serves as an electrifying musical bridge leading directly into Neil Peart's legendary drum solo, highlighting Geddy Lee's monstrous bass work, featuring forceful and aggressive playing, which is considered by many fans to be one of the instrumental highlights of the evening.
But beyond the fact that this album is so musically special, it is also very statistically unique. So here are 18 interesting facts about it:
1. This is the band's first live album after the long hiatus imposed on it, following the tragic events that befell drummer Neil Peart. This forced Peart to go into an extreme training regime to get back to the fitness before the tragedies and it seems to us that he is back even more strong, accurate, and amazing.
2. It is also the band's first live album which has broken the regular pattern of releasing a live album after every four studio albums.
3. It is also the first live album featuring an entire setlist from start to finish. In addition to the setlist that included 29 songs, two bonus tracks were included on the album, "Between Sun & Moon" recorded in Phoenix, and "Vital Signs" in Quebec, both on the same tour.
4. Unlike the live albums that preceded it, the main album documents one complete concert, apart from the two bonus recordings from other shows.
5. The album was issued on three CDs. It was not the band’s first triple live release: "Different Stages" already comprised three discs in 1998.
6. The album features nearly three hours of uninterrupted music in which the band plays songs from 15 albums out of the 17 albums it has released to date, with the only albums not receiving representation here being: "Caress Of Steel" and "Hold Your Fire".
7. "Vapor Trails" is the most represented album in the Rio concert, with four songs. Three songs from "Moving Pictures" were performed there, while "Vital Signs" appears as a bonus from another show.
8. The concert was recorded during the band’s first visit to Brazil, which comprised three shows.
9. This is the second largest audience in which the band has ever performed (and we do not refer to festivals).
10. The performance with the largest audience in front of which the band performed, was held one night earlier in Sao Paulo, where the band played in front of 60,000 people.
11. The album includes an acoustic performance of "Resist", played by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson after Neil Peart’s drum solo, while the drummer takes a break offstage.
12. Neil Peart's "O Baterista" drum solo means "The Drummer" in Portuguese. It lasts 8 minutes and it alternates between different music styles, rock, jazz, big band, Latin, and even African.
13. The album includes three principal instrumental pieces, or five when "Cygnus X-1" and the drum solo "O Baterista" are counted.
14. During the instrumental track "La Villa Strangiato" the band goes into a jazz improvisation that includes vocal accompaniment by Alex Lifeson with amusing sentences like: "This is jazz ... jazz is WEIRD!!" also playing an excerpt from the song "The Girl From Ipanema".
15. According to Neil Peart’s liner notes, the material captured by the Brazilian recording truck required extensive work by Alex Lifeson and engineers James "Jimbo" Barton and Patrick Thrasher.
16. The album first appeared on vinyl on January 18, 2019, as a four-LP set. This was a later edition of the 2002 recordings, rather than a new performance.
17. "O Baterista" received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 2005 awards. 18.The studio album on which "Leave That Thing Alone" originally appeared ("Counterparts", released in 1993) earned the band a Grammy nomination for that specific instrumental track at the 1995 awards. Interestingly, its direct live continuation in Rio, Neil Peart’s drum solo "O Baterista" carried on the band's instrumental legacy, scoring its own Grammy nomination thanks to this live album at the 2005 ceremony.
And now we just hope you can find yourself 3 free hours to listen to this amazing show: Spotify, Apple Music
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