The production quality of A Show Of Hands is easily the best out of the three Replay X 3 DVDs, which also included Grace Under Pressure Tour and Exit Stage Left. It is also, by far, the longest — clocking in at almost 90 minutes, compared to roughly an hour for the other two. Both DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks are provided, as well a PCM stereo for those without surround setups. They each sound excellent. The video is not as sharp as some of the newer digitally recorded videos you may be used to, but, hey, it comes from a 20 year old source recording. The camera changes are a little too quick for my taste — what a surprise — but, overall, the performance was filmed very well.
Who would have thought that Rush would still be going strong nearly 20 years after the performance on this excellent DVD. Well, after being blown away by three fantastic tours in a row this decade, I can certainly attest that they still are. Long live Rush!
Set List
01. The Big Money
02. Marathon
03. Turn The Page
04. Prime Mover
05. Manhattan Project
06. Closer To The Heart
07. Red Sector A
08. Force Ten
09. Mission
10. Territories
11. YYZ
12. The Rhythm Method
13. The Spirit Of Radio
14. Tom Sawyer
15. Medley: 2112 (Overture, The Temples Of Syrinx), La Villa Strangiato, In The Mood
Performance 8/10
Production 8/10
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
Great review, Paul. I entirely agree - I'm missing the keyboards more now than ever before, and that's while loving what they're doing now. But seeing "Mission" on the latest tour really illustrated how minimized Alex Lifeson was during this period - he barely played at all while Geddy manned his keyboard for the majority of the song.
Just in case anyone's curious, the difference between the video and CD releases of A Show of Hands is that the video is entirely from the two Birmingham, England shows, as you point out, while the CD is a compilation of various cities on the Power Windows and Hold Your Fire tours. Interestingly, the laser disk version of ASoH includes "Lock And Key," but, frustratingly, it was not added to the DVD release. Luckily, I happened upon a guy back in the late 90s who was able to give me a copy of the audio of the whole ASoH laser disk, so at least I have a copy of that song, live.
This comment was apparently brought to you by the suffix "ly."
2 - Paul Roy
Thanks a lot Tom. I never thought I'd find myself saying that I miss the keyboards in Rush.