Rush Archives
Syrinx Computers
Downloads:
- 1979-05-25 - Stockholm, Sweden *recommended*
- Shortened Stockholm
- Tivoli Gardens
Track Listing:
01 - Anthem (cut)
02 - A Passage To Bangkok (cut)
03 - Xanadu
04 - The Trees
05 - Hemispheres
06 - Closer To The Heart
07 - La Villa Strangiato
08 - 2112
09 - In The Mood
10 - Drum Solo
Notes:
- The very end of Anthem is missing due to a very brief cut, there is a brief cut in the middle of A Passage To Bangkok, and the beginning of Closer To The Heart is also cut.
- There are about five or so very quick cuts/dropouts during Xanadu, and one during 2112, which are noticeable, but not lengthy enough for segments of the songs to be missing.
- There are a few instances of occasional temporary distortion throughout, none too distracting, however there is some serious distortion at the end of Hemispheres.
- While it's not one among the best audience recordings, the majority of the time this is still an easily listenable and enjoyable recording.
This is a very odd and interesting recording due to the performed setlist. The standard Hemispheres tour setlist was seemingly shortened in the same way it was done for the PinkPop Festival about a week later. This is further emphasized when Geddy says "We wish we had more time to play" after the finale of 2112. This performance in Stockholm and the PinkPop Festival are the only two Hemispheres tour concerts that were shortened from the standard headlining setlist. This means that By-Tor, A Farewell To Kings, Working Man, and Bastille Day were definitely not played, as they typically would have been during any other concert of this tour. A standard Hemispheres tour encore consisted of a medley of Working Man > Bastille Day > In The Mood > Neil's drum solo. Here in Stockholm and at PinkPop, the encore starts immediately with In The Mood and goes into Neil's drum solo.
The Discovery section of 2112 was also omitted from this performance, and since the PinkPop recording was temporarily cut off between La Villa and 2112's Presentation, we never got to hear if it was performed this way as well. Using what we know and my best judgement, I'd assume that Discovery was probably omitted from PinkPop's performance too. As a recap, the Discovery section was not played during the 2112 tour nor the majority of the All The World's A Stage tour. Discovery was first performed during Rush's very first performances in Europe, which consisted of nine dates in June 1977 at the very end of the ATWAS tour. Regularly performing Discovery was continued into the succeeding A Farewell To Kings and Hemispheres tour, not being omitted again until the Permanent Waves tour.
As mentioned in my extended PinkPop notes, Something For Nothing and Cygnus X-1 were dropped from all continental European performances at the end of the Hemispheres tour. The only exception is that Something For Nothing was played at PinkPop as a second encore, something unprecedented during the Hemispheres tour. I also mentioned that Circumstances was dropped even earlier for all UK and continental European performances of the Hemispheres tour. With all being said, Something For Nothing, Cygnus X-1, and Circumstances would not have been played on this night in Stockholm regardless of the fact the setlist was further shortened.
While our recording of the PinkPop Festival only features The Sphere section of the Hemispheres suite, an apparent halt of crowd noise could indicate another possible cut in the recording, similar to the cut in 2112, thus the theory that the entirety of Hemispheres could possibly have been played. Here in Stockholm, all of the Hemispheres suite is played, which could be the only setlist difference in comparison to PinkPop, alongside PinkPop's unique second encore.
Preview: