Snakes & Arrows Live 2 CD Set - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
On the heels of their hugely successful 2007 ampitheater tour, Rush is now giving all their fans the chance to aurally experience the concert for themselves with the double album, Snakes & Arrows Live. The live set features perennial favorites like "Tom Sawyer," "The Spirit of Radio," and "YYZ" as well as new fare "Far Cry," "Spindrift," and "The Larger Bowl." Also included is the live rendition of the 2008 Grammy-nominated "Malignant Narcissism" followed by a Rush live staple, a Neil Peart drum solo. Snakes & Arrows Live is sure to follow in the footsteps of their successful live album Rush in Rio. The Canadian trio has sold over 35 million albums world-wide in their career spanning four decades.

Album Description
Two CD set of their 2008 Snakes & Arrows Live. On the heels of their hugely successful 2007 ampitheater tour, Rush is giving all their fans the chance to aurally experience the concert for themselves with this double album. The live set features perennial favorites like 'Tom Sawyer', 'The Spirit of Radio' and 'YYZ' as well as new fare 'Far Cry', 'Spindrift' and 'The Larger Bowl'. Also included is the live rendition of the 2008 Grammy-nominated 'Malignant Narcissism' followed by a Rush live staple, a Neil Peart drum solo. Snakes & Arrows Live follows in the footsteps of their successful live album Rush in Rio.

Customer Reviews: Read 75 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

4 1/2 stars-- Another great live performance. April 15, 2008
39 out of 47 found this review helpful

I have to confess, even as a diehard Rush fan, I'm starting to wonder a bit about live album saturation. To be fair, Rush doesn't exactly inject a lot of variances in their performances over the years-- "Spirit of Radio" hasn't changed a whole lots since 1980. The band had a tendency to "bookend" their studio records with a live album-- All the World's a Stage, Exit...Stage Left and A Show of Hands each provided pretty much a live "best of" from the four studio records that came before (with the latter two each drawing a pair of songs from earlier material).

Starting with 1998's Different Stages: Live, Rush's live albums have had less to do with a period of time and more a pretty straight echo of a live performance. And for a band that released four live albums over the course of their first 28 years, when their last two live records came out in reasonably rapid succession (2003's Rush in Rio and the audio CD portion of 2005's Rush - R30 - 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition), I have to confess to wondering, "do I really need these?". 2008's "Snakes & Arrows Live" evoked a similar response from me.

But hey, who am I kidding? I am a diehard, and this record is fantastic-- taken from the band's tour behind 2007's Snakes & Arrows, the material is a bit heavy from that record, but both the new and the old material gets great readings. The band is downright haunting on "Witch Hunt", bristling with intensity on "Mission", and primed to explode on "Dreamline" and "Far Cry" and just stunning on "Secret Touch"-- it gets just an unbelievable reading. I could go on and on about different pieces-- it's a nice mix of hits ("Spirit of Radio", "Subdivisions", "Tom Sawyer", et.al.), fan favorites ("Natural Science", "A Passage to Bangkok") and rarities ("Entre Nous", "Circumstances", "Between the Wheels") to pretty much satisfy anyone.

.... which leads me back to a more casual fan-- maybe not quite one of the "crazy Rush fans" (an expression Aimee Mann assured me was redundant when I bumped into her years ago, and not without cause-- we are kind of an obsessive bunch). If you're a bit more casual, do you need this? Maybe, I've enjoyed this one vastly more than Rush in Rio (which while it has its own charm, I suspect is an album only a diehard could love), but if you've invested in Rush - R30 - 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, you probably don't need this one. If you haven't, by all means, check this out, it's a good record.

5 out of 5 stars

Consistently Rush, Consistently Good April 16, 2008
18 out of 19 found this review helpful

I was at the St. Louis show, so this cd is a nice reminder of a very nice night for me and my son. Many have complained about Rush's frequency of live releases and song list, to them I would respond, check out live King Crimson. I love that band too, but they put out a ton of live stuff, many of the same tracks repeated over and over. I don't think Rush is guilty of milking the cash cow, I think they're doing a nice service to us fans.

The live recording itself is imaculate. The sound quality is first rate. The band is performing at a very high level, and consistently well, as Rush usually does. Perhaps they could mix things up a bit, but seeing a live Rush show is seeing a band that's been together as a unit for many years, a tight band that does what it's supposed to do, put on a consistently great show.

