Hold Your Fire Tour

Hold Your Fire Tour
Tour by Rush
Location
  • Europe
  • North America
Associated albumHold Your Fire
Start dateOctober 29, 1987
End dateMay 5, 1988
Legs2
No. of shows78
Rush concert chronology

The Hold Your Fire Tour was a concert tour by Canadian rock band Rush, in support of the band's twelfth studio album Hold Your Fire.

Background

The band continued the trend of their usage of synthesizers, sequencers and onstage automation which continued from their Power Windows Tour,[1] also featuring a laser system with red and green beams as well as a video screen that had animated segments of the three red orbs from the cover of Hold Your Fire.[2] Opening bands on the North American leg included Chalk Circle,[3] the McAuley Schenker Group, and Tommy Shaw.[4] Wishbone Ash was the support act for the band's performances in Europe.[5] The first three European performances at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England were recorded for the band's live album and video, A Show of Hands.[4]

Reception

Reviewing the Lakeland concert on February 15, 1988, Philip Booth of the Lakeland Ledger who had given the concert a 'poor' review, criticized the band's performance, stating that the band "defined itself by self absorption to the max", referring to their music as "hollow" despite the state-of-the-art equipment they had, as well as calling their music "numbingly loud" and "repetitive". He closed his review, stating that the visuals and music couldn't compensate for Rush's musical substance, concluding that they were "overcooked".[2] Jane E. Stephenson, a reader who had attended the performance, later sent a response to Booth to criticize him, defending the band's performance with a rebuttal that there were "ten thousand screaming fans" who were moved from the concert.[6]

Set list

This is an example set list adapted from Rush: Wandering the Face of the Earth – The Official Touring History of what was performed during the tour, but may not represent the majority of the shows.[7]

  1. "The Big Money"
  2. "Subdivisions"
  3. "Limelight"
  4. "Marathon"
  5. "Turn the Page"
  6. "Prime Mover"
  7. "Manhattan Project"
  8. "Closer to the Heart"
  9. "Red Sector A"
  10. "Force Ten"
  11. "Time Stand Still"
  12. "Distant Early Warning"
  13. "Lock and Key"
  14. "Mission"
  15. "Territories"
  16. "YYZ"
  17. "The Rhythm Method" (drum solo)
  18. "Red Lenses" (abridged)
  19. "The Spirit of Radio"
  20. "Tom Sawyer"
    Encore
  21. "2112 Parts I & II: Overture/The Temples of Syrinx"
  22. "La Villa Strangiato"
  23. "In the Mood"

