There are 13 active users currently online. Comments

RUSH IN RIO (LIVE) Released: October 21st, 2003

(Recorded live at the Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on November 23rd, 2002)

Certified Gold by RIAA: February 10, 2004

View All Album Certifications



Highest Billboard Chart Position: 33

Liner Notes

- Bass guitars, vocals, synthesizers- Electric and acoustic guitars, vocals- Drums and percussionRECORDED BY JAMES "JIMBO" BARTON"Mixed by James "Jimbo" Barton and Alex LifesonAssisted by Patrick ThrasherAssistant Engineer · Kooster McAllister, Record Plant RemotePre-Mixed and Assembled at Trax Studios, Los Angeles, CAMixed at Metalworks, Mississauga, ONAssisted by Chris Gordon and Joe BarlowLive Recording and invaluable Pre-mixing Organization by James "Jimbo" BartonAssisted by Patrick ThrasherMastered at Gateway Mastering - Portland, Maine by Adam AyanExecutive Production · Pegi Cecconi and Liam BirtArt Direction, Illustration and Design by Hugh SymePhotography by Andrew MacNaughtanAdditional photography by Carrie Nuttall (B&W), MRossiThe Vapor Trails Tour CrewTour Manager · Liam BirtLighting Director/Designer · Howard UngerleiderConcert Sound Engineer · Brad MadixProduction Manager · Craig (C.B.) BlazierArtist Liaison · Shelley NottKeyboard Tech · Tony GeraniosDrum Tech · Lorne WheatonBass Tech · Russ RyanGuitar Tech · Rick BrittonStage Monitor Engineer · Brent CarpenterProduction Assistant · Karin BlazierPersonal Assistant · Peter RolloSecurity Director · Michael MosbachCarpenter · George SteinertNutritionist · Bruce FrenchConcert Sound by MD Clair Bros. · Jo Ravitch, Brian Evans, Kevin KaplerLighting by Premier Global · Rich Vinyard, Shane Gowler, Keith Hoagland, Jamie GrossenkemperMoving Lights Programmer · Matt DruzbikRear Screen Projection created by SPIN Productions · Norman Stangl, Hilton Treves, Colin DaviesLive 3D Animation by Derivative · Greg Hermanovic, Ben Voight, Jarrett Smith, Farah Yusuf, Rob BairosAdditional Animation · Paul Simpson, Alan KaplerDerivative VJ · James EllisVideo by BBC · David Davidian, Bob Larkin, Adrian Brister, James GeorgeLasers by Production Design · Chris BlairPyrotechnics provided by Pyrotek Special Effects · John ArrowsmithConcert Rigging · Ken Mitchell, Brian CollinsTrucking · Ego Trips / Buses · Hemphill BrothersDrivers · Arthur (Mac) McLear, David Burnette, Jon Cordes, Michael Gibney, Don Johnson, Tom Hartman, Dave Cook, Lashawn Lundstrom, Lonnie Sweet, Steve KotzerFlight Crew · Frank McGrath, Gil Faria, Don WestMerchandising · The McLoughlin FamilyBooking Agencies · Artist Group International, NYC, The Agency Group, London, S.L. Feldman & Associates, TorontoTour Accountants · Drysdale & Drysdale · John Whitehead, Liam BirtManagement · Ray Danniels / SRO Management, TorontoManagement Staff · Pegi Cecconi, Sheila Posner, Anna LeCoche, Shelley Nott, Cynthia Barry, Steve Hoffman, Rayanne Lepieszo, Randy Rolfe and Bob FarmerSpecial thanks to Gil Moore and Raine Munro at Metalworks© 2003 Atlantic Records © 2003 Anthem Entertainment

Having released a live collection fairly recently, Different Stages, we had not intended to make another live album for some time - years, probably. However, after listening to the rough mixes from the concert video Rush In Rio, we felt we had something special, even as a purely musical document of the Vapor Trails tour, which had meant so much to us, personally and professionally.



Our manager, Ray, suggested that some people might prefer to listen to us without having to look at us, and we could understand how that might be. Perhaps we should release the show on CD as well, for those who might prefer just "the audio portion of the program." After all, the work was already done...



