Rush Concerts on DVD coming in 2002 (1 Viewer)

[Nathan Eddy]

Those tracks aren't missing from R30.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

The difference is only about $1 (not counting tax). If someone finds out the source of those bonus tracks, please post here. Are they from an unusual era?

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Got this Friday. Very nice packaging, and the tour boooklets for each tour is a nice touch. Audio sounds excellent from brief test. Video....is about what you'd expect for video source this old.
Never saw ESL or GUP before. With EXL, was it always narrated? Kind of annoying.

 

[ElevSkyMovie]

I think the bonus tracks are from ESL.

 

[questrider]

With EXL, was it always narrated? Kind of annoying.

Yes, always narrated. I always thought ESL kind of short-changed itself with the video release considering the audio release was so good. But back then releasing a full-length concert on home video was unheard of and I guess they were going for a documentary kind of a feel vs. the concert experience. I had always hoped the original film footage (ESL is definitely film, not video--however, it looks like 16mm, not 35mm) for the entire show was archived and could be remastered and re-edited/synched to the audio for the full concert experience. Apparently, either the footage is lost or nobody wants to fool with it anymore.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Hm. . .Limelight is the only one that isn't on the original ESL CD. Must research further. . .

 

[Brett_B]

From what I can tell, Limelight and Closer to the Heart are from the Exit...Stage Left video. Spirit of Radio and Tom Sawyer are from the A Show of Hands video.

 

[Brett_B]

The bonus songs on my set were actually part of the Grace Under Pressure live CD - 16 total tracks. The bonus songs are tracks 13 (Limelight), 14 (Closer to the Heart), 15 (Spirit of Radio), & 16 (Tom Sawyer). This was an unusual track listing for track 10 is the combination of YYZ & Tom Sawyer, and track 12 is the Finding My Way/In the Mood medley.
If there was something separate, I didn't get it. (?)

 

[Nathan Eddy]

So how do they sound?

 

[Mark Paquette]

video.

That sounds correct to me as well. Kind of weird that they put them at the end of the GUP Tour CD. Is this a Best Buy only thing or do all the Replay X3 sets have these 4 songs. I haven't had a chance to check out all 3 DVD's, but if you're any kind of Rush fan, how can you go wrong for $24? I can now FINALLY put my very old Pioneer CLD-1010 (i thinks that's the model #) out to pasture.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Interesting that there's a different version of the CD as opposed to an extra one. More convenient this way, I think!
I actually stopped at Best Buy last night and was kinda surprised to see no information about the bonus beyond "4 exclusive tracks."
So, people who've listened to the bonus tracks -- how are they? Are they worth an extra stop at Best Buy and an extra buck or two over just getting the regular set from DDD?

 

[Brett_B]

I guess it is up to the individual. Personally, I don't mind them and they sound pretty decent. On the other hand I would have preferred other tracks that have not been released before on CD live such as Prime Mover & Territories.

 

[Paul.S]

Per Brett's post 107. From http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/Videography.html
Copies purchased at Best Buy have an exclusive version of the Grace Under Pressure audio disk which has four undocumented bonus tracks tacked onto the end of the disk. The printed tracklist matches the DVD, with no mention of the bonus tracks at all other than the Best Buy sticker on the wrapper. The four bonus tracks are from the Exit Stage Left and A Show of Hands video soundtracks, three of which were previously not available on vinyl or CD: "Limelight" (ESL video soundtrack); "Closer To The Heart" (ESL video soundtrack); "The Spirit Of Radio" (ASOH video soundtrack); "Tom Sawyer" (ASOH video soundtrack). Note: "Limelight" was previously available on King Biscuit Flower Hour's Best of the Best: 25 Years of Rock (live); the version of "Closer To The Heart" included here was recorded during the Moving Pictures tour, the version found on the ESL album was recorded during the Permanent Waves tour (with the "Glaswegian Chorus"!).

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Well, that's a glowing recommendation.

 

[questrider]

Disappointingly, the image doesn't look very good. It's painfully obvious that they didn't go back to the original elements, using the analog video masters and simply "restored" them as best they could. Which is a shame because, as has been discussed here at the HTF, digital DVD really shows the poor quality of "ported" analog videotape, especially from 80's transfer technology. ESL actually looks like they took an old VHS tape and found the best VHS player they could find and simply transferred it. GUP has the color bleed and noise that is always inherent on analog tape. And ASOH, which I would think (hope) they have the original 35mm film somewhere, looks transferred from, again, analog tape since it has the video "noise" associated with it, which shouldn't happen from a 35mm to digital transfer. (It should be noted that they obviously didn't use the LaserDisc transfer since "Lock & Key" is missing from this release, which begs the question: What was used to do this transfer?) It just doesn't look like any of the "original" elements were used in transferring the image for these releases. If I am mistaken and they were, then whoever did it is an amateur. I've read the image/video is "remastered" and "restored" (it says so in the credits) but I'd love to read somewhere definitively what was used prior to restoration and remastering to transfer the image to DVD, because for modern transferring techniques and technology, it doesn't look very good at all. (I should add that for a monitor, I use a Sony Wega 36" SDTV, which is usually big and vivid enough to expose the inconsistencies of poorly-transferred and authored DVDs. If you have a smaller TV, perhaps the image will look good, if you have a bigger TV or a HDTV and/or projector, I can only imagine how terrible these will look.)
It's confounding when we see movies made in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s transferred to DVD and they look immaculate because they took the time to transfer the original elements to digital and restore/remaster them. And not even thinking of movies, that Zeppelin DVD looks infinitely better than any of these since they painstakingly transferred the original elements, which Jimmy Page had archived, to digital and then restored them frame by frame. None of that "looks" like it was done for these. Oh, well. Perhaps they realize this and that is why 3 DVDs and a CD are priced at approximately $25.
The 5.1 audio sounds great though. As always, it's difficult to tell which sounds better, the Dolby Digital or the DTS. From a quick comparison, the Dolby Digital appears to have more punch, but this is probably because it's usually louder than DTS, which makes an A/B comparison difficult. Plus I've always found DTS to be a bit softer and warmer, which works great for movies, but sometimes doesn't work so well with live rock concert audio.
So the video is disappointing but the 5.1 audio is really good. Which, in the end, is really what saves this set. (Imagine if the 5.1 audio was as awful as the Rush in Rio release--that would leave this set unwatchable and unlistenable.) How often will I watch it anyway? I'll listen to it as "background" more than I will ever watch it.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Lame.

 

[questrider]

Lame.

Is that a comment for me, my opinion, or your reaction to the video image being bad?

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Sorry; it's my reaction to the quality of the video image. Your post was great!

 

[Brett_B]

Great post, Brian.

For $25.00, I am happy. Do I wish that they looked better? Definitely. But, I am a diehard fan, and I am glad to finally have the "Grace Under Pressure Tour" just for the "Fear Trilogy" performance.



Aaron,

I was just eluding to the fact that the 4 bonus tracks are songs that have been offered many times before.

 

[KevinJ]

The one thing i noticed about the ESL audio is how you can now understand every word Geddy sings[especially on Xanadu]