Ron's Rush RoIO Review
(Audio - 9)
Rush’s famous Pinkpop performance is captured in this show. With the
exception of "The Sphere," there’s nothing here that hasn’t been officially
released live, but the strength of this performance lies in the fact that it
shows the band really stretching their wings in a transitional period
between "old" and "new" Rush. Only the last half of 2112 is represented here
(did they do the whole thing at this show?), but what is here has some
amazing bass lines from Geddy. As with other concerts from this era, the
band is really breathing new life into the older songs via keyboards,
chimes, souped-up bass lines, etc. An excellent FM broadcast. Everything
here sounds just great. The bass end is a bit heavy, but at high volumes,
this one really rocks. The only flaw in this recording is that "Something
For Nothing" fades out 2/3 into the song. (1999-04-01)
Simon Grundy
This is the show that turned me into a lifelong Rush fan.Friends had been
playing me Rush for a while,but I didn't get the bug til seeing them
live.This recording is pretty much as it went down on the day-though I am
remembering events of 25 years ago.I think they may have started with
Bastille Day which is absent.To me,the version of Xanadu on here is far
superior to any other version I've heard.Geddy Lee's bass playing being
particularly excellent. I don't think they played all of 2112.It was a
festival with 6 other bands,so time was limited.But I believe it was the
last date of the Hemispheres tour and there seemed to be a party atmosphere
on stage. Indeed most of the road crew took to the stage during the
encores(Rush got 2,only one other band(The Police) that day managed to get
more than one )hurling themselves around stage with various unplugged
instruments attached.This is a fine recording of a fine show.One or two
other things of interest;Dutch tv also filmed this-they filmed all pinkpop
shows.La Villa Strangiato was broadcast.They also showed a brief interview
clip just before Rush went on stage in which Alex Lifeson revealed a
seriously damaged finger(trapped in car door I think)which may explain his
blooper in the aforesaid La Villa!! (2004-12-24)
