rush test for echo tour dates

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Test For Echo Tour (1996-1997)

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Songs played by tour: Test for Echo

This table lists how often a song was performed by Rush during the tour "Test for Echo". Multiple performances from the same setlist are also counted towards the total.

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How ‘Test for Echo’ Helped Rush Bounce Back

" Test for Echo was a strange record in a sense," singer/bassist Geddy Lee said in the 2012 book Rush : An Oral History, Uncensored . "It doesn’t really have a defined direction. I kind of felt like we were a bit burnt creatively. It was a creative low time for us."

Released on Sept. 10, 1996, there had been a three-year gap between Test for Echo and its predecessor, Counterparts , the longest break between albums for the band up to that time. In between, the band kept busy with other things: Guitarist Alex Lifeson released his solo project Victor , Lee was spending time with his newborn baby girl, while drummer Neil Peart organized a tribute concert to one of his heroes, drummer Buddy Rich. Peart also was, surprisingly, taking drum lessons.

Lifeson says the break did him good. "I was really fired up. I just felt like I had a clearer picture of what I wanted the guitar’s presence to be," he told Paul Semel after the record's release. “I wanted to focus more on the songwriting, really develop the arrangements and all of that."

In the tour book, Peart ruminated on the meaning of the title. "Everybody needs an ‘echo,’ he wrote , "some affirmation to know they’re not alone.”

The title cut of the 16th Rush LP kicks off the album with guitars, thankfully, back to the front of the mix. Immediately, the interplay between the three is on display, something the band has never lost over all the years. One thing to note about the playing here is Neil Peart's newfound direction.

Listen to Rush's 'Test for Echo'

Peart had begun taking drum lessons with an old pro, drummer Freddie Gruber. In the process, Peart switched his style from a "matched grip" (holding the sticks the same in both hands) to "traditional" which has the left hand holding the stick between thumb, forefinger and middle finger, jazz style. For Peart, it was a very important change in his signature style.

"I think it all adds up to an enhanced time sense," he told Modern Drummer . "I did start with traditional grip and then left it behind in favor of matched. It's been said – even in the pages of your magazine – that matched grip is a physically superior approach. I still believe that's true. However, that's not the whole story. What I've realized is that traditional grip can be a more musical approach to playing the drums. It all has to do with the rotational effect it creates and the way it affects the time."

"Half the World" and "The Color of Right" are two of the album's finest moments, both incorporating a strong melodies and driving rhythms, while "Time and Motion" finds Lifeson delivering one of his finest guitar solos on the album. True to form, Rush fans welcomed Test for Echo with open arms, taking the album to No. 5 on the Billboard chart and pushing sales into gold terrain.

The break between Test for Echo and their next studio effort would be even longer due to tragedy within the band, with Peart losing his daughter in a terrible accident, and his wife to cancer in less than a year. They would rebound triumphantly in 2002 with Vapor Trails .

All in all, it's a solid Rush album and despite Lee's statements at the top, he spoke highly of the process. "We have a really good time making albums," said Lee. "That sounds bullshitty and hokey, but it’s not. We really have a lot of fun. It’s the weird little relationship that we have, it’s very humorous and very creative and very … democratic."

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Testing for Echo: Rush’s Odd but Brilliant 1996 Masterpiece

While I’ve mentioned this in passing, i’ve yet to announce formally that I’m writing a book on the words and ideas of Neil Peart.  So, if you’ll permit me, I’ll do it here.

I’m writing a book on Neil Peart.

There.  Done.  Announced.

And, I’m having a blast, not surprisingly.  The book will come out this fall (2015) from WordFire Press under the editorial expertise of Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta.

At the moment, the place-holder title is The Neil Peart Generation .  I’m hoping to come up with something better.

In the meantime, here’s an excerpt–a raw, unedited version of my section on Peart and Rush in 1996-1997, just before all of the tragedies hit.  I hope you enjoy.  This is about 2,000 words of the ca. 40,000 word book.  At least as I see it now.–Brad

Test for Echo, the band’s sixteenth studio album, is an anomaly and a beautiful transition from the first full stage of Rush (1.0) to the final stage of Rush (2.0).  Arriving a full three years after Counterparts, Rush fandom had never had to wait so long for a new album from the band.  “During that time,” Peart notes in the official tourbook, “Geddy and his wife produced a baby girl, Alex produced a solo album [Victor], and I produced a tribute to the big-band music of Buddy Rich.  We worked; we traveled; we lived our lives; and it was fine.” [1]   The title of the album even reflects the time away from one another and from their fans.  “Test for Echo,” Peart explains, was a means of Rush both asking and assuring its fan base that neither was alone.  “Everybody needs an ‘echo,’ some affirmation to know they’re not alone.” [2]

