RUSH

Clockwork Angels Tour Rhino

More evidence of Rush’s general brilliance arrives on 10 sides of vinyl.

The wound is still raw. Grown men (and possibly even some grown women) are still randomly bursting into tears. There will never be any Rush gigs ever again (well, probably not) and no amount of lavish vinyl reissues can take away the pain. On the plus side, Clockwork Angels Tour sounds absolutely mind-blowing on vinyl and if you listen to it at a sufficiently wall-cracking volume, you might be able to convince yourself that you really are air drumming like a lunatic as Geddy, Alex and Neil do their authoritative thing mere yards away. At this point, it’s all we’ve got.

Originally released in 2013, this full-blown account of Rush’s 2012 US tour in support of the immaculate Clockwork Angels is just one of several impeccable live sets released by the Canadian legends during their imperious final phase. Whether fans regard it as one of the best will be entirely down to how they regard 80s albums such as Hold Your Fire, Signals and Grace Under Pressure. The show’s first string of songs draws heavily from them, but the sound of Rush in 2012 was wholly distinct from those anaemic, synth-driven 80s years. The result is that there is a muscularity and casual modernity to everything from triumphant opener Subdivisions to a sublime The Analog

Kid, while later deep cuts like Bravado and fiery instrumental Where’s My Thing? (both from 1991’s Roll The Bones) breathlessly point the way toward the heavier, spikier sound of Clockwork Angels, which dominates the middle part of the show, albeit enhanced by the lush backing of the Clockwork Angels String Ensemble. As ever with Rush live records, it all sounds huge, warm and vibrant and the musicianship is consistently dazzling. Are they really not going to do any more gigs?

If there is a downside to this vinyl rebirth, it’s that with five discs required to cover its generous proportions, Clockwork Angels Tour is going to have you on your feet every 20 minutes for the best part of three hours. But when the rewards are as thunderous and life-affirming as the run of classics that brings this extravaganza to a close, it would be churlish to complain about a few extra burned calories. YYZ, The Spirit Of Radio, Tom Sawyer, a decent chunk of 2112… you know the drill, let’s face it. A few surprises lurk at the end – a brace of Power Windows bangers and The Pass (from 1989’s Presto) – but taken in its entirety, this will mainly serve to remind us that Rush were in a class of precisely one.

HUGE, WARM, VIBRANT, DAZZLING… AS EVER.