m a t t

With five official live albums and several other concert videos unique to the format, Rush is one of the more extensively documented bands out there in terms of their live performances. Rush released their first live album, All the World's A Stage, in 1976 and in so doing began the process of following every fourth studio album with a concert album. I don't have a particularly high opinion of Rush's first four albums, but I think that All The World's A Stage is easy to like. The judicious track selection doesn't hurt — the majority of the songs are ones that I'd pick if I was in charge of compiling the album. But even the ones that I would have replaced with something else bristle with an electricity, rawness and enthusiasm that raises each and every performance here above its studio counterpart — even "By-Tor and the Snowdog" is transformed into something genuinely listenable. I honestly can't recall a situation where studio material that I've been as indifferent to as most of Rush's output from 1974-1976 was so significantly improved upon by a live recording. While I don't think it's as good, in an absolute sense, as Rush's other live albums, All The World's A Stage has more value than any of them: live albums often make a nice complement to a band's catalog but All The World's A Stage actually renders the band's first four albums obsolete to all but the most devoted of Rush fans. review by Matt P. — 10-9-06 —