Audio 13 November 1976 - Rockford Armory, Rockford, Illinois [Audience]

I've replaced the video in the main post with the entire concert upon its full release.



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Great news everyone, like our early sampling of I Think I'm Going Bald from Mark Moore's March 5, 1976 tape, here's an early sample of one of Mark's other Rush recordings: The Twilight Zone from November 13, 1976. The main post above has been edited with a link to the Twilight Zone video, and has now been moved into public view.

Many thanks again to Mark Moore for recording a very important and rare concert from a scarcely documented era of Rush. Dedicated in his memory, rest in peace.
Of course, many thanks as well to AKAV, Jim B, and Mark's son for continuing Mark's legacy. All you guys are great.

Until I incorporate this into my own notes in the main post, I'll copy/paste the video description which is important to read as well, as it provides another strong interesting theory:

"Rush ended a string of concert dates on the west coast in Medford, Oregon on November 4, 1976. It appears Rush had been playing the same songs as heard on the All the World's a Stage album up to November 4th, 1976. A review for the October 26th, 1976 show in Vancouver stated their "show was almost identical to their 'live' album, All the World's a Stage". A review for the Portland, Oregon show on October 30th, 1976 stated "The show lasted 75 minutes (with encore)" which is approximately the same running time as All the World's a Stage. Following a nine-day break, Rush returned to the stage on November 13th at the Rockford Armory. Mark Moore was in the audience with his portable cassette recorder to capture what is presumed to be the first live concert performance of Rush playing The Twilight Zone from their 2112 album. This is one of only three known recordings of Rush playing The Twilight Zone live. Enjoy!"

As of a few minutes ago, the full concert is finally available on YouTube for everyone to hear. The video embeds above have been updated accordingly.

At the moment, the lossless audio files are still not yet available, but once they are, we will be adding a download as soon as that happens.

This is a wonderful document!

I think this is best version of In the End I've ever heard. The intro section is all one could want. The band really takes their time, with Alex providing a beautiful, chiming backdrop with the 12 string -- like a gentle waterfall of sparkling notes lightly splashing into a crystal clear pool. And over that backdrop, Geddy is playing involved and deliberate patterns of bass lines that take you places. And Neil embellishes it all with cymbal flourishes (felt mallets?). Geddy's singing is beautiful and seemingly heartfelt. The slow tempo allows him to dwell on notes and it seems like his deliberately focusing on the quality of his notes. The rocking section is honed from years of playing, the guitar, voice, bass, and drums each have their evolved areas of emphasis/flourish within the basic structure of the song. It's all seamless and perfect. The quiet outro is truly special, with Neil playing xylophone (?) notes perfectly matched with Alex's pleasant tinkling 12 string patterns, and Geddy singing so well, and playing wonderful bass lines with arrival notes.

This gives In the End a very epic feel overall. It's uber-developed, like the way Working Man was a year before at Rockford as a standalone epic representing the culmination of years of playing. Or the way By-Tor and the Snow Dog became by the end of the UK Tour in 1977 with a structured and building middle section involving volume pedal guitar, bass, synth pedals, and percussion. I need to give a listen to the two other versions of In the End from this timeframe (Maple Leaf Gardens 12/31/76 and Lisner Auditorium 4/17/77) to see how they compare.

Finding My Way has that Rush humor coming through in the quieter, breakdown section. Wonder if that's the gurney song? That whole Working Man/Finding My Way/Drum Solo main set ender is a juggernaut! The band is such a powerhouse.

What a legacy for Mark Moore. And how thankful are we that he - and other intrepid fans as well - had the foresight, initiative, and chutzpah to record concerts like this and preserve the tapes over the years.

If anyone was wondering which exact part of the show had Alex and Geddy rolling on the gurneys... we can be certain it was during the encores. In the photo, Geddy has his "teardrop" Fender P-bass (his original bass rebuilt), which during this era he always used for the encores instead of his Rickenbacker. If you have decent ear for basses, you can hear the difference.

The first encore was Fly By Night and In The Mood, and from what we know, headline shows from this era often had a second encore with What You're Doing. With the lack of recordings from this era, it's hard to be certain how frequently they did the second encore. I'm thinking it's likely What You're Doing was played at this concert, but Mark knew he didn't have enough tape left to record the full song.

There's no obvious crowd reaction during FBN/ITM to indicate they were on the gurneys during that part. We could also speculate that the band rolled out on the gurneys before Fly By Night, but the photos indicate they were actually playing something. The other possibility is that it happened during the band's final flourishes at the end of Neil's drum solo, but I do not believe the crowd reaction indicates this, nor do I think the teardrop bass is being used.

Hello, is there any update on when the audio files will be ready? Thanks

sonof3m said:

Hello, is there any update on when the audio files will be ready? Thanks

Click to expand...

I couldn't really give a proper answer, since I'm not the one who's been dealing with the actual tape. Analog Kid Audio Video (AKAV) who is working with the tape and audio should get the files available as soon as enough free time permits, though it may be a little while. I do know that he wasn't fully happy with the result on YouTube, so is doing a new tape transfer with different gear, and probably a bit more needed work on the audio itself, such as the pitch/speed issues. We just have to wait a bit more.

In the meantime, I do have a temporary mp3 rip from the YouTube video for listening to offline and on other devices, but of course it'll be much better when the final lossless quality files are released.

OK, thank you for the update!