The Z Files

Unfortunately, it’s all business and very little pleasure. I’m typing this from Albany, where I’m doing secondary testing tomorrow for a NY Corrections position. Assuming I continue to advance, I’ll be making this trip a few more times before I get hired. The good news is that…well, I love my car. The Cali went through its first long-distance drive with ease. I’m projecting that I’ll be pretty close to the 30 mpg EPA estimate, despite the engine being far short of fully broken-in at only 400-something miles going into today. One thing that a lot of people complain about with the Caliber is excessive road noise. I’d have to disagree. At 75 mph, the cabin noise level, while not quiet, is low enough to carry on a quiet conversation. (I tried…yes, I was talking to myself. ) It was definitely no louder than the Saturn and the Tracer.

So…so far, so good.

What better way to celebrate Independence Day than with Canada’s great prog-rockers? That’s what I did tonight, at Darien Lake. I certainly wasn’t disappointed.

Knowing how little Rush’s set list changes within a tour, I made it a point to not peek at the list, which is widely available on Rush fan sites. I like the feeling of not knowing what song is next. This tour’s set is a really good one, and it kept me very happy. It was, as expected, heavy on material from the new Snakes & Arrows album, all of which sounded excellent. Highlights included “Far Cry,” “Workin’ Them Angels” and “The Main Monkey Business,” although I wish they would have swapped “Spindrift” or “TWtWB” for “Bravest Face.” The emphasis on Permanent Waves material (the set includes four of the album’s six songs) was very welcome, as PW is definitely my favorite Rush album. “Entre Nous” was a nice surprise and “Natural Science” was just awesome. Neil’s drum solo was truly captivating. It began like any other drum solo, until his drum platform spun around and he switched to an electronic kit on the other side. After doing some interesting things with that, he switched back to the normal kit and played along with a swing/big-band track that was synched to a very appropriate video. Finally, the band made its first set-list change by removing “Summertime Blues” in favor of “Distant Early Warning.” A very good move, in my opinion.

The production itself was very good. The sound left a bit to be desired, but I’ve never heard great sound at Darien Lake. Use of video projections was good. There were entertaining intro videos to “The Bigger Bowl” and “Tom Sawyer,” and some of the videos used to accompany songs were excellent. All in all, it was a top-notch show.

Setlist after the jump… (more…)