And it had taken some work.



The show in Rio de Janeiro was recorded on the fly by a somewhat primitive Brazilian recording truck, and Alex, along with engineers Jimbo and Patrick, spent many long nights refining the raw material that was caught on tape, polishing those rough diamonds into something that might reflect the shine of that hot night in Rio as we and the audience had experienced it.



We were assured the package could be offered as a good value, and in addition, we were able to include some "official bootleg" tracks not played in that particular concert, but recorded straight off the mixing board at earlier shows.



Here is some of the background story about "that night in Rio", as written for the DVD package.

FLYING DOWN TO RIO - Leaving Vapor Trails Behind

By Neil Peart

Rain had threatened all three of the Brazilian shows, but only hit us during the second one, in Sao Paolo. And I mean hit us; the wind drove the rain straight onstage, into our faces, all over us and our equipment, and it's a good thing we had wireless microphones and transmitters, or... we could have been killed!



During the show, the three of us exchanged an occasional look, a wry expression of shared bemusement at this bizarre scene. The Sao Paolo soccer stadium held 60,000 people, by far the largest audience we had ever played to as a headliner, and despite the rain, they carried on singing along with every word, every note, and every beat. From behind my drums, I looked out at the raindrops caught in the spotlight beams, solid three-dimensional cylinders and cones of pelting drops, moving slashes of red, blue, amber, and white. My cymbals shimmered with beads of water, and when I hit them, fountains of spray erupted into colored light.



It was dramatic, all right, even beautiful, in a surreal way, but while it may have looked good, it was tough on the equipment. My electronic midi-marimba, which triggered all my keyboard percussion sounds, as well as a host of effects throughout the show, lost its midi-mind that night, and there was no assurance it would work the next night, in Rio de Janeiro. Even as I played through the show that night in Sao Paolo, looking out at the rain and the vast crowd and working around all the missing sounds as well as I could, I was already thinking ahead to the next night's show, preparing a new "map" of my performance - especially my solo - on the fly. Bad enough on any night, but especially when we were facing the very last show of the tour, which is supposed to be a triumphant finale, and, in this case, the one and only performance of the tour to be captured for posterity.



While the last chord of that Sao Paolo still echoed in the damp night air, we ran offstage and into a van, and were driven straight to the hotel (to escape the traffic of 60,000 people). Toweling away the sweat and rain, we watched the impressive choreography of our motorcycle police escorts, and talked a little about the show, more or less shaking our heads in disbelief - and a good measure of relief, too. We hadn't been sure we were going to get through that one, but we had made it.



Now there was just one concert left. Our Vapor Trails tour had stretched from June to November of 2002, sixty-six shows altogether - and that was about enough! During early discussions, I had proposed a maximum of forty shows, over three months, which perhaps demonstrates the extent of my influence. However, in fairness (the fairness of love, war, and touring), the itinerary seemed to expand as it unfolded: one struggle, one surrender, one show at a time.



Offers came in for more North American dates, and we agreed to push back the end of the tour to play a few extra shows around the East Coast. Europe continued to hang like an unanswered question, for we hadn't toured over there for ten years, and there were a few "hands in the air" from parts of Canada we hadn't played for even longer, but regrettably, we just couldn't do it all.



We were offered a chance to play in Mexico City in mid October (during what was supposed to have been a ten-day break), and I had to think about that for a while. As a general thing, I like traveling to unusual places and "developing nations," but not to work in them. However, after several motorcycle rambles through the entrancing country of Mexico, I had come to love that sad and beautiful city (perhaps despite itself). We had never played there, or anywhere in Central America, and I finally had to agree to that one. I could only hope it would be a good experience for us all, and the other guys would like it there too. It was, and they did. We played in a soccer stadium before 20,000 very enthusiastic fans, and had a great time after the show as well, a whole bunch of us sitting around a big table in a restaurant with great food, excellent live mariachi music, and a steady flow of tequila.



