Ohhhh What a RUSH! The Rush Discography Project: “Exit…Stage Left” (1981)

If nothing else, “Exit…Stage Left” further cements my opinion that “Xanadu” is far and away the best Rush song. Oh and that for the most part, their big “hits” are justifiably their big “hits”, super die hard fans be damned. This live album demonstrates to me that Rush is not really a band about “deep cuts”, but about rocking  the fuck out to anthems you know and love.

And that’s why this album and performance rule.

I don’t actually know how authentic of a live performance it is, what is added in after the concert, what is straight from the source, what is missing – surely all of those things have happened to make this release, because the fidelity is really quite good for a live performance in the 80’s, so whether this is a combination of real performance recording and studio trickery is likely – it doesn’t matter, because the songs? They hold up.

Apart from “Xanadu” and “The Trees” and “Spirit of the Radio” and “Tom Sawyer” which all sound awesome here (I’ll go ahead and say “Tom Sawyer” isn’t as good as the album version) – this performance get me excited about tracks I don’t really like either. You take something like “Jacob’s Ladder” – which on record is a track that just goes on too long and doesn’t really go onto anything, but here, it just seems amped up. The solos are more impressive, the playing is more passionate and the robotic feel is gone. It’s the same thing with the instrumentals “YYZ” and “La Villa Strangiato” – some of that studio stiffness is gone, though it’s replaced with some extra length, but it’s good. It just feels like a band at the prime of their career, playing the songs that people really want to hear and loving every minute of it.

And when “Closer to the Heart” starts – the people go buckwild, it’s hilarious that song is so big, and every time I hear this performance – I cringe. And I like the song, but it might actually be the low point of the album.

Another awesome surprise is the inclusion of “Beneath, Between & Behind” which is an earlier cut and really fucking rocks. It’s just like a transition from CTTH and JL but it amps up the energy for it’s 2 minute duration.

I don’t like putting “La Villa Strangiato” at the end and would have loved for “Natural Science” to be included (even if people don’t really give a shit about that song), but on the whole – this is my favorite Rush album from this period. It’s a greatest hits played live. Not much filler, some silly experimental effects and it has a solid fidelity. It’s the Rush that I want without all the bullshit.

And it’s great.