By-Tor.com

I tried RR many times...I can't play it though....something on my 'puter doesn't like the player they use...I even loaded the Winamp and it won't play RR...I can do everything but play the radio...boo...I quit

o well...that's okay...I'm listening to RUSH (first CD) right now anyway...la lala lala...what was that? John Rutsey? the "drummer who wouldn't tour"? Why....why yes it is...(Man, I bet he wishes that he'd changed his mind all those years ago)...hahaha

In some other thread, someone said they hadn't seen R30 yet because of reading bad reviews. That kind of surprised me. But anyway, here's my take...

Great things about R30:

As has been said, much better audio mix.
The very cool overture that starts the concert.
Between the Wheels! Oh man, it's cool to see that performed again!
Beleive it or not, the drum solo is even tighter and better than on RIR.
Pirates.
"I hope the play Bangkok. Nah, they NEVER play Bangkok!"

Not so great things:

Compared to the audience in RIR, this audience appears to be sedated. Those good folks in Brazil, their excitement is infectious. They make that show really exciting to watch.
Disc two isn't nearly as much fun as "The Boys in Brazil".


But it's a great show and VERY worth owning. I' got excited enough about it writing this that I had to run and put the DVD on.

Now to go and watch it...

For those of you with HDTV cable network INHD2 is showing R30 in high def. It's only 2 hours long so it doesn't have all of the songs from the DVD.

I was interested in watching this to compare the high def version with the standard DVD on an HDTV set. The high def version on INHD2 is a little bit better, but not much. The dark colors are less grainy. Other than that, the DVD looked just as good to my eyes.

That means I won't be rushing out to buy an HDTV DVD player when R30 comes out on HD-DVD.

I'll put up my hand and say that I much prefer R30 over Rio. Not only is the sound better, but the camera work is a lot better - it doesn't jump around so much as it does on Rio which, at times, can make feel a little nauseous.

True, the audience reaction doesn't quite reach the dizzy heights than the Rio crowd did but I think audience size has to be taken into account - I don't know what the ratio between the two were but I would say that, at a minimum, Rio had twice as many people there than R30.

My only real gripe is the lack of the full set list on R30. They proved it could be done on Rio so why the edit on 30 (I can understand it CD wise - keeping it to a double CD rather than a triple).

Personally, I much prefer watching my RCMH R30 boot as you do get the full set list.

I don't if anyone has had a look at the comments about R30 on Prog Archives but I'm not sure what they're driving at with some of the criticisms:

H?t LICHAAM (Ren?)
Why oh why do artists have to speak in the language from the country they are performing? Most people don't understand it

I think its called common courtesy - it shows that the members of the band have made some effort to acknowledge internation differences instead of arrogantly assuming everyone speaks English.

bartok
a "b" setlist

AfanSpur (Clive Shell)
There are far too many weaker tracks on the list...
This is such a mediocre set...

Weaker songs!!!! Since when have Spirit of Radio, Animate, Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, Red Sector A, Earthshine, Subdivisions been b setlist? Or is reference being made to some of the lesser known songs like Between the Wheels and Mystic Rhythms which, if you look at the majority of Rush board comments, were among the real crowd pleasers in the set list.

This DVD is for Rush junkies

Excuse me if I'm being very dense but I thought the whole point of the R30 DVD (indeed any release, especially a live one) is primarily aimed at the die-hard fan base with 'casual' buyers being a bonus (its the compilations that are aimed at the non-fan).

I agree with your arguments and not the criticisms.

hammersmith wrote:Hello ,
I am enjoying R30.I wondered if any of you know the two guys joining in in the `closer to the heart`clip?
They seem to be having a great time,and who can blame them!

since no one has answered this in 5 months

Ed Robertson from Barenaked Ladies and Mike Smith (as Bubbles from Trailer park Boys, as mentioned before by raj)