Canadian rock legends RUSH kicked off a 40-date North American tour earlier tonight (Tuesday, June 29) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The trek features the band's first-ever performance of its classic 1981 album "Moving Pictures" in its entirety.
The band's setlist was as follows:
Set 1:
01. Video Intro
02. The Spirit of Radio
03. Time Stand Still
04. Presto
05. Stick It Out
06. Workin' Them Angels
07. Leave That Thing Alone!
08. Faithless
09. BU2B
10. Freewill
11. Marathon
12. Subdivisions
Intermission
Set 2:
13. Tom Sawyer
14. Red Barchetta
15. YYZ
16. Limelight
17. The Camera Eye
18. Witch Hunt
19. Vital Signs
20. Caravan
21. Drum Solo
22. Closer to the Heart
22. 2112 Overture/Temples of Syrinx
23. Far Cry
Encore
24. La Villa Strangiato
25. Working Man
26. Video Outro
Fan-filmed footage of the concert can be viewed below.
Guitarist Alex Lifeson told The Pulse of Radio how the idea came about to play "Moving Pictures" live from front to back. "Actually Neil [Peart, drums] was the one that brought it up," he said. "He thought the idea was great, and one of our songs, 'Camera Eye', has been probably the top song on our request list from fans for years. So it really gives us an opportunity to include that in the set and to present it with the whole album. Much of that material we've been playing for a long time anyways, so it wasn't that difficult to really fit it all in, and I love the idea of it and it's really working well during rehearsals."
The award-winning and acclaimed documentary about RUSH, called "Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage", arrived today on DVD and Blu-ray after premiering and winning the Audience Choice Award at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival this past April.
The film, which traces the band's entire career from the late Sixties until now, made its TV premiere on Saturday night (June 26) on VH1 Classic.
The band has just released two new tracks, "Caravan" and "BU2B", online and will return to the studio after the tour to complete its next album, titled "Clockwork Angels".
RUSH received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last Friday (June 25) in Los Angeles, with the band inducted by SMASHING PUMPKINS frontman and longtime fan Billy Corgan.