We also had an offer to go to South America for the first time, to play three shows in Brazil in late November, and we didn't know what to think about that. For one thing, we were supposed to have finished touring by that time, and be at home (remember that place?). And for another, did anyone want to see us in Brazil? We had been told we were fairly popular there, and had sold a respectable number of records through "official" channels, but presumably a certain amount of piracy and bootlegging had spread our music much wider than we knew, for no one was more surprised than this humble Canadian rock trio when we played to more than 125,00 people over those three shows, way beyond any numbers we had attracted before, anywhere. In Porto Alegre (a city we hadn't even heard of), 25,000 people came to see us; in Sao Paolo we had a staggering 60,000, and for the final show, in Rio de Janeiro, we played to a roiling throng of 40,000 very animated, vocal, and enthusiastic young Brazilians.



To put those numbers in perspective, our average audience on the Vapor Trails tour, in an American or Canadian arena or amphitheatre, was something like 12,000, and the largest audience we had ever played to as a headliner had been 20,000, at The Gorge in Washington state, on our Test For Echo tour, in early 1997.



Even more than the Mexico City show, the Brazilian concert environment was like nothing we had experienced before - bigger, wilder, crazier, and more intense. Historically, we had been an arena band for more than twenty years, only recently making the transition to outdoor amphitheatres, mainly on the Vapor Trails tour. We had tried playing the big American venues a couple of times in the early '80s - the Cotton Bowl, the Astrodome - but never felt comfortable. One thing about an arena, when the lights shine out on the audience, you can see every face, every little circle of "personhood," way up to the nosebleeds, and when we lose that element of what passes for contact, however tenuous, we feel too alienated from the people we are playing for.



However, when you're onstage in a teeming, steaming soccer stadium in South America, you can forget about those niceties. We looked out across one big heaving, waving, singing, dancing, sweating mass of humanity, and gave them our best, as always. For the final show, in Rio de Janeiro, it seemed we summoned an extra surge of adrenaline, knowing that this was the last one, and that it was being recorded and filmed.



All through the tour there had been talk of filming the Vapor Trails show, for the first time since A Show Of Hands, in 1988, but the arrangements seemed elusive, and finally it was put off until the very last possible opportunity. Certainly that was a bit risky, and indeed, after a series of technical hurdles that our crew had only barely overcome, a primitive recording truck that had the recording engineer, Jimbo, chewing his nails, and the further attrition of that rainy Sao Paolo show, it was looking pretty chancy.



Rain came and went during setup on the afternoon of the Rio show, and the trucks arrived so late from Sao Paolo that the crew didn't start loading until six or seven hours later than usual. Toward what should have been soundcheck time, Geddy, Alex, and I wandered around, or sat under a threatening sky in the bleachers above the stage, watching rainjacketed technicians scramble about, trying to make it happen.



With 40,000 people waiting to get in, there was no question of holding the doors, and we had to accept that there would be no soundcheck. At least the monitor board was working (unlike in Porto Alegre), and my drum tech, Lorne, reported that the midi-marimba seemed to have recovered from the previous night (though I was still mentally preparing to work around the missing sounds if I had to). The sky remained dark and gloomy, and the prospect of going onstage without a soundcheck was unnerving just as a missing part of the show-day ritual - never mind the last-show, grand-finale, captured-for-posterity stuff. There would be no run-through for the recording truck, no test for the camera crew; we were all going to have to wing it. Flying blind in Rio.



As the stadium lights went down and a mighty roar went up, we ran onstage to the Three Stooges theme and launched into "Tom Sawyer," our thoughts a little frantic and our emotions bound up in anxiety. The whole Vapor Trails tour had been very emotional for the three of us, right from the first night in Hartford, Connecticut. After five years away from live performance, and all we had been through in those five years, it really felt like a triumphant return. A few times during the show we looked at each other and shared a quick smile, an eloquent expression that stopped time for an instant and conveyed so much understanding, so much relief, and even a little joy. Our hearts were in our smiles.



Unusually for a first night, we had played really well, and the production side went smoothly too. That was our reward for weeks of rehearsing in Toronto, and more weeks at a small arena in upstate New York. It was our reward for simply carrying on. Songs in the set like "One Little Victory" and "Bravado" had fresh resonance for us that night.



