MartyMoffatt wrote:I want to hear new stuff from any band I follow. I don’t just want to wallow in past glories. I’m sure back in the early 80’s there were people moaning that Journey/Rush (take your pick) were playing too much new stuff from ‘Escape’/’Moving Pictures’ and not enough tunes from ‘Look into the Future’/’2112’. Some of today’s new songs will become tomorrow’s classics and I want to be able to say I was there when they first played them. I remember going to a Rush gig in 1979 when they played two songs from the, at that time unreleased, ‘Permanent Waves’. I thought they sounded fantastic and just wanted to hear more.
For the bands (both Journey and Rush), they obviously enjoy playing new material. It keeps it fresh for them – I’m sure they must be bored to tears playing some of those old songs that people expect to hear EVERY show.
Also, in the case of Rush, they have stated their desire to produce a live DVD of every tour they do from now on. Therefore it makes sense to include more songs from their current studio album, otherwise it is just a regurgitation of past tours.
Marty,
I completely agree with you about playing new stuff live. I also think that they have in fact continued to redefine their sound over the years. But this was a band that started out trying to sound like Led Zeppelin and over the course of 10 years had Led Zeppelin trying to sound like them (listen to 'Coda' much?)
I personally find the last two albums lacking any songs that I would put up with their best. In my opinion, their long hiatus between Test For Echo and Vapor Trails killed their momentum.
Playing SO MUCH new material isn't good either, much less 5 songs in a row that 95% of the crowd doesn't know. My brother is the biggest Rush fan I know and HATED the Snakes and Arrows tour because they played nearly the entire album.