Tour dates

List of 1987 concerts[8][9]
Date City Country Venue
October 29, 1987 St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador Canada Memorial Stadium
October 30, 1987
November 1, 1987 Sydney, Nova Scotia Centre 200
November 2, 1987 Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax Metro Centre
November 4, 1987 Moncton, New Brunswick Moncton Coliseum
November 6, 1987 Providence, Rhode Island United States Providence Civic Center
November 7, 1987
November 9, 1987 Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield Civic Center
November 10, 1987 Utica, New York Utica Memorial Auditorium
November 12, 1987 Troy, New York RPI Fieldhouse
November 13, 1987 Binghamton, New York Broome County War Memorial Arena
November 14, 1987 Buffalo, New York Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
November 24, 1987 Johnson City, Tennessee Freedom Hall Civic Center
November 25, 1987 Atlanta, Georgia The Omni
November 27, 1987 Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte Coliseum
November 30, 1987 Landover, Maryland Capital Centre
December 2, 1987 Worcester, Massachusetts The Centrum
December 3, 1987
December 5, 1987 New Haven, Connecticut New Haven Coliseum
December 7, 1987 East Rutherford, New Jersey Meadowlands Arena
December 9, 1987 Uniondale, New York Nassau Coliseum
December 11, 1987 New York City, New York Madison Square Garden
December 13, 1987 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania The Spectrum
December 14, 1987
December 16, 1987 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Civic Arena
December 17, 1987 Richfield, Ohio Richfield Coliseum
List of 1988 concerts[9][10]
Date City Country Venue
January 14, 1988 Hampton, Virginia United States Hampton Coliseum
January 15, 1988 Raleigh, North Carolina Reynolds Coliseum
January 17, 1988 Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Coliseum
January 18, 1988 Jackson, Mississippi Mississippi Coliseum
January 20, 1988 Dallas, Texas Reunion Arena
January 21, 1988 San Antonio, Texas Convention Center Arena
January 23, 1988 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Myriad Arena
January 24, 1988 Shreveport, Louisiana Hirsch Memorial Coliseum
January 26, 1988 Little Rock, Arkansas Barton Coliseum
January 27, 1988 New Orleans, Louisiana UNO Lakefront Arena
January 29, 1988 Houston, Texas The Summit
January 30, 1988 Austin, Texas Frank Erwin Center
February 1, 1988 Phoenix, Arizona Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum
February 3, 1988 San Diego, California San Diego Sports Arena
February 4, 1988 Inglewood, California The Forum
February 5, 1988
February 15, 1988 Lakeland, Florida Lakeland Civic Center
February 16, 1988 Pembroke Pines, Florida Hollywood Sportatorium
February 18, 1988 Jacksonville, Florida Veterans Memorial Coliseum
February 19, 1988 Pensacola, Florida Pensacola Civic Center
February 21, 1988 Memphis, Tennessee Mid-South Coliseum
February 22, 1988 Nashville, Tennessee Nashville Municipal Auditorium
February 23, 1988 Cincinnati, Ohio Riverfront Coliseum
February 25, 1988 Rosemont, Illinois Rosemont Horizon
February 26, 1988
February 28, 1988 Peoria, Illinois Peoria Civic Center
March 1, 1988 St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis Arena
March 2, 1988 Indianapolis, Indiana Market Square Arena
March 4, 1988 Detroit, Michigan Joe Louis Arena
March 5, 1988
March 7, 1988 Toronto, Ontario Canada Maple Leaf Gardens
March 8, 1988
March 10, 1988 Montreal, Quebec Montreal Forum
March 11, 1988 Quebec City, Quebec Colisee de Quebec
March 12, 1988 Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa Civic Centre
April 2, 1988 Omaha, Nebraska United States Omaha Civic Auditorium
April 4, 1988 Bloomington, Minnesota Met Center
April 5, 1988 Milwaukee, Wisconsin MECCA Arena
April 7, 1988 Kansas City, Missouri Kemper Arena
April 9, 1988 Louisville, Kentucky Louisville Gardens
April 10, 1988 Dayton, Ohio Hara Arena
April 21, 1988 Birmingham England National Exhibition Centre Arena
April 23, 1988
April 24, 1988
April 26, 1988 Glasgow Scotland Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre
April 28, 1988 London England Wembley Arena
April 29, 1988
April 30, 1988
May 2, 1988 Rotterdam Netherlands Ahoy Sportpaleis
May 4, 1988 Frankfurt West Germany Festhalle
May 5, 1988 Stuttgart Schleyer-Halle

Box office score data

List of box office score data with date, city, venue, attendance, gross, references
Date City Venue Attendance Gross Ref(s)
December 7, 1987 East Rutherford, United States Meadowlands Arena 14,483 / 17,963 $272,503 [11]

Personnel

References

Citations

  1. ^ Daly & Hansen 2019, p. 278.
  2. ^ a b Booth, Philip (17 February 1988). "Rock loses its way with Rush: Laser show offsets general monotomy of Rush concert". No. 118. Lakeland, Florida: Lakeland Ledger. pp. 1C, 6C. Retrieved 15 January 2025.
  3. ^ Popoff 2021, pp. 241–242.
  4. ^ a b Daly & Hansen 2019, p. 280.
  5. ^ Popoff 2021, p. 242.
  6. ^ Stephenson, Jane E. (February 28, 1988). "Letters to the Editor: Bummed Rush". No. 129. Lakeland, Florida: Lakeland Ledger. p. 10A. Retrieved January 16, 2025.
  7. ^ Daly & Hansen 2019, p. 281.
  8. ^ Daly & Hansen 2019, pp. 281–284.
  9. ^ a b "Hold Your Fire Tour". Rush.com. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
  10. ^ Daly & Hansen 2019, pp. 284–289.
  11. ^ "Amusement Business Boxscore: Top Concert Grosses". Billboard. Vol. 99, no. 52. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. December 26, 1987. p. 42. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved January 14, 2025.

Sources

  • Daly, Skip; Hansen, Eric (2019). Rush: Wandering the Face of the Earth – The Official Touring History. Insight Editions. ISBN 978-1-68383-450-2.
  • Popoff, Martin (2021). Limelight: Rush in the '80s. Toronto, Canada: ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-77041-569-0.