Actually... in most stores the DVD came out yesterday to make up for the holiday... but today is the officially announced release date so we're celebrating today.
Snakes and Arrows Live is now in stores. I defy you to find a more obsessed Rush fan than I, but honestly... I'm holding off on this one and putting it on my Christmas list. Rush has toured three times in the 21st century, and now all three of those tours were followed by a concert DVD. If you start with the Different Stages album released in '98, every other Rush release has been a live record. Enough is enough I think. To make it worse, the audio portion of the new DVD was released as a live album months ago. The previous live releases all stepped on each other. This one does too but to a lesser extent. There are nine songs from the last Rush studio release on this record. That means we get live performances of new songs. That's nice. There are also a few songs on the DVD that either had never been played live, or hadn't been played live during the lifespan of many of the people in the audience. Again, that's nice. At the same time though, we have still more versions of the concert staples. It just feels repetative after a while.
Having said that, I can't wait to see this. I saw 4 shows on the 2007 leg of the Snakes and Arrows tour, the leg this video comes from, and 4 more on the 2008 leg. I loved every second of all of those shows. I traveled all over the place to see them. Two shows in Massachusetts, two in Connecticut, one in New Hampshire, one in Wisconsin, and two in New York including my first visit to Madison Square Garden. There were a few differences between the '07 setlist and the '08 setlist, but the DVD has the '08 songs included in the bonus material. That's a nice touch.
Being an embarassingly obsessed Rush fan means I do a lot of digging on the internet for Rush related news, info, rumors, and wild speculation. I generally hit two sites in this pursuit, The Rush Forum, and Rush is a Band. The Forum is a message board site that anyone can post to. Rush is a Band is a blog. Through Rush is a band I have gotten some nice tid bits of info lately, including a link to a Best Buy page where you can download the new DVD version of 2112 that comes from one of the 2008 shows which was not included on the Snakes and Arrows Live album.
Rush is a Band caused some Rush fan pain the other day with this post. It seems as though the band may be planning to use the "F" word in the near future. In this case the "F" word is "Farewell." Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson did a television interview in October where Geddy mentions they might try to do one more tour. At the time the circumstantial evidence lead us to believe that he was talking about doing one more tour before taking an extended break. In other words, a 2009 tour. However, since then Geddy did an interview with Billboard magazine pushing the new DVD where he says the band is planning on taking an extended break now and looking at releasing another album maybe in 2010 and touring again in 2011. The additional rumor is that Neil Peart is saying that he does not want to be touring into his 60's, and he turns 60 in 2012. Sooo... that means if they follow their rough outline the farewell tour will probably happen in 2011.
That's the bad news. The good news is that they are all rumored to be saying that they have no interest in ending the band. The touring may stop, and frankly that sucks, but the band will continue. That means more new music. There was also an interview with Alex Lifeson not long ago where he talks about having a lot of interest in releasing music via the internet. Couple that with the fact that their deal with Atlantic records will be finished with the soon to be released Retrospective 3. Think of the possibilites... instead of waiting 2-3 years in between Rush studio projects the band could get together a few times a year, write and record a couple of songs each time, and release them straight into the waiting arms of the desperatly obsessed fans. Or, they just continue to write and record as they do now and release the records themselves. They were an independent band once before, there is no reason why they can't do it again.
A lot of the people who read the same rumors I did were really upset about the end of Rush as a touring band. They were acting as if it were the end of the band. That is clearly not the case. As much as I would miss seeing them live, I remain very optimistic for the future of my favorite band. They seem to still be dedicated to making new music together, and as a die hard fan that is all I could ever wish of them.
Now, in honor of the new Snakes and Arrows Live DVD release here are a few pictures I took on the 2008 tour. Most of these are garbage, but being the crazed maniacle fan I am I think they are awesome.
First, a few from the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY. We were sitting in the last row of the balcony.
Now a few from the Verizon Arena in Manchester, NH. This is probably the closest I've ever been at a Rush show, and the band was incredible that night. Unfortunately my camera battery died so there aren't quite as many pictures as I would have liked.
If you are a firefox user you can right click on the pictures and chose "view image" to see a much larger image. If you are using internet explorer, download firefox and use that from now on.
So, go out there and get your copy of the Snakes and Arrows Live DVD and bask in the glow of Canada's finest musical achievement. You won't be sorry.
And I have a post-script for this too that I almost forgot about. There was some question as to whether the DVD had any hidden content. Through Rush is a Band I got this link. It is a movieweb.com review with a reader comment that tells how to open up an easter egg. I don't know if it's accurate or not, but if you have the DVD you can give it a try. Allow me to quote it here...
Select 5.1, wait like 7 cycles, Jerry comes on and tells you to push play already, then when suitcase (Envy) Al tells you to listen to the man and go for it, go for it! You'll see no menu options, just Al crossing his eyes at you. Hit enter or play You get a bonus extra What's That Smell behind the scenes with interviews of Ged and Al in character being interviewed.
This is on the Blu-ray as well - go to Bonus Features, go down to Oh, Atlanta! then press 'down' again and then enter/select
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