Long ago, a live album from Rush was, for many of us fans, on par with a studio release from our heroes.  They followed a pattern of a live album following four studio albums, and so it was from “All The World’s A Stage” through “Different Stages.”  We’d make sure to tune into rock radio hoping to hear cuts from the new live album and we were certainly in front of the record shop on release day to snap up a copy to hear our favorite band bring it live.

Setlists aside, we remember “All The World’s A Stage” for showcasing the raw power of a young power trio on the “2112” tour, we remember “Exit…Stage Left” as being the slick, overdubbed effort chronicling the “Moving Pictures” tour (ever notice that the crowd cheer on “The Spirit Of Radio” is the same as the cheer following the song?), we remember “A Show Of Hands” capping off the synth/sequencer-heavy era of the 80’s, and we remember “Different Stages Live” as a possible swan song for the band following the “Test For Echo” tour and the well-documented tragedies in the personal life of Neil Peart.

Since reforming with “Vapor Trails,” Rush has made live albums a regular post-tour offering, and so for this fan, they’re a bit hit and miss with me as they don’t differ a ton beyond the new music and them throwing in select tunes from the past such as “Natural Science, The Camera Eye,” and others.  I own “Rush In Rio” and “R30,” but have skipped the last two just as I skipped those tours, though I *have* bought the DVD’s knowing their live show is as much to be seen as to be heard.

With “Clockwork Angels Tour,” my interest was more in the 80’s material than the new material as I was one of the few who really didn’t embrace the “Clockwork Angels” album. Producer Nick Raskulinecz, a professed Rush fanboy, has been good at coaxing great performances from a band that could go on autopilot at this point of their career, but the one trap this fan thinks he falls into is attempting to pull them all the way back their more raw, power trio days, playing up major chords and hard rock concept of Rush instead of the more epic, progressive route they took in the late 70’s and the melodic route they took during the 80’s.

“Clockwork Angels” saw Rush executing an album-length concept for the first time, and by its release, I found the concept a bit tired from the release of the first two tracks a few years before, the tour that followed those two tracks, and the companion book. I honestly gave “Clockwork Angels” a fair shake, but aside from “Caravan” and the incredible finale that was “The Garden,” the album really didn’t resonate with me, though of course, a decent Rush album is better than most bands’ best efforts, right?

“Clockwork Angels Tour” – let’s refer to it as “CAT” – kicks off with 1982’s “Subdivisions,” the leadoff track from “Signals” and a change in how Rush concerts start, followed by another album-opener in “The Big Money,” which like “Subdivisions” is a faithful reading all the way down to the synth patches, Simmons drum patches and all the keyboard “touches” found on “Power Windows.”

Rush continues its march through the 80’s leadoff tracks with “Force Ten” from 1987’s “Hold Your Fire,” which along with the previous two tracks are staples of previous tours.  With so many Rush live albums to judge “CAT” against and knowing they’re playing better than ever, it really comes down to setlists and the few ways the songs differ from the originals, for Rush rarely ventures away from the recorded versions of their songs.  With “Force Ten,” Alex Lifeson treats us to a guitar solo that’s much more involved and extended than the album version.

The 80’s theme really kicks in with “Grand Designs,” the second track off “Power Windows” and likely not played live since their 1986 tour.  Had I attended this outing, this would have been the point of the show where I’d have jumped out of my seat. “Grace Under Pressure” is next represented as “The Body Electric” continues the show’s romp through the 80’s. It doesn’t seem to hold up terribly well live until the solo section, where it’s full gallop by the band.

With a rhythm undoubtedly inspired from Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Two Tribes” (did I just say that?), we’re treated to “Territories,” which us old-timers know as the first track on side two of “Power Windows.”  It’s a grooving track and the band does a fine job with this reading, especially Peart, who has quite the rhythmic workout with all the percussion he triggers during the song.

From there it’s yet another 80’s favorite, “The Analog Kid,” which I believe saw it’s revival during the Test For Echo tour. The song served as a scorching counterpoint to the lush “Subdivisions” on “Signals” and, as expected, Lifeson is fierce with his solo on this one.  I’ve said this for years now, but with each tour, Rush simply get better and tighter with every outing, if that’s possible for band some 40-plus years into its career.

The band then jumps into the 90’s with what I think is one of their finest tunes in “Bravado” from “Roll The Bones.”  The high notes following the solo prove to be a strain for Geddy Lee’s voice, which is actually somewhat contrasted by his sampled background vocals, likely taken from the album.  We stay with “Roll The Bones” via “Where’s My Thing,” featuring Lee vamping a sweet bass solo before the familiar intro from Lifeson gets the band going. Midway through, Peart jumps into one of several drum solos in the show.  Though the man who my main drumming influence growing up has, IMO, long since been leapfrogged by other drummers in progressive rock, his solos are a show unto themselves.  “Far Cry” ends the set, after which the volume fades.

