Extended Notes on the Date Controversy:
Ron (20 February 2008) said:
This is a literal “in the back of the closet” recording.
I was contacted by the original owner for a trade via eTree, and at first, did not even believe it was legitimate.
The guy only had about five Rush shows, so surely he could not have a for-real uncirculated show in his small collection?
He told me this came from a cassette he got in trade years ago, and had been accumulating dust for a long time.
Sure enough, this is the real thing. Geddy clearly says the name of the city at the middle of “In the Mood.”
While there are clearly songs missing, this all sounds to me like it comes from a single recording source, and so I feel quite confident about the date and venue.
Unfortunately, this recording is only about 35 minutes of what was a complete headlining set.
So we are missing the songs that would have made this a true treasure – “The Necromancer,” and a pre-release “Xanadu.”
Nonetheless, “2112” is intact.
(As an interesting aside – for those of you who are familiar with the controversy surrounding the “real” date of the 10/25/76 show, listen to how Geddy introduces “2112” here.
He says it is from “our latest album,” which runs contrary to other introductions he did at this time, and tends to throw a bit of a wrench in the analysis done by Jun’ya Suzuki.
The mystery continues, I suppose….)
As with the other volumes of these releases, the goal is 100% preservation.
This means that I have done nothing to alter the sound of this recording, and I'm passing it on exactly as it came to me.
With that in mind, I don’t care where you torrent it or what you do with it.
(Anyone who cares enough whether they have a lossless copy is going to be smart enough to be able to figure out whether they have a lossless copy).
Special thanks to the MVP for this release – Nephronic – for stepping up at the last minute to do the fantastic artwork.
Hayden Martin (24 March 2017) said:
This is a show from the All The World's A Stage Tour, but not just any show! This show captures Rush playing at the Broome County Arena in Binghamton NY.
It was listed as being from April 22, 1977, but via analysis of the setlist, performances, and stage banter, I have found it's from an earlier performance, and it's from a period i've always wanted.
For the longest time i've always wanted an early ATWAS Tour show, as I feel the November-December 1976 shows are possibly the best Geddy's ever sounded, and those were 2-3 months into the tour, and Geddy could sound amazing with his voice fresher!
And this is EXACTLY what i've been looking for, as this concert is actually from September 17, 1976, a mere TWELVE shows into the tour, capturing Rush opening for Blue Oyster Cult.
Unfortunately, despite being an opening show, it's STILL incomplete, missing "Bastille Day", "Anthem", and "Lakeside Park", which means we only have five songs.
Thankfully the quality is good, especially for the time.
And what we have is gold! The band is bursting with raw, youthful energy, and Geddy's voice is amazing!
He sounds crushingly brutal and powerful throughout, and sings fantastic renditions of all the songs.
I just wish it could've been a complete show, (If it was it could be a top ten show) or better yet, a full early HEADLINING show (Like one performed in Harrisburg, 2 days after this, a recording of that could be a top FIVE show), but hey, what we have is killer!
Here we have yet another recording with a questionable date. Initially, it was giving me deja-vu of the Seattle '76 recording, one which I spent a lot of time analyzing front and back apparently exactly a year ago to the day. (Woah!) Only now am I reading about a collector named Jun'ya, who years ago apparently went through the same analyzation and conclusion I did.
So in regards to this Binghamton recording, I've read Ron's original account from 2008, and Hayden Martin's account from 2017 (via YouTube) about the date. Here's where I stand. The very first thing I picked up on was Geddy saying "We'd like to do for you Side 1 from our latest album! This is called 2112!" Seattle deja-vu indeed. I checked the Rush discography page to see when the ATWAS live album was released, and found that it came out on 29 September 1976. You know, it's odd the ATWAS tour is dated to have started nearly two months prior on August 8th, which is part of why I don't personally agree with this date being under the umbrella of the ATWAS tour, but that's a topic for a later discussion.
Geddy only introduces 2112 during the 2112 tour and ATWAS tour, with nothing being said on the ATFK tour onward.
Every live recording post-ATWAS album release, Geddy refers to 2112 as either their "last album" (San Francisco/Fresno/Passaic/Toronto)(all '76) or "last studio album" (Washington/Milwaukee/Sheffield/Manchester/London/Newcastle)(all '77).
Every live recording pre-ATWAS album release, Geddy refers to 2112 as either their "new album" (Seattle/Pittsburgh/Springfield) or "latest album" (Toronto).