The new album Snakes & Arrows is emphasized in the set list, as this tour was to promote that album. I for one liked that album. Beyond that there are a few old gems such as Circumstances, Entres Nous, and Witch Hunt which are very nice to hear live. Mixed amongst all this are the classic tracks, such as Tom Sawyer, Freewill, etc.

I have looked forward to this album since I first heard about it, and was not disappointed. 5 stars.

5 out of 5 stars

The world is still their stage! April 17, 2008
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

As every fan knows, Rush excel at playing live. It is a distinct part of what makes them so great. And they have finally broken out of the limited pattern of 4 studio albums followed by a live recording. They have been giving fans an abundance of live works lately. And while it may appear to some as a ploy to make a few extra bucks for nothing, each and every release has been a high-quality package, offering the fans another chance at a road-trip to see the band. They always manage to throw in an old classic not previously captured to tape or played quite the same way before.

Rush have always been conscientious about giving their fans good value for the money. And the bar is always set high by them and by us. Snakes & Arrows Live is another hurdle over that bar. It's fun, it rocks, and it's a great addition to your Rush collection.

2 out of 5 stars

Still Rush but not as good as it could be... April 17, 2008
12 out of 26 found this review helpful

Rush is live again! Is that good or bad? I am not sure that is the real question anymore? I think we all need to just admit certain things and be done with them.

1) They are amazing musicians. Plain and simple!
2) It is their band they can play anything they want. Who would want to put together a set list they everyone but them loved? Does that make any sense? Not to me. If they like the set, they play better. Simple fact.
3) Yes the songs are slower....but then what? I have tons of bootlegs that have material from ALL their tours that are slower from one night to the next! Tours from AFWTK, Hemispheres, and others ...all slowed down. That is fine with me. They are as they are.
4) Geddy CAN'T sing like he did 20 years ago. NO ONE COULD!! Let it go....

sooooo why only 2 stars.. to me it is simple. The sound quality is not up to par with a typical Rush recording. The mixing is the big issue to me and has been since Vapor Trails. The band has lost that "Up Front" clarity that marked all Rush recordings prior. Prior to Vapor Trails, Rush always made certain that even though each musician had a unique sound, it all blended and didn't cover each other up. The laws of sound are simple. Have too many instruments in the same frequency range and they will cancel themselves out. FACT! or LAW I should say. Can't change that.

I have every Rush recording made and dozens of bootlegs that I love dearly. Up until Test for Echo, they had always been able to supply a huge full sound and not take up more then their 1/3 of the soundstage. Nothing covered up anything else even when all of them were playing. That was the beauty of Rush! Geddy's bass tone was such that it didn't mask the bass drum and the same was true in reverse. Alex had a sound that was his own but still left room for the Taurus pedals and so on. I have recording after recording of them sounding amazing! So what is different now....the mixing and the sound of the instruments...there isn't anything else to blame...

Iron Maiden is a perfect example of what I am talking about. Since they started to use 3 guitar players, Steve Harris' bass is less prominent. FACT! Why, because Janick Gers added a tonal spectrum that thickened the frequency range and Steve's bass has less room to be heard. These are simple mathmactical (I never could spell that word lol) facts. The laws of audio are fixed. I know, I studied the Physics of Audio in college.

now I admit this is clearly my personal taste..after all this is MY review not someone else's but I do accept that many will disagree for their own personal reasons and that it cool too!)

So I have nothing but praise for them as players, a band and musicians. They are first rate. I just don't like the sound they have been displaying since Vapor Trails and if I have read some past reviews of this period correctly, many agree.

So listen and decide for yourself. Be honest and ask yourself if this is a good as it could have been. My answer to that question was no.

Peace!

pjones

4 out of 5 stars

Rush still has it! April 15, 2008
11 out of 16 found this review helpful

I am very pleased with this 2 disc set. I jumped right into this not knowing any of the songs off the new album, "Snakes & Arrows". I like the live Rush releases better and this one doesn't disappoint.

They play quite a few tracks from the new album, which are suprisingly good, and a lot of favorites as well. The set list is completely different from the R30 box. I like the change...it keeps the live discs fresh.

Overall, a very tight sounding album. Rush seems to play a bit heavier than usuall on this one, with Geddy's bass coming through loud & clear. This is a must have for any Rush fan!

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