The last time I went to Sheffield Arena was back in 1992 on the RTB tour and, to be honest, I felt a little let down afterwards. Our seats were up on the balcony and we had a thick cable obscuring our view of the stage, the sound was pretty poor up there and an overzealous bouncer seemed to want to stop us dancing, singing, cheering or watching the band. All in all, not a very good experience. However, my spirits lifted when my friend told me our seats were actually on the arnea floor so I set out from Mansfield in good spirits.
We arrived at the arena sometime around 3.30pm and, after paying our car park fee, headed across the road to the Enfield. After a pint there, the four of us made our way up the road to a restaurant for some very nice (and very hot) pizza (in addition, I enjoyed my time letching over the very attractive waitresses )
Food taken care of, we made our way back to the Enfield and met up with Hatchetaxe&saw, Madra, Nebbish and a few others before making our way over to the Arena around 7. Our tickets were on Row 6 of block 6 so imagine my delight when I realised this meant we were 6 rows from the front. Having sat down, I passed the time talking to the guy in the seat next to me (sorry, can't remember his name but I pointed him in this direction as he's not on any of the forums) until the lights dimmed.
Once again, we were treated to an unusual and amusing dream intro film before the guys ripped into Limelight followed by Digital Man, both of which had most of the crowd around me in raptures. However, you could hear the sound of jaws dropping when they followed this up with a sublime run through of Entre Nous. Now, this has always been my least favourite song off Permanent Waves (shows what a dman good album it is) but I was as caught up as the rest. Mission and Freewill followed before the first S&A song of the set - The Main Monkey Business. Now, I have always found this to be one of the most exhilerating pieces of music I have ever heard but there is no way I was prepared for the spell a live rendition would weave. The performance was nothing short of breathtaking. A slight breather came with a run throughs of The Larger Bowl and Secret Touch before the second jaw-dropper of the night when they launched into a magnificent rendition of Circumstances. Strong versions of Between the Wheels and Dreamline brought us to the interval and a chance to catch breath.
Surrealism was the order of the moment with the video intro to part two before a major body punching version of Far Cry which seriously rattled my fillings and loosened any remaining ear wax I had. Workin? Them Angels, Armor And Sword, Spindrift and The Way The Wind Blows kept the momentum going with the guys taking what could have been a risk by playing so much of the new album in a chunk. Fear not, though, the material is so strong and translates so well to a live setting that they felt like old favourites to me.
Subdivisions was up next, as always Alex's guitar giving the song the welly it misses in the studio version, before a sublime Natural Science and the next big shock - a riotous run through of Witch Hunt. MalNar was up next and, for me, it challenged TMMB in the excitement stakes before Neil turn in the spot light with a solo that, to me at least, seemed quite a bit shorter than previous ones.
Alex was up next with a faultless preformance of Hope which was absolutely stirring. It was at this point that I expected the 'woosh' of 2112 but instead we got a fantastic resurrection of Distant Early Warning followed by a rousing Spirit of Radio. A South Park cartoon introduced Tom Sawyer which brought the set to a triumphant end.
Next, the encore:
Neil's brutal intro to One Little Victory managed to kill off what few functioning brain cells I had left before, wonder of wonders, Geddy got the Rick out of mothballs for a brilliant version of Passage to Bangkok (alltogether noe, "They never play Bangkok ) which had eveen the boring gits around us swaying. All inhibitions in my section of the audience were tossed away during an awesome finale of YYZ which left everyone stunned and spent.
This was the seventh time I'd seen Rush and I honestly didn't think that their performance on the R30 tour would be beaten, until Saturday that was. The performance had so much spirit and energy - I don't think I've ever seen Geddy so animated on stage. In addition, the guys seemed very relaxed and happy, even Neil cracked a few broad smiles which makes we wonder if he doesn't hate touring as much as he claims.
Perhaps it wasn't their best set-list (although they'd be hard pushed to come up withy a truly poor one), but it certainly had some surprises and I was so glad I'd made a point of avoiding all discussions regarding the tour before the night as the impact would have been lessened. Performance wise, I can't fault it. This, to me, is Rush at the peak and totally renewed.
Belated Review - Sheffield Arena 6/10/7
Moderator: Priests of Syrinx
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Slaine mac Roth
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- Location: Mansfield, (UK)
Belated Review - Sheffield Arena 6/10/7
'Do not despise the snake for having no horns, for who is to say it will not become a dragon?'
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Walkinghairball
- Posts: 25037
- Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:42 pm
- Location: In a rock an roll venue near you....as long as you are in the Pacific Northwest.
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Walkinghairball
- Posts: 25037
- Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:42 pm
- Location: In a rock an roll venue near you....as long as you are in the Pacific Northwest.
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Slaine mac Roth
- Posts: 1295
- Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2004 2:09 pm
- Location: Mansfield, (UK)
-
Walkinghairball
- Posts: 25037
- Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:42 pm
- Location: In a rock an roll venue near you....as long as you are in the Pacific Northwest.
-
Walkinghairball
- Posts: 25037
- Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:42 pm
- Location: In a rock an roll venue near you....as long as you are in the Pacific Northwest.