An enthusiastic crowd of over 10,000 people beheld Rush under a canopy of stars in Cincinnati on June 30, 2008, in support of their most recent album, Snakes and Arrows—the band's 18th studio release. The Riverbend Music Center was alive with diehard fans, all bearing witness to the giant multimedia show that has been a staple of Rush tours for decades.
In this, the second leg of a tour which started in 2007, the band delivered a double set of material and an extended encore spanning their nearly 40-year career, including rarely played classics like "A Passage to Bangkok," and dark tracks like "Between the Wheels" and “Witchhunt.” One of their hardest rocking pieces, "Natural Science," was delivered with such ferocity and precision that many in the crowd were grinning uncontrollably at each other as the band played the song.
Guitarist Alex Lifeson brandished his own white Gibson ES-355 Inspired By signature model for several songs, and played a beautiful flame-top Les Paul equipped with a tremolo system for most of the night. As a unit, the band was tight as ever, offering up a terrific mix of old and new material blended with comedic video interludes featuring the band, Jerry Stiller, various Southpark characters, and the McKenzie Brothers (Bob and Doug), all broadcast on a set of five jumbo screens.
This current tour—rumored to be the last one before an indefinite, extended break—continues through July.