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Rush - 10/06/2013 - Hartwall Areena - Helsinki

Following their recent apparition at the Sweden Rock Festival, Rush wraps up the Cloakwork Angels tour with their show in Helsinki, once again at Hartwall Areena.
The concert falls on a Monday, which is surely one of the reasons why the place is not really that packed as one would expect. Nonetheless the show of the Canadian trio is something well-worth watching, able to stand up to the name of their compatriots from the Cirque du Soleil with their impressive stage props, and massive effects, lighting and all sort of visual aid.
This brings the overall Rush experience to a whole different level, to the extent that sometimes it becames even hard to actually concentrate on what is happening on stage instead of watching the maxi screen behind it.
Missing the first leg of the show, there is still about two hours after the intermission, a time long enough to dwelve into the new and old material of Geddy Lee and company. I see some people literally amazed by the gig, with their eyes glued to follow every movement of the artists on stage. So this second set of the night includes also the Clockwork Angels String Ensemble, which enhance further the atmosphere with their cheerful mood and valuable addition to the music.
The visuals are just grandiose at times, and seems to be fitting very well in the complex mechanism of this concert.
It’s very easy to get lost into the magic of the show, following the melodies and imagery proposed by Lee/Lifeson/Peart, and at some point I actually did. People was really engaged into the show, and an amused Geddy has been giving yet another good performance. Only remark I have is that there was too much new material, but that was to be expected. The classics are what naturally got me and the audience going the most, especially in the gran finale: "YYZ" is the last song performed together with the string ensemble, and following "The Spirit Of Radio" is a long encore composed by the amazing "Tom Sawyer" and even more amazing 2012 part I, II and VII.
Rush had managed quite nicely to entertain their audience till the very end with a great performance, a proper closure to this tour, and a wise mixture of visual imagery and quality music, one thing which only very few bands can truly manage to do. The theatrical aspect of the show is, in fact, one of the elements that captured the audience from the very beginning. Impressive!

Photos (click on the image to open the whole gallery):


Set 1:
01) Subdivisions
02) The Big Money
03) Force Ten
04) Grand Designs
05) Limelight
06) Territories
07) The Analog Kid
08) The Pass
09) Where’s My Thing? (including drum solo)
10) Far Cry
Set 2: (with Clockwork Angels String Ensemble)
11) Caravan
12) Clockwork Angels
13) The Anarchist
14) Carnies
15) The Wreckers
16) Headlong Flight (including drum solo)
17) Halo Effect (guitar solo intro)
18) Wish Them Well
19) The Garden
20) Dreamline
21) Drum Solo (The Percussor)
22) Red Sector A
23) YYZ
24) The Spirit of Radio (without String Ensemble)
Encore:
25) Tom Sawyer
26) 2112 Part I: Overture
27) 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx
28) 2112 Part VII: Grand Finale

Report a cura di Marco Manzi