Signaling the start of “Clockwork Angels,” Rush dives into “Caravan” and we’re treated to band’s string ensemble, marking the first time ever the band was joined by backing musicians – if you can really call them that – for a full tour.  They help bring tracks such as “Caravan” and the album’s title track – one of my favorites – to life.  The band tears through the standout tracks from “Clockwork Angels” with fire; as is the case with many Rush tracks, they take on an additional energy when played live. Peart breaks up “Headlong Flight” with a cool drum solo break before Lifeson gives us the “By-Tor”-esque solo.

One of the highlights of any Rush tour is something new to our ears, and boy, do we get it here with “Peke’s Repose,” a lovely guitar solo from Lifeson that leads us into “Halo Effect.”  The solo is awash in effects but simply sparkles. They continue driving through “Clockwork Angels” and finally bring us to “The Garden.” Lee’s voice seems worn by this point in the show, but it’s a magnificent song, one that I think they could end their career on, though I suspect they’re not done yet.

The string section sticks around after the “Clockwork Angels” set to add flourishes to “Dreamline” from “Roll The Bones,” then we get what is arguably the most creative and melodic (!) solo of Peart’s career in “The Percussor.” Something tells me he’s got at least an EP in him of this sort of melodic drumming.

After revisiting the 80’s with “Red Sector A,” we get another highlight with the string section as they help take “YYZ” to another level, then the band finishes off the set with the trifecta of landmark tracks in “The Spirit Of Radio,” “Tom Sawyer” and the bookends of “2112.”  The album includes bonus tracks including a soundcheck recording of “Limelight” along with live takes of “Middletown Dreams” – one of my favorite tunes from the 80’s – “The Pass” and finally “Manhattan Project.”  “Power Windows” was certainly represented on this tour, huh?

If I have any criticism to make – and this is likely beyond his control – it’s that sadly, Geddy Lee’s singing is starting to morph into some sort of falsetto, likely from age and the toll of so many shows.  I started noticing this watching video of the “Time Machine” tour, but it’s all over this album.

For this Rush fan who cut his teeth on the band with “Moving Pictures,” “Clockwork Angels Tour” works beautifully for me as the band clearly wished to revisit their 80’s catalog.  The “Clockwork Angels” tracks are delivered with gusto and augmented beautifully by the strings, plus we’re treated to instrumental surprises by all three guys along the way. With this tour’s emphasis on the 80’s one wonders if the next tour – if there is one – might focus on tracks from “Presto,” “Roll The Bones,” the largely-ignored-but-fabulous “Counterparts,” and “Test For Echo.” Until then, this release with its bonus track are well worth picking up.

A friend recently told me that nothing gets more hits on a webpage than a “top ten” list.  I had no idea.  For a brief moment, I thought, “well, let’s do a whole series, then!”  But, of course, we wouldn’t be prog lovers if we merely went for quantity.  We love quantity only when it’s full of quality.  You know, a 22-minute Big Big Train song, the kind of song that forces a non-prog friend to say to me, “Birzer, I had no idea when I started the song that I’d missed dinner.”

Ok, before I start sound like a really long refrigerator magnet. . . my top 29 prog songs of the past five years.  It’s the best I could do and still feel as though I possess some integrity.

My only rules.  1) The song had to appear in the last five years for the first time.  And, 2) I wouldn’t repeat any band’s appearance in the list.  In alphabetical order:

• Anathema “Universal”
• Ayreon “The Sixth Extinction”
• Big Big Train “The Underfall Yard”
• Cailyn “Nocturne”
• Coheed and Cambria “In Keeping Secrets of the Silent Earth: 3”
• Coralspin “Sons of the Sleeping Giant”
• Cosmograph “The Man Left in Space”
• Days Between Stations “Eggshell Man”
• The Fierce and the Dead “Part 1”
• Flower Kings “Tower ONE”
• Frost* “Wonderland”
• John Galgano, “1000”
• Gazpacho “Tick Tock (Part II)
• Glass Hammer “If the Stars”
• I and Thou “Hide and Seek”
• IZZ “Can’t Feel the Earth, Part II”
• Kingbathmat “Kubrick Moon”
• Leah “Northern Edge”
• Neal Morse “Time Changer”
• No-Man “Truenorth”
• Nosound “Winter Will Come”
• Oceansize “Trail of Fire”
• Reasoning “A Musing Dream”
• Riverside “Escalator Shrine”
• Rush “Clockwork Angels”
• Sanguine Hum “The Trial”
• The Tangent “Where are They Now” (Going Off the Two Version)
• Tin Spirits “Broken”
• Tori Amos “Battle of Trees”
• 3RDegree “The Ones to Follow”

As I was going through some files, I came across an annotated list of my top favorite albums of the rock era (that is, after 1955).  I broke the list into seven prog albums and eight non-prog albums.  Considering how much has changed in the last decade, my list would look quite different now.  Still, it’s fun to reminisce.  Enjoy.

