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Review:
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I’ve had a few Rush DVDs over the years, but only have
R30 in my collection now. And I love it, so when I heard
that the Snakes and Arrows tour was going to be released
on DVD I was really excited. I think Snakes and Arrows is
the best CD Rush has produced in many-a-year. So I bought
the DVD the morning it was released and I gotta tell ya’,
I was not disappointed.***
Snakes & Arrows Live is 3-disc set, with two discs devoted
to the actual concert in Rotterdam, almost 3 hours, and
one disc devoted to what they call “Oh Atlanta, The Authorized
Bootlegs”, where they include a number of tracks professionally
shot but from a different show. We’ll talk about the set-list
in a minute, but first the staging. Rush use three large
screens for background films and a myriad of static and
moving lights to create a huge stage presence. There are
after all only thee of them, but they stretch lights off
both sides of the stage to essentially cover the whole end
of the facility. They also use 5 pentagon-shaped independent
light-rigs that moved up and down at certain times of the
show creating a very dramatic effect. Fireworks showed up
once and another time flames. All of this goes to make for
an ever-changing stage look. And it’s beautiful.***
This DVD is a set of mostly new material; in fact there
are only a handful of songs repeated from R30. They tend
to be songs that Rush have developed as their popular “hits”;
songs like “Between the Wheels”, “Dreamline”, “Spirit of
Radio”, “Limelight” and “Tom Sawyer” and they’re all performed
flawlessly. It’s their own kind of hit-parade. And you expect
to hear them. But it was the new material I was really looking
for and Rush doesn’t disappoint. They perform 9-out-of-13
tracks off their latest CD. It was nice to see Alex playing
more acoustic guitar for a few of the newer songs. The third-bootleg
disc has a few more of their older songs such as “Red Barchetta”,
“The Trees” and “The Temples of Syrinx.” Fans will know
that humor plays a big part in any Rush concert and once
again they’ve produced some silly little videos that introduce
songs or perform a kind of visual narrative. It was great
to see Bob and Doug McKenzie introducing “The Larger Bowl”
and the South Park characters destroying “Tom Sawyer.” The
set-list is the right blend of old and new. They do include
a few special features on the first disc; some tour outtakes,
a couple alternate cuts and a couple short humorous videos.***
Snakes & Arrows Live is a must purchase for any Rush
fan. The production is first rate, quality of sound and
picture is top-notch and the over all presentation second-to-none.
Rush are just that kind of band. The only thing I personally
would have liked, and I’ll say this about every concert
DVD I have is that I’d love to have one more or less long-distance
static camera that’s positioned at the back of the hall
so that I can choose to watch the whole concert from there
and get a full sense of the visuals, rather than just a
glimpse of the lights and then a close-up of the band. I
like to get a sense of the over all visual impact of the
music, but I guess that’s just me. Still that aside, Snakes
& Arrows Live is a great DVD and one that will be getting
a lot of play time on my player.***
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