Date/Time: Monday, June 29th @ 8:00PM
Show Number: 23
Venue: Madison Square Garden
Place: New York, NY
Twitter: #R40NYC | #R40Live
Instagram: #R40NYC
YouTube: New York Rush R40 Live Tour
Setlist: Version F
Photos: Cygnus-X1.net | Brooklyn Vegan | MSG on Facebook
Reviews: Brooklyn Vegan | CBS New York | Baeble Music | NYS Music
UPDATE - 7/15@11:43AM: Here's a review from NYS Music.
UPDATE - 7/13@11:08AM: Here's a review of the Philly, Newark and New York shows from Baeble Music's Mark Brown.
UPDATE - 7/2@9:07AM: Here's a review from CBS New York.
UPDATE - 7/1@2:45PM: Here's a photo gallery that Madison Square Garden's Facebook page posted.
UPDATE - 6/30@4:20PM: Here's a review and photo gallery from Brooklyn Vegan.
UPDATE - 6/30@12:54PM: Some great video of song x with guest musician from last night's show (thanks Thomas P) along with some other takeaways from the show below the fold ...
UPDATE - 6/30@10:06AM: Here's gallery of photos from Cygnus-X1.net.
UPDATE - 6/30@8:39AM: Clockwork Angels stringer Jonny Dinklage and his brother actor Peter Dinklage were at the show as seen in this side stage photo (thanks Kelly D).
UPDATE - 6/29@11:12PM: That's it for tonight and for the 2nd leg. Rush will return on July 9th in Kansas City. The NYC crowd saw the first appearance of the F setlist, and the 3rd ever appearance of that special song. Get the full setlist here. Good night New York!
UPDATE - 6/29@9:53PM: It looks like they are going with the A set for the 2nd half. So with the exception of the insertion of the special song in the first set, the show is following setlist A. Full setlist so far here.
UPDATE - 6/29@9:23PM: It's intermission time! Some discussion on the new F setlist and expectations for the second half below the fold.
UPDATE - 6/29@9:09PM: ... And there it is - the special song with the same guest musician from Saturday night's show in Newark.
UPDATE - 6/29@8:48PM: Setlist F! They are 5 songs in and we have a new setlist. It looks like they are playing a variation on the A/C set to complement the B-based set that was played in Newark. But they left out that 2nd song, which means we should get the special song with musical guest.
UPDATE - 6/29@8:27PM: The show has started and they are 2 songs in. They've been dropping the normal 2nd song to make room for that special song, and that's exactly what they did tonight. So it looks like we are getting some variation of the D/E set tonight as expected. Follow along with the setlist here.
UPDATE - 6/29@7:38PM: The show will be getting underway in a little over half an hour from now. We are still expecting that special song with the guest musician, with the rest of the set being a variation on A or C... or we could be totally wrong. :) Follow along with the setlist here. Hello New York!!
Rush makes their way to the Big Apple tonight to play Madison Square Garden in New York City for what stands to be another epic show to close out the 2nd leg of the R40 Live tour. They'll then take a well-deserved 11-day break and pick things back up on July 9th in Kansas City. The band returned to their standard 3-setlist rotation last week for the 3 shows following their stint in Toronto, and it was expected that they'd start the rotation over again by playing the A setlist in Newark Saturday night. But they instead decided to surprise everyone by playing a variation of their B setlist with one very special substitution - that same extra song they played in Toronto, but with a different guest musician. For all the details on this new E setlist, check out the SPOILERS in the Newark thread. So what will they have on tap for the New York crowd? Rumor has it that they will be playing that special song once again (likely with the same guest musician as Saturday night), but it's not clear whether they'll play the D, E or some other variation of the set. It's also possible that the band might pay tribute somehow to Yes bassist Chris Squire, who passed away over the weekend. For more discussion on the potential setlist along with a preview of the show, check out the pre-show SPOILER review below the fold. Tonight's show has an 8PM start time listed, so Rush will probably hit the stage at 8:15-ish. For everyone going to the show tonight, have fun, stay safe and be sure to share your reports, reviews, photos and video with us. Russhhhh!!!
*** WARNING ***
*** SPOILERS BELOW ***
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*** post-show SPOILER update *** Here's some great video of Losing It with Jonny Dinklage on electric violin. Alex Lifeson and Jonny shared a hug after the performance as seen in this photo from Kelly D. It'll be interesting to see if/when the band will play Losing It on the final leg of the tour. It was easy for Dinklage to do the Newark and New York shows since he's local. I'm hearing it'll get played in Vancouver with Ben Mink, since Mink lives there. I'm also hearing that they'll pull it out for the final show in Los Angeles but it's not clear who would play on it then. It remains to be seen whether it'll see the light of day at any of the other shows.
*** intermission SPOILER update *** Just like the 2nd Toronto show and Saturday night's show in Newark, Rush once again dropped one of the 3 Clockwork Angels songs in order to make room for Losing It in set 1, but otherwise played a variation of their A/C set including One Little Victory and Distant Early Warning. They haven't played this variation yet, so it's a new setlist - setlist F. My guess is that they will play either Red Barchetta or YYZ/Natural Science in the 2nd half of the show, to complement the performance of The Camera Eye in Newark Saturday night. You can get the full 1st half setlist so far here.
played a variation of their A/C set for the 1st half of the show, sneaking in Losing It just before Subdivisions
*** pre-show SPOILER review *** Rush surprised everyone Saturday night in Newark by once again inserting Losing It into the setlist, this time with Clockwork Angels stringer, and New Jersey native Jonny Dinklage on electric violin (video here). The setlist was otherwise the standard B set, but with The Wreckers left out to make room for Losing It. From what I've been hearing, the original plan was to have Dinklage guest on the song just for tonight's show at The Garden, but they decided to go ahead and do it both nights at the last minute. So I'm expecting Losing It with Dinklage on electric violin once again for tonight's show. As far as the rest of the setlist goes, I'm still unclear. My guess is that they won't play the same B variation set they played in Newark, and that we'll get something more like the A or C setlist. There's also one other thing I thought might be worth mentioning. Earlier this year, Anthrax bassist and NYC native Frank Bello mentioned in an interview that he was going to do something for Rush's tour that he was very excited about. He couldn't mention any details, but at the time the interview appeared most fans speculated that this meant Bello would be appearing in one of the tour videos. Now that we have seen all the tour vids, that obviously isn't the case. So what was he talking about? This got me thinking of the possibility that Bello might join the band on stage at some point to play a song or two. So which song would make sense? A couple of years ago Anthrax released a covers EP (titled Anthems) which included their take on Rush's Anthem - which we all know Rush has been playing as part of the encore on the R40 Live tour. Might we see Bello make a guest appearance on Anthem? It's pure speculation on my part, but might be something to keep an eye on. I tweeted Bello to ask if he was going to the show tonight, but haven't received any reply yet (UPDATE: Frank replied to my tweet by saying i wish, so he's either bluffing or nothing is gonna happen). It's also possible that the band might pay tribute somehow to Yes bassist Chris Squire, who passed away over the weekend. Rush isn't known for impromptu performances, so I doubt they'd do anything like cover a Yes song. But I wouldn't be surprised if Geddy mentions Squire, or if the band did something like show a photo of him on the big screen at some point. We'll see. It should be a very interesting show.
Photos from Instagram using hashtag #R40NYC:
