The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio mix provides one of the most accurate and well balanced concert mixes I have ever heard. It doesn't just sound like it was recorded right from the sound board, but you get all of the expansive echo and reverb you would experience from out in the audience. And, unlike Rush In Rio, the crowd noise was mixed at just the right level to make you feel like you were right there. I can only imagine how good the Blu-ray version must sound. A tighter sounding PCM stereo track was also included, as well as a mono mix.
Disc one also includes the following extras features:
1. "What's That Smell" (DVD Content)
2. 2007 Tour Outtakes
3. "What's That Smell" Outtakes
4. "Far Cry" (Alternate cut featuring rear screen footage)
5. "The Way the Wind Blows" (Alternate cut featuring rear screen footage)
6. "Red Sector A" from the R30 Tour
Rush may have disappointed some of their longtime fans, myself included, with most of the post-1980's studio efforts, but they are still one of the best live acts around. Pick yourself up a copy of Snakes & Arrows Live and see for yourself.
Set Lists
Disc 1:
01. Limelight
02. Digital Man
03. Entre Nous
04. Mission
05. Freewill
06. The Main Monkey Business
07. The Larger Bowl
08. Secret Touch
09. Circumstances
10. Between the Wheels
11. Dreamline
Disc 2:
01. Far Cry
02. Workin' Them Angels
03. Armor And Sword
04. Spindrift
05. The Way the Wind Blows
06. Subdivisions
07. Natural Science
08. Witch Hunt
09. Malignant Narcissism - De Slagwerker
10. Hope
11. Distant Early Warning
12. The Spirit Of Radio
13. Tom Sawyer
Encore:
14. One Little Victory
15. A Passage To Bangkok
16. YYZ
Disc 3:
Oh, Atlanta (The Authorized Bootlegs)
01. Ghost Of A Chance
02. Red Barchetta
03. The Trees
04. 2112/The Temples Of Syrinx
Ratings:
Performance 9/10
Production 10/10
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
Man, how could you possibly have a gripe with them including so much off the new album? My main gripe with most older bands touring for new albums is that they basically ignore their new albums. When they're as good as Rush's new music has been, that is a travesty. Rush knew they had great, great material here and happily they really pushed it live. I'd have been extremely bored with yet another "greatest hits" concert - it's very unlikely that we're going to see more than a very few rarities pulled out every tour, so I'd much rather them focus on the new stuff than play a bunch of overplayed older stuff.
2 - Paul Roy
Tom, I agree with you for the most part. I too hate it when bands only do the greatest hits tours and ignore their new albums. I thought Snake's and Arrows was only a "good" Rush album and would have been fine with only four or five songs played from it. Rush's catalog is too vast and too good to use up nine songs in the set with that one new album.
3 - Tom Johnson
I'm one of those now-apparently rare few who think Vapor Trails was the superior album between these latest two, so I can understand where you're coming from - S&A is uneven in some respects. I like the spirit, however, and the lyrical aspect is excellent - Neil is in excellent form there.
And I'd agree with you about playing so much new stuff if they were the type of band that were likely to pull out a bunch of oddities in place of those new songs, but they're just not. I've been following them very closely for a long, long time and they've said that on each tour they'll do a couple "from the vault" songs and the rest are either new or old stand-bys, so I'd much rather they emphasize the new. It's really unfortunate that they don't take more risks with their concert material, but judging by the reaction I have seen the lesser-known stuff get, I see why they don't. "Between The Wheels," "Digital Man" and "Entre Nous" got decidedly COLD reactions at the shows I saw - VERY sad! This is what the long-time fans are asking for and then when we get it, the reaction is tame, at best. Still a fun show, but not the fan's dream that it could be. It does, however, prove that this band is appealing to a wide enough audience year after year that they need to keep a bunch of big songs in there that aren't the fan-geek's dream setlists, which not many other bands their age can say.