Even during rehearsals I had felt the three of us gradually begin to transcend our individual parts, becoming both submerged and elevated into a separate entity, the synergy of a touring band. After that first show, I said to our manager, Ray, "I have to admit, it would have been a shame if that had never happened again."



The set had changed a little through the tour, as we alternated a few pairs of songs we hadn't been able to choose between, or tried to play something different if we returned to the same area, and we had a surprise just before we went to Mexico City. Apparently our most popular song there was "Closer To The Heart," and we weren't playing it that tour (the periodic rest some older songs require). The three of us talked about it, decided we didn't want to disappoint the audience by not playing our most popular song for them, and we agreed we could relearn it pretty quickly. After playing it through a few times during our soundchecks leading up to Mexico City, we added it to the show for that one night.



Only to learn that the same was true in Brazil: apparently "Closer To The Heart" was our most popular song there too (though we were told "Tom Sawyer" was used on Brazilian television as the theme song "McGyver").



(That's what we said, "What?")



So, we stuck "Closer To The Heart" back in the show for the Brazil dates as well, and it got a very excited, very vocal response from the audience.



Though everything did, and somehow the show, and the whole tour, seemed to reach a natural climax in Rio de Janeiro. Watching the footage of that night, accompanied by the excellent recording Jimbo Barton managed to capture in such difficult, primitive conditions (though after many hours of painstaking "rescue" of the occasionally ragged technical quality), it feels like the triumphant finale we wanted it to be.



Watching that show now, from so many angles I never see from the "hot seat," and with the luxury of not having to work at it, it is clear that audience had a synergy of its own, a unified, intense, pulsing energy, a force of nature, animating that soccer stadium with electricity and vitality. That night's show had 40,000 stars.



The three of us had a pretty good show too (and I certainly don't always say that), but no doubt we were inspired and elevated by that amazing audience, who gave back so much excitement, energy, and volume. Just listen to them singing along note-for-note with "YYZ" - an instrumental - and you realize this is no ordinary audience.



Extraordinary they were, and we dedicate this performance, then and now, to them.



Back at the hotel, we gathered in the bar with our wives and colleagues and ordered many rounds of the powerful national drink, caipirinhas. We were bone-weary and drained, only starting to feel the relief of knowing it was over - the long, hard show and the long, hard tour. As the recording and film people reported in, it seemed safe to trust that at least one of those sixty-six Vapor Trails shows would not fade into the ether, like an ephemeral jetstream of echoes and memories. Our stalwart crew had prevailed against all obstacles of weather, technology, and time, and that final show had been captured as a moving souvenir for those who were there, and for those who were not. We ordered another round of caipirinhas and drank to all of them, and to each other, feeling better every minute.

Vinyl Edition Linernotes

by Ray Wawrzyniak

Like every great piece of literature, a great album has a story that needs to be told. Some albums tell a story of heartbreak. Others tell a tale of unity, or of patriotism, or are a celebration of the human spirit. The greatness of Rush In Rio is the depth of the story it tells - in this case. the story of Rush's long career.

Originally released in digital formats in October 2003, Rush in Rio has now been given the vinyl treatment fans have yearned for. Sprawling across four LPs, Rush In Rio finds Geddy, Alex, and Neil breaking new ground while reasserting who they are, and how far they've traveled.

The band performed live in South America for the very first time in November 2002. Shows for 25,000 enthusiastic Brazilians in Porto Alegre and 60,000 equally ardent fans in Sao Paolo preceded the band's performance in front of 40,000 strong at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on November 23, 2002. And that show is captured here.

Rush In Rio is an important historical marker for the band, capturing them at their peak and in their element: live, onstage, and in front of their unparalleled fan base. It also represents the culmination of the bands Vapor Trails tour, which was an emotional and celebratory six months that ended with this triumphant show.

