I've been reading reviews from this tour all over the net, and they all seem to fall in line with yours. Everyone liked the show.

The set list seems to be pretty rigid at this point, with the occasional trade out of one of the new tunes. You got to hear "Ghost Rider", but some other people got to hear a different one of the new tunes at that spot in the set ("Ceiling Unlimited", I think). It's their rotation spot.

I'm not afraid to give spoilers: The all-acoustic number was "Resist". Many people are saying that was the highlight of the show, since no one has ever seen them "go unplugged" before. There's a really great picture of them performing it at the site www.2112.net/powerwindows if you want to check it out.

You said that it was unusual for them to not play "The Trees". Actually, I don't find that unusual at all. That one has only been on a few of their tours. And they played it on the Test For Echo tour, so no reason to bring it out again for this one. No, no, the REAL surprise is the complete lack of Closer to the Heart. That one has been played on every single tour since the original version came out on the Farewell to Kings album. Now gone. Wow.

And the laundry they took out of the dryers and threw into the audience were T-shirts that said "This T-shirt came from dryer number 1 of the Vapor Trails tour" or something like that. I think they were even dated. Great gag. I don't think I'm going to be sitting quite close enough to get one, but I can hope.

And it's correct that the song "Between Sun And Moon" has never been played live before. It's in their set list as a tribute to the late John Entwhistle. See, that song has a sort of a tribute-to-The-Who in its instrumental middle bridge. I remember when I first heard that song on the CD, how I laughed out loud at the obvious Who reference there.

The instrumental off of Counterparts that you couldn't remember the name of was "Leave That Thing Alone". The prior album's instrumental was called "Where's My Thing". My Rush-fan friends and I were surprised when the instrumental on the next album was not titled, "Put That Thing Down" or "Don't Touch That Thing, You Don't Know Where It's Been".

I have one question for you about the show: How was the volume?

Recent tours have seen their sound system getting louder and louder each tour, and hence being more and more muddy. What was your impression of the overall sound?

Back in the 70's and early 80's, they were known for having fantastic, perfectly mixed sound in their concerts, sounding like you were at home with your stereo cranked up loud. But late 80's and 90's concerts, I have not enjoyed the sound or the mix at all. Far too loud, as if they were trying to overpower the arena. The Test For Echo tour was right on the edge of being too loud, but it was nowhere near as good as the Yes or Peter Gabriel shows I saw during that same era.