Pre-Moving Pictures Dates

September 26, 1980 First Contact
Location: Capital Centre, Largo, Maryland, USA
Source: Audience (2nd gen)
Grade: B/B-
Setlist: 2112: Overture/The Temples of Syrinx 6:09
Freewill 5:49
By-Tor and The Snow Dog 5:20
Xanadu 13:10
Limelight (pre-release version) 4:54
The Trees 5:23
Hemispheres: Prelude 4:34
The Spirit of Radio 5:25
Closer to The Heart 3:25
Beneath, Between and Behind 2:32
Tom Sawyer (pre-release version) 5:18
Jacob's Ladder 8:59
A Passage to Bangkok 3:54
Natural Science 8:28
Working Man (Reggae Intro) 3:34
Finding My Way 0:23
Anthem 1:38
Bastille Day 1:15
In The Mood 2:41
Drum Solo 6:56
La Villa Strangiato 10:04

Comments: In the middle pack of these very few shows. The sound is okay, but I think that the performance is much better than the sound itself, which definatly bosts the grade up for this one in many cases. I think it isn't as good as the Something Old, and Something New bootleg, but I think it definatly gets the job done. You can sense that the band is really happy to show everyone in the crowd the new material, and it really shows with the performance exactly how they feel. This show is more for completists because the sound is a little sub-par, to say the least, but this definatly not a bad recording by any means.


September 16, 1980 Moving to Baton Rouge
Location: Riverside Centroplex, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Source: Audience
Grade: D
Setlist: 2112
Freewill
By Tor and Snow Dog
Xanadu
Limelight
The Trees
Hemispheres The Prelude
The Spirit of Radio
Closer to the Heart
Beneath Between and Behind
Tom Sawyer
Jacobs Lader
A Passage to Bankok
Natural Science
Working Man
In the Mood - cut
Drum Solo
La Villa Stangiato

Comments: Yikes, I didn't realize how bad it really was until I got it. The sound here is dreadful, even worse than the 8/14/74 show, which isn't even this bad! The sound is so distorted, chopped up, and there is just so much distance and so much audience noise, its really a hard song to overall listen to. The reason i didn't give this an F grade is because the performance is here is spectacular, which really saves the show in terms of overal production. The band gives very nice versions of songs like "A Passage to Bangkok" and "La Villa Strangiato" which are really firey tonight, but the sound, unfortuantly, is very bad, and it makes it almost unlistenable because of the overall sound. But, its not completely unlistenable because of the amazing preformance. This is really something more for the seasoned collector, and definatly not for the casual trader, they will definatly hate this release.

September 30, 1980 Something Old, Something New
Location: Allentown Fairgrounds, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA
Source: Soundboard
Grade: A
Setlist: 2112
Freewill
By-tor and the Snowdog
Xanadu
Limelight
The Trees
Hemispheres:Prelude
The Spirit of Radio
Closer to the Heart
Beneath, Between, Behind
Tom Sawyer
Jacob's Ladder
A Passage to Bangkok
Natural Science (Cut)

Comments: This has to be one of my all time favorite shows. The pre-released versions of "Tom Sawyer" and "Limelight" are really nice treats. The band was on fire that night as well. Another highlight was a preformance of "A passage to Bangkok" which Rush rarely played back in the 1970's, so that is a real treat as well. The sound is really impressive considering how old it it, nearly 28 years old! One thing that I really don't care for about this bootleg is "The Spirit of Radio", thats really the only problem. The recorder had some speed problems, there are parts were its too fast, or too slow, and some that are right, but thats the only recroding problem. This is still a really good bootleg, despite the speeding problems. I strongly recommend this, for its really impressive quality, and the rare songs that are on this bootleg.