Rush - Montreal Forum 4/9/83 (aud DVD)
This is one of two consecutive shows given audience recording treatment, the other being from the 8th and as I look at my notes and lists, I seem to remember watching that one once, but don’t remember what I thought of it. I think I’ve got to be in the mood for Rush to really appreciate them as they tend to interfere with the more jazz-oriented, swinging, funky side of my musical tastes. I saw the band, first, in 1986, this dates back to, I believe, the Signals tour, given the number of tracks played from it, in fact that might be part of the issue, I REALLY have to be in the mood for Rush to dig Signals, which is an album I liked a whole heck of a lot as a young ‘un (an old friend of mine and I both remember the very day I bought it on cassette from Tower). So I was kinda just hanging in there through most of this, definitely not a bad audience shot and everything sounds reasonable and watchable, I just wasn’t moved a whole lot. I do remember thinking that the Police must have had a pretty big impact on the band for Signals.
This Heat - Out of Cold Storage (box set)
ReR make beautiful box sets, in fact I’ve been pulling out Art Bears albums of late, a band I’m not all that inclined towards, just to see if I can get used to them enough to grab the box set. This Heat on the other hand have always been one of my favorites from this corner of the musical world, their concentration on atmospheres and drones appeals quite a bit to my ambient side and I like quite a few of their songs. I didn’t notice a major sonic upgrade from the old versions, but it was fun to hear the few ephemeral releases I hadn’t heard yet, even if most of, say, Repeat is pretty tedious. Maybe the Health & Efficiency EP was the biggest surprise, but I didn’t hear anything else in the box that tops their second and best “Deceit.” The box set also includes one of the biggest booklets I’ve seen, comparable in some ways to something like the Miles Davis box sets in detail, in fact it almost felt like putting another book on my list to consider reading it. A great job from what I could tell, though, with some long interviews (or maybe just one big one).
Delaunay Boffo Coppin - Deboco
This came out to some small acclaim in the French symphonic rock scene in the late 90s, combining the talents of labelmates Jean-Pascal Boffo on guitar and Giles (or Gilles? or something else?) Coppin on keys from Halloween with drummer Eric Delaunay who released a fairly obscure progressive rock album called Antagonisme in the 80s. The results just don’t really do much for me and I’ve returned to the album several times as I enjoy work from all three artists. Definitely in that classic French 90s sound, along with the above you might count Minimum Vital, Tiemko and Edhels along with the similarities, a bright brassy, very digital feel. I’d say an 8 probably fits it OK, but time’s up on keeping it.