[A quick addition, just to clarify.  Anyone who knows me, knows my first real love was and, to a great degree, remains Rush.  I intentionally left Rush out of this list, as it would’ve distorted it too much.–BjB, November 18, 2013]

My Top Seven Progressive Rock Albums (in no order after the first three)

Kevin McCormick, Squall (1999).  Some of the best music ever written—but tempered with very serious classical sensibilities and lacking the bombast present in even the best of progressive rock.  McCormick incorporates his profound poetry as lyrics.  Each word—and the way Kevin sings it—seemed utterly filled with Christian grace and conviction.  This is part two of trilogy (he’s working on number three).  And, it’s hard to listen to Squall without listening to its equally fine predecessor, With the Coming of Evening (1993).

Talk Talk, Colour of Spring (1986).  I could certainly regard this as either my top album of all time (though interchangeably with Squall and Spirit of Eden; depends on my mood), or close to it.  I couldn’t even count how many times I’ve listened to it.  I bought it on a whim—because I liked James Marsh’s cover.  My whim paid off, as it opened a whole new realm of music to me.  But, what’s not to like: impressionist 1950’s Jazz and 1960’s Stevie Winwood mixed with intensely Christian lyrics.

Talk Talk, Spirit of Eden (1988).  Every note and word is perfect.  Mark Hollis and Tim Friese-Greene spent 14 months in a church recording this album.  Hard to beat the 20+ minute opening to the album.  And, the lyrics—better than most hymns I hear in church, to be sure.  Side two even has a song with St. Ignatius of Loyola’s prayer asking for the grace to surrender one’s will to God.

Yes, Close to the Edge (1972).  Ok, I’m noticing a pattern as I write out these descriptions—this album, as I understand it, is about the Reformation.  Anderson and co. incorporate high-church Anglican music and choral arrangements as they sing about Christ the Word.

Genesis, Selling England by the Pound (1973).  Heavily influenced by the poetry T.S. Eliot, Peter Gabriel soars on this album.

Pink Floyd, Animals (1977).  Continuing the fantasy and science-fiction themes of their earlier albums, Roger Waters and David Gilmore seriously challenge the right of one human to exploit another in this George Orwell inspired album.

Flower Kings, Space Revolver (2000).   Lyrics range from weird to wacky, as does the music.  Pro-Christian themes abound, but placed within a rather Scandinavian pastoral setting.

My Top Seven non-Progressive Rock Albums (in no order)

Thomas Dolby, Golden Age of Wireless (1982).  This was my introduction to New Wave.  Wild arrangements and very Bradbury-esque lyrics.  It became my anthem during high school debate and forensics.

Sarah McLachlan, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (1993).  I can’t explain why this album means so much to me, but it does.  I love McLachlan’s voice and use of organ.  And, this first album lacks the nasty anti-Christian and pro-feminist cant of her later work.  When I worked at the Organization of American Historians in graduate school, we would play this CD as we played Quake on the network (after business hours, of course).

Echo and the Bunnymen, Ocean Rain (1984).  Beautiful and bizarre—musically and lyrically.  Probably the most Doors’ inspired album of the New Wave movement.  While the lyrics don’t quite rival those of Morrissey (in the Smiths), the music surpasses anything Johnny Marr wrote.  A staple for me in college.  I’m just sorry that some of the lyrics are heretical.

Traffic, John Barleycorn Must Die (1970).  What can I say about Stevie Winwood, Jim Capaldi, and Chris Wood?  Jazz-rock with Anglo-Saxon folktales thrown in.  Lots of Traffic is excellent, but this surpasses all of their other albums.

Van Morrison, Astral Weeks.  Introspection without pure naval gazing.  And, no body writes better about the beginnings of love than Van Morrison.  Must be something in the Irish soul.  As I understand it, the album was done in one take with the jazz musicians being given the music when they entered the studio.  Perfect for a spring day.

The Cure, Disintegration (1990).  From the beginning to the end, a masterpiece.  Perfect pacing, and fascinating arrangements.  The Cure’s flaw is their tendency to write hyper, bouncy pop songs.  While Disintegration has a few of these, they remain tempered by the more serious, gothic moments on the album.  And, hey, the album begins with early medieval plainsong.

Radiohead, Kid A (2000).  Intense lyrics about the problems of post modernity and scientism.  Though Ok, Computer has better moments, Kid A has no real flaws.  The lyrics, however, remain unimportant, ultimately, as Thom Yorke’s voice serves as another instrument on the album.  The producer, Nigel Godrich, deserves credit for being an equal member of the band.  The opening track, “Everything in its right place” sums up the production.