Prior to their Vapor Trails tour. the band had not performed live since July 4, 1997, when they closed their Test for Echo tour in Kanata, Ottawa. Because of this five-year break, their return to the stage was emotional all involved - for the band, their family, their crew, and their fans. And exactly how did Rush announce this return? They roared back, selecting "Torn Sawyer" as the set opener. This classic had never before been chosen as the opening number, just as "One Little Victory." from Vapor Trails, effectively pronounced their return as a recording band, "Tom Sawyer" declared their return to the stage, where they had determinedly established their reputation decades beforehand. Drop the needle on Side A of LP One of this set, and feel the undeniable power, precision and grandeur of "Tom Sawyer" live once again. Now as it was truly intended on vinyl, it's a reminder of why Rush's return to the stage in 2002, and here in Rio, was greeted with so much enthusiasm.

Opening the show with "Tom Sawyer" was not the only ground broken by the band on the Vapor Trails tour. For the first time in 16 years Rush welcomed "New World Man" - their highest charting single back to their live set. Here, on Rush in Rio, you are given the opportunity to experience that song live, on vinyl, for the very first time.

Just as the band reminded their fans of who they were with the two aforementioned classics, they also proclaimed who they'd become. To continue the literary analogy, any story arc illustrates how a character has evolved over time. At this show the band demonstrated their own development with the introduction of songs that would become instant live classics, "Earthshine," "Secret Touch," and "One Little Victory" were performed in Rio, and would be featured ih subsequent setlists for years to follow.

In this fan's opinion, though, the encore the band scripted for this tour - and therefore for this album - is the undeniable highlight of the set and brings the story of Rush In Rio full circle. For their encore, Rush performed "By-Tor & The Snow Dog" for the first time since an abridged version had been performed more than 20 years prior, at the end of their Moving Pictures tour in 1982. To have "By-Tor" at your fingertips now, having not appeared live on vinyl since 1976's All The World's A Stage, is cause for celebration.

The band segues from "By-Tor" into "Cygnus X-1: Book One - The Voyage." Again, Rush pulled out another song that had largely been dormant for years, playing a larger representative sample of "Cygnus" than the snippet that had appeared at the end of some shows throughout the '90s.

Just when it seemed the band couldn't have dug any deeper, the encore concludes on the final side of LP 4 with "Working Man," a song that had not been performed since the Moving Pictures tour. The triumvirate of "By-Tor," "Cygnus," and "Working Man," performed in that sequence, sent the incredibly enthusiastic fans in Rio over the top. For many of these fans in Rio, experiencing these three songs performed together was as close to seeing Rush perform live in, say, 1977 as any of them could have come. Now it's your turn to experience that same thrill. Hearing "By-Tor," "Cygnus," and, "Working Man" from this show in Rio not only takes you back to that magical night in 2002, but also to Rush's still formative concert days of 1977.

In 1916, novelist George Moore wrote, "A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it." Rush In Rio embodies that very claim. The band starts off their live set at "home" with "Tom Sawyer," one of their most recognizable songs and the centerpiece - the "home" - for any live Rush repertoire. Then the band takes their fans - and, in your case, the listener of this set - on a journey throughout their career, only to arrive back home where they started, with "Working Man." It's a perfectly scripted set, illustrating how far Rush had traveled to end up right back where they started.

To experience Rush In Rio on vinyl also serves to remind listeners of what an historic moment this was. The band's South American fans had waited so long to see Geddy, Alex, and Neil grace their homeland. Meanwhile, the rest of the band's fan base had waited six long years to see them onstage somewhere - anywhere! - following their extended hiatus. It was only fitting, then, that the tour announcing their return would conclude in front of the largest audiences for which the band had ever performed up to that point in their career. It was equally as fitting that this celebratory tour, and historic show, was captured for posterity upon its original release back in 2003. And now. in 2018, after a glorious, celebrated, and well - traveled career, Rush are returning home, where it all started. Back to vinyl. Back to your turntable.

On the back cover of the band's eponymous debut album. the listener is encouraged, "For best results play at maximum volume.". I invite you to follow that directive. Please, join me in celebrating the vinyl release of Rush In Rio. Let's drop the needle on side A, play "Tom Sawyer" at maximum volume, and imagine we are there, back at home, surrounded by 40,000 of our follow, passionate Rush fans.

Articles