Tony,

I would have also like to have heard Fly By Night. Like you pointed out, I suspect that they rotate in and out a few songs each tour - like you mentioned with The Trees being played. Our local radio station (98 ROCK) gives a lot of support to Rush, airtime, ticket giveaways, concert updates, etc - and besides playing Tom Sawyer, they play The Trees, Closer to the Heart, etc often.

Thats cool about the laundry - I would be ashamed if I found any of those items on Ebay. The driers kept hitting their time limits and occasionally they would stop spinning and someone would restart it. Oh, and you would have to be within the first 5 or 10 rows to have a chance at the laundry. Maybe if the shirt cought the correct breeze...

I'm glad you asked about the acoustics/volume. Nissan Pavillion is newer, and inside it is quite tall and volumous (is that a word?). In general, the sound is very good, much better than our other outdoor arena. With that said, it seemed to me like it got louder as the evening progressed - and at a certain point the volume seemed to interfere with the music. Particularly on One LIttle Victory - Geddy's vocals were drowned out by his bass. I don't think that the volume was as bad as a show I saw indoors on the Test for Echo tour - but that might have been a factor of both volume and poor acoustics - and seating. At that particular show, they had a bank of surround speakers, and they were situated sort of on the "corners" of the oval of the arena. I was near one of these, and they were way too loud.

So, yes, at a few points especially during the 2nd set, there were points where things were a little loud and "muddy", but the volume did not really detract from the overall performance - it only caught my attention a few times. I thought Alex's guitar sounded awesome, and there were points where it was very distinct, in a good way. I for one don't like the mix of One Little Victory on the CD for the same problem at the show - the vocals at many points become lost in the mix.

I wish I was old enough, and lucky enough to have attended - oh say - the Hemispheres tour, but some of my coworkers have attended several Rush shows, back in the day. Unfortunately, without having attended a recent show, they have no way to compare what the volume was like back then, but I tend to agree with what you said. I'll ask one of my coworkers (if he remembers) what the sound, and the mix was like.

Resist was awesome. End of story. The song worked extremely well as an acoustic presentation, and crowd response was very, very positive.

Thats what I thought the name of the instrumental on Counterparts was - I was too lazy to look at my CD to verify, though. Now that you mention, the way things seem to go in neat little trios - that they didnt name the instrumental on Echo what you suggested. Hahah.

Our radio station, when talking about the show, mentioned that they will be around again soon. I hope the rumor stays true, and there will be a 2nd leg. It would make sense, they came by twice for Echo. I have not done any investigation into this on the Internet yet, so I can't really speak to that end.

Hope you, and anyone else with tickets enjoy the show.