Rush - A Single, Perfect Sphere (SBD/FLAC)

(Soundboard FLAC)

Rush - 1978-79 - A Single, Perfect Sphere v1.1
Media: 2CDr
Time: 72:04, 52:39
Catalog: EBP002

Source:
A Desert Passage PE 
Black Forest 
Buenos Noches! Motor City 

Date: 
November 20, 1978
May 28, 1979
December 02, 1978

Location: 
Tucson Convention Center Arena, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Stadhalle, Offenbach, Germany
Cobo Hall Arena, Detroit, Michigan, USA 

[url]http://www.digitalrushexperience.com/database/review.php?RecordingID=1648[/url]

Disc 1
1. Intro/Warm-up 2:54
2. Anthem 4:01
3. A Passage To Bangkok 3:54
4. By-Tor and the Snow Dog5:24
5. Xanadu 12:26
6. Something For Nothing 4:25
7. The Trees 4:37
8. Cygnus X-1 10:33
9. Hempispheres20:23
10. Closer to the Heart 3:26

Disc 2
1. Circumstances 4:26
2. A Farewell to Kings 5:40
3. La Villa Strangiato 10:33
4. 2112 19:12
5. Working Man 3:09
6. Bastille Day 1:43
7. In The Mood 2:43
8. Drum Solo 5:12

Production Notes:

A Single, Perfect Sphere v1.1 comes from my great love of the Hemispheres Tour. Every Soul a Battlefield was the first boot that I ever traded for (by B&P) because I wanted to hear Hemispheres live! I still love that recording, and the other Hemispheres Soundboards, but I have often wished there were a complete Hemispheres Soundboard with no tape flips or major problems like noticable tape fluctuation. To have a "Single, Perfect" Hemispheres show is the goal, but I hope the title doesn't suggest that I think this is it! The title simply indicates my goal. I realize that my skills as a sound editor (not to mention my equipment) leave much to be desired and that improved versions of the Hemispheres Soundboards may surface and so I will remain open to the future need of new editions of AS,PS. This release is mainly the result of the excellent work of the producers of the three shows that are here represented. Mine is just the idea to blend the best of them all in the least noticable way possible. With version 1.1 I have eliminated the sector bourndary errors, lowered the volume of some of Geddy's spoken intros to songs as needed, improved a few transitions between shows, added a more complete version of the evening in Tucson's intro tape, and made a few edits of rough material.

Intro is mainly from A Desert Passage PE and now is "complete" being sourced from a clean disc, with only the last few seconds cross-faded into Black Forest where the band is announced.

Anthem is at first from Black Forest and then cross-fades into A Desert Passage PE. The reason is that the beginning of the ADP PE version is marred by an Alex flub (not very noticable) and a short equipment sound problem, but then the rest of the track is great. Conversly, the beginning of Anthem from Black Forest is very nice with  unique playing from Alex while later in the track there is some clipping on Geddy's vocals.

A Passage to Bangkok is from Black Forest because I think the performance is the best and the sound is very good.

By-Tor is from A Desert Passage PE because I think it sounds the best and because it goes immediately into Xanadu, which is also from ADP PE. I think this is the best sounding over-all version of this song available from this tour. I did, however, take the liberty to edit out a finger/string split-second electric guitar noise that occurs in the stop-time silence right before the very last set of chords. With this edition I've also replaced the very crunchy keyboard riff at 9:00 with an earlier, identical riff. The beginning of this production borrows heavily from ADP PE, but I have edited out completely the problems with the crowd from the evening in Tucson. This is an interesting historical event for the group and us fans, but I don't think it should represent the Hemispheres Tour!

Something for Nothing is from ADP PE because I think it has the best sound and performance.

The Trees is one of the big reasons why I wanted so much to make this show. I love, as a whole, the performance and sound of the ADP PE version, but I have never liked how the nylon guitars sound from any of the Tucson versions. So, the intro is taken from Black Forest, and the rest of the song is from ADP PE. This was also partly done because I also wanted to take Cygnus X-1, Book 1 from ADP PE as well (and The Trees seamlessly leads into it). This track arguably sounds the best from the tour, has a great performance and is complete including the whole intro tape.

Cygnus X-1, Book 2: Hemispheres is the greatest reason for this compilation. It is taken from Black Forest. Thankfully, this track is completely (so far as I can tell) free of the minor sound problems that are present on some of the other songs from BF. The best thing about it is that it is absolutely complete! There was no tape flip that night (at least not during Hemispheres!) Even still, I chose to take The Sphere from ADP PE, mainly because of the transition into the next song, but also because it just sounds the best in a number of ways. So you get a different Hemispheres here than any where else! One very notable improvement featured on this production is that I have, believe it or not, eliminated the splice between Hemispheres and Closer to the Heart, which is also from ADP PE. Now it sounds like the keyboard is continuous. This was done by looping the keyboard sound a little and lots of cross-fades and then a little volume adjustment.

Circumstances is from Buenos Noches! Motor City because I needed to get this show involved--now that the tape fluctuation is done, and because the only alternative from ADP PE features a mis-sung lyric from Geddy. In that show he says something like "...inn...one more, that's looking for, the world..." 

A Farewell to Kings is also from BN!MC, mainly because the nylon guitar sounds very nice and the alternative from Black Forest features a volume problem with Geddy's Synth (the very beginning of that part.)

La Villa Strangiato is from Black Forest chiefly because of the very unique and weird effects put on the spoken introduction. With this version I have added crowd noise behind the brief, (nearly) dead silence between La Villa and 2112, which is from ADP PE. The space between these two songs just sounded weird on version 1.

Working Man and  Bastille Day are also from ADP PE because there was no reason that they shouldn't have been and this meant no transition work for a while!!! ; )

In the Mood is from BN!MC mainly because of Geddy's unmistakable silliness and enthusiasm. This makes this version very unique.

Drum Solo is also from BN!MC because it is a fine performance and Geddy calls Neil Dr. Brain-o, okay?