Audio 28 November 1974 - Whisky A Go Go, West Hollywood, California [Audience]

[Rush Archives]

Downloads:​

• 1974-11-28 - West Hollywood, California (Master) *recommended*
• Rushian Whiskey 74
• Rushian Whiskey 74 - BFOC (wayshway)
• Whisky A Go Go, LA (taurus)

Track Listing:​

01 - Intro​

02 - Finding My Way​

03 - Fancy Dancer​

04 - In The Mood​

05 - Interlude: Drum Repair​

06 - In The End​

07 - What You're Doing​

08 - Bad Boy​

09 - Guitar Solo​

Notes:​

• This features one of three known rare recordings of non-album Rush song Fancy Dancer, as well as an early live version of In The End.
• There's a lengthy delay following In The Mood due to needing to replace Neil's busted drum head. Geddy apologizes for the delay, and Alex fools around a bit on guitar by doing his infrequently heard "country ditty". While continuing to wait for the repairs on the drum kit, you can hear bit of tuning and noodling around with guitar and bass. At one point, Geddy oddly states: "In case you can't see, we're having a shoe kissing contest."
• Rush performed a second set during this show, with The Butts Band playing in between, however no recording is known to exist. The second set would've likely featured Best I Can, Need Some Love, Here Again, Working Man, Neil's drum solo, and Anthem, in no particular order.
• This is the second of five consecutive nights Rush played at the Whisky in 1974.
• This recording has long circulated misdated as November 27, however Geddy wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and "hopes everyone had a good dinner", and Thanksgiving was on November 28th in 1974. Due to this, there were allegedly only about 20-30 people in the audience.
• This show was recorded by Kip Brown, from whom you can read his full firsthand story below.

Preview:​

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[By-Tor X-1]

Notes from Taper:​

On Thanksgiving Day 1974, I went straight from an early turkey dinner with the family to the Whisky a Go Go on Sunset to check out this new band from Canada who were touring the U.S. for the first time in support of their self-titled debut album for Mercury Records. Rush! I think I read about them in Cream or Rock Scene magazine. They were being compared at the time to Led Zeppelin. Drummer Neil had just joined the band that July.

I snuck my trusty, hand-held tape recorder in past the doorman. I would occasionally record groups that appeared there at the time, including Status Quo, Fanny, Hollywood Stars, and Suzi Quatro. The club was pretty much empty that night, what with it being Thanksgiving and all. About 20-30 people, most who were probably there just for a night out and not specifically to see Rush. Mind-blowing, when you consider how popular Rush became! I sat in the balcony, where I found I got better sound on my recorder as it was close to the club's monitors, which hung suspended from the ceiling.

Anyway, I taped the show, which rocked. My original Scotch C-90 cassette is pictured below. Since the turnout was low, there was only a smattering of applause after each number. Also, no encore. Unbelievable! During the set, Neil broke either his snare or bass drum. A frantic search for a replacement followed, resulting in a lengthy lull. I seem to recall that the group eventually left the stage until a replacement part could be secured. I believe I shut the recorder off at that point and turned it back on when they eventually returned to the stage. (If my memory serves me well, I think they had to send someone to the Guitar Center up the road to secure the part.) Funny, when you consider the band was so broke at this time that they didn't have a spare snare or bass drum in their lone equipment truck, which I remember seeing parked out back behind the Whisky. This was the first of two sets the group did each night during their Whisky engagement. Opening for them each set was the Butts Band, a new reggae-style group featuring former-Doors members Robbie Krieger and John Densmore. Unfortunately, I didn't record them, nor did I stay for Rush's second set. Also a big regret...I didn't bring a camera and take a picture with the band!

Anyway, cut to ten or so years later when I made a copy of the recording for the brother of a girl I was dating. He was a huge Rush fan. I requested that he keep the tape "in-house." He agreed. That was not to be.

Since then, my Rush recording has been shared and bootlegged countless times - with subsequent generation loss - and can even be heard on YouTube (search "Rush Rushian Whiskey 74" or click link in one of the messages below). (Also, these posts and bootlegs get the date of the show wrong. Thanksgiving 1974 was November 28, not the 27th.) And until this very moment, you can be dang sure that all listeners - save for that ex-girlfriend and her brother - are unaware of where the recording came from. And my original first generation tape still sounds better than all those copies some 45 years later!

Cool, no?
RIP Neil...

Master Tape:​

 

[By-Tor X-1]

We've just uploaded a big upgrade, a transfer direct from the master tape!

While this show has circulated as higher generation copies for decades, a digital transfer of the master tape has not circulated before May 2025. The master reveals a lot of clarity and detail, such as the bass and intimate feel of the small building, which were mostly lost in the old circulating copies. The master tape also features slightly longer sections of audio during the intro and drum repair that are not present in the old circulating copies.

Special thanks to Kip, who was very kind and easygoing as we were talking about his original tape.

 

[Fish Eyelands]

Awesome! Can't wait to hear.

 

[Fish Eyelands]

Wow! Sounds way better than I remember. I love the stage banter especially during Neil's drum head issue. Love the Fancy Dancer ending which differs from the August Cleveland version. Thanks so much for all your efforts!

 

[DF2112]

Looks like the Japanese Bootleggers already got hold of it.

 

[By-Tor X-1]

@DF2112 I actually saw that like a week or two ago. That's pretty wild, considering Rush aren't one of the bands that the Japanese still regularly press CDs for. I guess they grabbed it due to the quality. I know they were pressing copies of the Northampton 1975 soundboard fairly quickly. Other than that, not much. I did very recently finally see a pressed CD for Randhurst Arena, but I hadn't seen anything for that during the past few years since it came out.

 

[DF2112]

@DF2112 I actually saw that like a week or two ago. That's pretty wild, considering Rush aren't one of the bands that the Japanese still regularly press CDs for. I guess they grabbed it due to the quality. I know they were pressing copies of the Northampton 1975 soundboard fairly quickly. Other than that, not much. I did very recently finally see a pressed CD for Randhurst Arena, but I hadn't seen anything for that during the past few years since it came out.

I Believe this is a CDR (Most likely on cheap media) since it's on the Uxbridge Label.