The freedom of not having 'that hit' on your playlist.

[DerriD]

I recently bought the Dreamtheater DVD 'XX' that celebrates their 20 years together. Fantastic DVD by the way. As I watched it, one thing that struck me was out of 2 DVD's, they only had 2 songs on it that I thought were 'hits'. Now obviously, Dreamtheater gets virtually no air time or video play so they really don't have any hits. I guess you could say they have crowd favorites. They are similar to Rush (in many ways) although Rush does have commercial success, but Dreamtheater is a Musician's band that has survived on word of mouth.

I really enjoyed the DVD as they are as good live as in studio. But it made me think about Journey and the 'Dirty Dozen' and how Styx 'HAS' to play certain songs every night. You could say the same thing about most any popular band I suppose... Def Leppard etc...

I was thinking that Dreamtheater is pretty much free to play about anything they want. After being together for so long, they have quite a back catalog to play from. Granted they didn't have the money flowing in like the bands with the hits, but even those bands aren't the draw they used to be.

So a question to everyone. Would you rather have the huge selling couple of years, but have to play the same songs night after night OR build a fan base slowly over the years and have the freedom to play what you like?

[Blue Falcon]

One of the reasons that Rush is still a viable entity is that they have the freedom to play what they want, and don't need no stinkin' opening band to boot. I saw Rush last month, and I can honestly say that they only have 2 songs that they absolutely HAVE to play: Tom Sawyer and Spirit of Radio.

Sure, there are others that some say they 'have' to play: YYZ, Limelight, 2112, etc. Heck, they didn't play ANY of the parts of 2112 on this tour (although they did resurrect Passage To Bangkok)...in fact, Rush played about 5 songs that they either had NEVER played live or hadn't been played in 20+ years. They only repeated 10 songs from the last tour in 2004...not bad when they do 24 songs on their current tour.

Styx is really just a jukebox playing their hits, especially nowadays. The Def Lep tour may get them out in front of more people, but it remains to be seen whether this will help them when they tour on their own again.

[stabbim]

****RUSH CONCERT SPOILERS****

Sure, there are others that some say they 'have' to play: YYZ, Limelight, 2112, etc. Heck, they didn't play ANY of the parts of 2112 on this tour (although they did resurrect Passage To Bangkok)...in fact, Rush played about 5 songs that they either had NEVER played live or hadn't been played in 20+ years.

Not to mention 9 (count 'em, NINE) songs from their new album. And the crowd may not go thermonuclear like they do when the band busts out "Limelight" or "Freewill," but it's not mass-pottybreak time either.

Absolutely no question as to which career I'd want.

[Zan]

Absolutely no question as to which career I'd want.

After, of course, playing "Boodie Oogie Oogie" and "The Electric Slide" for festival crowds everywhere, that is.

[cinj]

One of the reasons that Rush is still a viable entity is that they have the freedom to play what they want, and don't need no stinkin' opening band to boot. I saw Rush last month, and I can honestly say that they only have 2 songs that they absolutely HAVE to play: Tom Sawyer and Spirit of Radio.

Sure, there are others that some say they 'have' to play: YYZ, Limelight, 2112, etc. Heck, they didn't play ANY of the parts of 2112 on this tour (although they did resurrect Passage To Bangkok)...in fact, Rush played about 5 songs that they either had NEVER played live or hadn't been played in 20+ years. They only repeated 10 songs from the last tour in 2004...not bad when they do 24 songs on their current tour.

Styx is really just a jukebox playing their hits, especially nowadays. The Def Lep tour may get them out in front of more people, but it remains to be seen whether this will help them when they tour on their own again.

HEY GUYS! BE CAREFUL HERE!!!!! You may want to post SPOILER before you post this info. There are a lot of huge Rush fans on this board and many haven't seen the tour yet!!!!!!!!





Cinj

[DerriD]

One of the reasons that Rush is still a viable entity is that they have the freedom to play what they want, and don't need no stinkin' opening band to boot. I saw Rush last month, and I can honestly say that they only have 2 songs that they absolutely HAVE to play: Tom Sawyer and Spirit of Radio.

Sure, there are others that some say they 'have' to play: YYZ, Limelight, 2112, etc. Heck, they didn't play ANY of the parts of 2112 on this tour (although they did resurrect Passage To Bangkok)...in fact, Rush played about 5 songs that they either had NEVER played live or hadn't been played in 20+ years. They only repeated 10 songs from the last tour in 2004...not bad when they do 24 songs on their current tour.

You could add "Closer to the Heart" to the play every tour list. But even with 3 songs, that's just scratching the surface of a 30+ year career.

[stabbim]

HEY GUYS! BE CAREFUL HERE!!!!! You may want to post SPOILER before you post this info. There are a lot of huge Rush fans on this board and many haven't seen the tour yet!!!!!!!!

D'oh.

Good point, thanks. I've gone back and thrown in a disclaimer.

[stabbim]

Absolutely no question as to which career I'd want.

After, of course, playing "Boodie Oogie Oogie" and "The Electric Slide" for festival crowds everywhere, that is.

Of course.

Like the man says, I shall do what I must.

[Blue Falcon]

One of the reasons that Rush is still a viable entity is that they have the freedom to play what they want, and don't need no stinkin' opening band to boot. I saw Rush last month, and I can honestly say that they only have 2 songs that they absolutely HAVE to play: Tom Sawyer and Spirit of Radio.

Sure, there are others that some say they 'have' to play: YYZ, Limelight, 2112, etc. Heck, they didn't play ANY of the parts of 2112 on this tour (although they did resurrect Passage To Bangkok)...in fact, Rush played about 5 songs that they either had NEVER played live or hadn't been played in 20+ years. They only repeated 10 songs from the last tour in 2004...not bad when they do 24 songs on their current tour.

You could add "Closer to the Heart" to the play every tour list. But even with 3 songs, that's just scratching the surface of a 30+ year career.

****SPOILERS****




They actually haven't played CTTH on the last two tours, apparently they're sick of it.

[gr8dane]

Maybe it's just me,but by the time Rush hits the stage,this thread will be the furthest from your mind.

[M. J. Perry]

****RUSH CONCERT SPOILERS****

Sure, there are others that some say they 'have' to play: YYZ, Limelight, 2112, etc. Heck, they didn't play ANY of the parts of 2112 on this tour (although they did resurrect Passage To Bangkok)...in fact, Rush played about 5 songs that they either had NEVER played live or hadn't been played in 20+ years.

I saw Rush last week and I didn't mind them playing several songs off their new CD "Snakes & Arrows." In fact both merchandise booths sold out of their new CD.


Not to mention 9 (count 'em, NINE) songs from their new album. And the crowd may not go thermonuclear like they do when the band busts out "Limelight" or "Freewill," but it's not mass-pottybreak time either.

Absolutely no question as to which career I'd want.

[ManOfMiracles]

I saw Emerson, Lake & Palmer a few times during their Early-mid nineties reunion. Again, having just a handful of radio-tunes, it was a 2-hour show that was well-mixed, and they managed to mix it up well. All three shows were very different. Heck, they even pulled "Lucky Man" out of one of the shows, and that's one of thei "big two." I do like hearing some hits... but it's also refreshing when the dust off some obscure stuff, too.