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  • Archive Status: All known unofficial live recordings from 1974 through 1997 are now currently available for download. 2002 and onward will be added throughout 2026.

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

Rush Archives

Rush Archives

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Downloads:​

Track Listing:​

01 - Bastille Day​
02 - Anthem​
03 - Lakeside Park​
04 - 2112​
05 - The Twilight Zone​
06 - Something For Nothing​
07 - By-Tor And The Snow Dog​
08 - In The End​
09 - Working Man​
10 - Finding My Way​
11 - Working Man (Reprise)​
12 - Drum Solo​
13 - Fly By Night​
14 - In The Mood​

Notes:​

  • This is the earliest recording of a headlining ATWAS tour concert known to exist, predating the December 31 Maple Leaf Gardens recording by a month and a half.
  • This recording features one of only three known rare live recordings of The Twilight Zone, which was later swapped with an early Xanadu by April 24th in 1977.
  • This is the earliest recording to feature Geddy using the Moog Taurus synth pedals, which he would add to Lakeside Park and By-Tor for the remainder of the tour. The Taurus pedals can also be heard on The Twilight Zone in this recording, the same as with the other two known recordings of the song.
  • This concert was recorded by Mark Moore, who also recorded Rush in 1975 on November 15 at the Rockford Armory, earlier in 1976 on March 5 at the Randhurst Arena, and once more in 1977 on May 20 at the Aragon Ballroom.
  • This recording appears complete, though we can consider the possibility that a second encore could've been performed, which would've consisted of What You’re Doing and perhaps Best I Can. However, considering the lack of known 1976 headline ATWAS tour recordings, we can only speculate on that possibility, based on the limited documentation available.
  • The Necromancer was apparently not being played yet this early during the ATWAS tour, which is likely to have been added to the setlist when Geddy first started using his doubleneck Rickenbacker sometime in late December. Until the early Xanadu was introduced to the setlist in April 1977, Geddy's only use for his doubleneck on stage was to play rhythm guitar during the Return of the Prince section of The Necromancer.

Preview:​

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Master Tape:​

1976-11-13 - Rockford (Master).jpg


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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.
 
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.
 
DF2112 said:
Any updates on when the audio files will be ready?
Click to expand...
I haven't heard any news since the last update from By-Tor. It's a bit disappointing that's it's taken so long for them to redo the transfer. I really hope they upload it soon.
 
@DF2112 I share the frustration about the long wait of having no lossless available for this show, and Aragon 1977, people contact me about these on occasion and I'm always giving the general answer "it should be coming relatively soon, he's just been really busy".

I'm choosing my words carefully here since it's not my project to really be giving updates on, but I suppose I owe a bit more of an explanation. "Analog Kid Audio Video" is still in possession of the Mark Moore tape collection but had spent a lot of time since the initial transfers in an extreme audiophile-level rabbit hole of electrical system and audio gear upgrades. I am told these upgrades were all finally completed last fall, and that the Moore tapes would be retransferred sometime soon, which would be the versions that would be shared. I was told the next and current step is some upgrades with his PC so that it is fully optimized for dealing with the audio without it causing any sort of indirect effects on diminishing any aspect of the purity of the transfers. I am not sure if this has been completed yet since I don't believe we've talked about this stuff since December. Also keeping in mind he's very busy with his life outside of this hobby, so it all adds up to a very long waiting game that we just have to be patient with. Randhurst should be getting a new transfer too. If we're lucky Rockford 1975 and the other unknown lost Rush tape will be found, but last I heard Mark's son still hadn't been back home to try finding any other tapes.
 
The wait is totally understandable - life outside the hobby takes precedence and often makes makes "free time" too little to get hobby projects up and running.

Question - "If we're lucky Rockford 1975 and the other unknown lost Rush tape will be found, but last I heard Mark's son still hadn't been back home to try finding any other tapes." Any more info on what the "other unknown lost Rush tape" might be? 1970s era from same general geographic location? (Sorry for not recalling any previous posting on this).
 
@rocky chains Before Mark passed away, he made a public comment that he recorded Rush five times. Problem is he didn't seem to have all his tapes in one place and he died before he could dig them all out. Things turned up in different batches, like the Aragon 1977 tape was found by his son a bit later on. I know Mark had found the Kiss 1975 Rockford master, so in theory the Rush master should still be around somewhere since he seemed to have kept most of his tapes. Then the fifth missing one was never elaborated on, it would've been in the Illinois area, sometime between 75-78, based on the dates of other misc bands he'd recorded. The first time he'd seen Rush was at Fremd High School in April 1975, but said he didn't record Rush there, only Kiss, but after that was when he became a fan and was set on recording them at future shows.
 
That's tantalizing info indeed. So cool that Mark became a fan after that first experience seeing Rush opening for Kiss at Fremd High School in April 75.

Speculation train on the missing mystery show would likely point to one for the six shows performed in Chicago in 1978 (three in Jan on AFTK tour and three in Dec on the Hemispheres tour).

By-Tor X-1, do you know where Mark was based? He recorded Rush 2 times in Rockford. Once in Mount Prospect, which is an hour from Rockford, and once in Chicago, which is 2 hours from Rockford. There is a chance he could have caught another show on the Caress tour, including a headlining show like 11/11/75 Arlington Heights, and 12/17/75 Elgin, both of which are 30 minutes from Rockford. Or a number of other shows close to Rockford and Chicago in the 1975-1976 time period. But it does seem more likely that the missing show would be from Jan or Dec 1978 as he seemed to have fairly even temporal spacing among the shows we know he saw, and none of the 4 shows recorded by Mark that are public are from that time period.

Thank you.
 
@rocky chains I'm fairly certain Mark lived in the Chicago area his entire life.

His photos are not all circulating nor all properly scanned I believe, but it's something I've been hoping to see properly taken care of at some point. That could help figure out all shows he attended. I have seen one photo he shared from the 1976-05-28 Chicago show, so that's a good potential candidate of being the lost tape. Though for all we know he attended the 1975-12-26 Chicago show as well. I don't know if he was recording ever single Rush show he attended.

His friend Jim Bossier also attended many of the same concerts and photographed them as well. (eg Randhurst, both Rockford, etc) Jim additionally has photos of 1976-04-11 Waukegan and 1976-08-26 Schaumburg, and while I can't tell you if Mark was at those, it's all the same general area. Jim was at 1975-12-26 Chicago and has claimed that the setlist was the same as Rockford.
 
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