Rush-ABC 1974

Rush had been playing in Canada since 1969. 1974 they embarked on their first American tour. New drummer Neil Pert had just joined weeks before the tour began. This was recorded at The Agora Ballroom in Cleveland. It was broadcast over the radio by Cleveland radio station WMMS. It’s the first of four double live albums by Rush I have. Playing tracks from their first record, two songs never put on a record, a 50’s rocker “Bad Boy” and a couple songs from their album Fly By Night that was not released yet. Pretty much a Hard Rock Boogie band back then sounding like Foghat or Humble Pie and sometimes like Led Zeppelin with Alex Lifeson’s guitar sounding like Jimmy Page’s. “Working Man” is extended to 12 minutes with some awesome guitar by Lifeson and incudes Neil Pearts first drum solo with the band. Although there are some technical difficulties with the sound and some buzzing and feedback between songs the overall sound is not too bad.

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