The second half, longer than some bands’ entire shows, began with the still-tremendous Moving Pictures, the trio’s complex yet mega-successful breakthrough, played precisely (right down to the digitized drums for “Vital Signs”) and passionately (note the dynamics applied to “Red Barchetta” as it came barreling out of its adrenaline-pumping midsection). It was as if these legends were their own opening act: the first set divided up 11 selections among bedrock hits (“Subdivisions,” a flawless, eruptive “Freewill”), mid-career nuggets (“Time Stand Still,” “Presto”) and a smattering from 2007’s return-to-form Snakes & Arrows (including the exceptional “Faithless,” left off setlists during that album’s tour). ![]() Knowingly or not, Rush fit the same formula Wednesday night at Gibson Amphitheatre, a better place to have seen this (almost) 30th anniversary revival, though Friday night at Verizon will surely be more of a party. The Dark Side show put forth a perfect structure worthy of triple-digit prices: an opening set of complementary material, a 20-minute intermission, then the spotlighted album followed by still more staples through the encore. on Halloween in Indio - even Bruce Springsteen got in on the act, playing three of his greatest works across as many nights at Giants Stadium last November.īut Waters, who will cap this year with a week’s worth of Southern California performances of his new production of The Wall, really established the modern template, along with the Who’s first revival of Tommy in 1989. Sporadic forays like this from bands as wide-ranging as Queensrÿche, Cheap Trick, Green Day and My Chemical Romance helped give the idea legs earlier this decade, but you could really sense it take off last fall when a glut of these things came all at once: Nine Inch Nails, Echo & the Bunnymen, Devo and Pixies blasted through seminal albums within months of each other, Phish covered the Stones’ Exile on Main St. These things are happening more and more, you realize if you ask me, it’s the best trend going, sprucing up just about any band but especially fixtures who have been touring perennially for decades. ![]() The group’s 27-song, three-hour (with intermission) bonanza, with an impeccable performance of its landmark eighth album Moving Pictures (1981) at the heart of the show, joins Roger Waters’ Dark Side of the Moon production of 2006-08 as a new paradigm for profoundly satisfying concert experiences. Rush is hardly the first group to tour behind an old album in its entirety, yet on its current Time Machine Tour 2010, which pulls into Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine on Friday, the Canadian prog-rock trio - one of very few intact classic-rock bands left these days - is executing the concept better than just about anyone.
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