With this recording, Geddy also refers to 2112 as their "latest album". So what does that tell me? It seems to line up with those from before the ATWAS album was released.
Rush performed at the Memorial Arena in Binghamton twice during the ATWAS tour, once on 17 September '76 and once on 22 April '77, the two dates in question here. Well April '77 was long after the release of ATWAS album, so I doubt he'd randomly be calling 2112 their latest album again. (Which is even longer of a gap than with the alleged Seattle dates of March and October '76.) Ron's original write-up references Jun'ya's conclusion about the Seattle date, using the words by Geddy in this recording as a possible counter-argument to Jun'ya's claim. However, it seems Jun'ya was likely still on the right track after all, considering all the details at hand here.
I keep referencing Seattle '76, but go read my write up on the
Seattle page under the 2112 tour if you're unfamiliar with it. I'm already feeling comfortable that my conclusion here is the same as Hayden Martin's. However, Seattle had a list of factors adding up towards the conclusion I made. I wasn't comfortable being confident on that one until I dug as deep as I could possibly go. So what other little bits of information can we examine? Geddy's voice for one. His voice in recordings between '76 through '77 show subtle differences. If you're familiar with recordings of this era you should know what I'm talking about. This recording seems to closer match the raw yell of the earlier '76 recordings, which I think is exactly what Hayden was referring to as well.
This time setlist is very hard to use as basis. All Rush's non-headlining setlists prior to 1977 tended to take their liberties and were chosen each night based on available stage time, since often they were only performing as opening acts. However, among the earlier ATWAS tour recordings of '76 that include Working Man in the setlist, it is played directly after 2112, or one song in between. All throughout the ATWAS tour, there is always a medley of Working Man, Finding My Way, Working Man reprise, Neil's drum solo, followed by Fly By Night and In The Mood. The later ATWAS tour recordings feature a longer and static setlist for headlining sets, and 2112 was always played way earlier in the show, with the Working Man medley towards the end. It's hard to use any of this as a basis though, since there is the sound of a tape pause following 2112 in this recording. It was likely turned off temporarily to save time and not capture the crowd calling for an encore (which many tapes omit), however without that smooth transition into Working Man, it leaves us with these questions. If we had even just one of the many songs played between 2112 and Working Man during the later ATWAS headline sets, it would give us an answer. Is it just a crazy coincidence that it jumps from 2112 to Working Man, matching the earlier opening act sets? I doubt it. We can also hear the very end of Lakeside Park at the beginning of this recording, but even that doesn't help us since that was typical whether headline or opening.
To my understanding, Ron initially had zero details about the recording, the only detail that helped pinpoint the date was when Geddy references Binghamton during In The Mood. Perhaps Ron didn't notice there being an earlier Binghamton date in 1976, or perhaps he just didn't see the need to spend much time digging into questioning it. Or perhaps these conclusions were made by a prior owner of the source tape? Who knows? While I wish I could, I don't know where/how to contact Ron and ask exactly how he came to his conclusion, so I can only make guesses.
I'm going to leave this here as it stands with these facts. I'm going to assume this recording is likely 17 September 1976. It's not as definite of a confident feeling as it was when coming to the conclusion of Seattle's date, however I think the evidence at hand makes a lot more sense being the 1976 date versus the 1977 date. I have to give Hayden Martin the acknowledgement he deserves, because unlike Seattle, this recording doesn't scream out with inconsistencies as obviously, so it may have not caught my attention. As with all Rush recordings, I believe accurate documentation of details and information is very important, so that is why these types of things are addressed and researched.
Update (14 April 2021): In the book "
Wandering the Face of the Earth: The Official Touring History", Rush's original sound engineer Ian Grandy claims he recorded the soundboard in Binghamton on 17 September 1976, calling it "
Reeking in Binghamton" due to it being an apparently less than average performance. Can we say that the audience recording we have reflects his claims of a poor performance? Perhaps, but it's hard to say. A Rush performance never has never sounded terrible in my opinion, but there are occasional hiccups or a bad night for Geddy's voice. We're also missing several songs from this audience recording, so we don't get to here all potential hiccups. There are a few issues in this recording if you're looking for them, but I'm not sure if that's what made it "reeking". It would be interesting if this information could help further verify which Binghamton date this audience recording actually is, but at present I still stand with 17 September 1976.
If you have further details that either support or oppose this conclusion, please feel free to post it here.