Test for Echo possessed neither the overall hardness of the 1993 album nor the denseness of a Power Windows (1985).  Neither, however, was it as light and sleek as Presto (1989) had been.  Instead, it sounds like almost nothing Rush had done before, and yet, it sounds almost like nothing Rush did after.  In the context of the history Rush, “Test for Echo” is, to be sure, its own creature.  Certainly, Lifeson had never played such a strong and assertive role in the creation of an album as he did with this one.  Peter Collins, English producer of Power Windows (1985), Hold Your Fire (1987), and Counterparts, returned to produce this album, keeping his view on the overall structure of the full album, with Clif Norrell (Catherine Wheel) serving as recording engineer and Andy Wallace (Faith No More) as mixing engineer. [3]   While Test for Echo contains driving songs, it also contains a lot of whimsy and humor.  Lee explains why the album needed both as to best reflect the meaning of the album as a whole:

“It’s about the numbing process that happens when we are exposed to great tragedies and then we’re exposed to moments of hilarity,” said singer-bassist Geddy Lee, whose band returns Tuesday to Target Center in Minneapolis. “I feel that that’s the condition of contemporary man now – when we read the paper or when we watch TV, we’re not sure if we’re supposed to laugh.” [4]

Despite being the most “progressive” album the band had produced in a decade or so, Test for Echo also has a relaxed, comfortable feel to it, something rarely found on a Rush album.  Strangely, the band, especially Lee and Lifeson, felt real tension with one another during the recording of the album.  There were, according to Lifeson, even a few explosions at and with one another.  Lee remembers the process of making the album with little fondness.

Test for Echo was a strange record in a sense. It doesn’t really have a defined direction. I kind of felt like we were a bit burnt creatively. It was a creative low time for us. [5]

Peart, however, downplays the tensions, at least in his remembrances, and, instead, focuses on the new drumming technique he had learned from Freddy Gruber between this album and Counterparts.  “I could feel I had brought my playing to a whole new level, both technically and musically. ” [6]   Indeed, by the following summer, Peart was so enthusiastic about the album and the tour that he claimed “we’re already planning our next studio album.” [7]   In an interview with Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times, Peart thought the band had reached its peak.  “Over the years, we learned how to write, how to play and how to arrange and now we have a full toolbox.  Time and experience. . . [in original] there’s no substitute for that.”  With previous albums, the drummer claims, he “struggled to find new ways of challenging” himself.  With Test for Echo, however, he believes he “came in with so much,” he had to “edit” himself. [8]

After three years of the three members of the band being apart, though, it took more than a bit of time and patience for the band to come back together as a whole.  As mentioned above, Lee expressed frustration for the beginning of the project.  “Neil was being Mr. Aloof a little bit.  So we kind of circled each other and we talked.” [9]

Whatever the tension, the end result is a thing of wonder.  Beginning with an airy atmosphere and almost pleading guitar, the opening track, the title track, resolves into a progressive grunge.  The lyrics express shock at a world that has become completely commodified in the images the media presents to the world.  The result, vertigo.

Don’t touch that dial We’re in denial

Lyrically, the song compliments “Show Don’t Tell,” from Presto.  Yet, unlike that deeply personal and self-judgmental song, this one asks how all of what was once private is now public?

As if Peart has to respond to the intrusion and commercialized weaponization of mass media, he offers a statement of integrity in the following song, “Driven.”  Unlike earlier Rush songs that deal with similar themes, Driven leaves lingering questions.  Can a person be so driven that he finds himself “driven to the edge of a deep dark hole”?  Yet, Peart (and the listener) avoids the abyss, determined not to linger in any one place too long.  “And I go riding on,” the song concludes.  “Driven” offers Rush at its best: great lyrics; a perfectly progressive rhythm; and Lifeson’s tastefully-grungy guitar sound.  Lee considers it a “quintessential Rush song.” [10]

It’s worth noting that the video Rush produced for this song is possibly the most interesting video the band ever made.  Visually, it anticipates the grime of the Matrix, but it also combines elements of Blade Runner and The Road Warrior.  Armed with measures of the bizarre and carnival-esque, it is pure punk dystopia.

The third song, “Half the World,” enters a heavy candy-pop-rock world of music.  Lyrically, however, Peart continues to express shock at the state of the world, a world divided by so many things.  Some trivial, some major.  Taking the lyrics literally, the listener cannot help but believe the world will always remain divided.  The ultimate division: those who lie and steal; and those who live honorably.

The fourth song, “The Color of Right,” offers a more positive take on similar notions, noting that right (and righteousness, properly understood) can transcend all differences in this world.  This is Peart at his Platonic and Aristotelian best.

Track five, “Time and Motion,” returns the listener to the style of the first two tracks of the album, offering nothing less than a mini-prog gem.  As the title indicates, the song plays with the modernist ideas of time and movement, similar to Permanent Waves’ Natural Science.

Time and motion Flesh and blood and fire Lives connect in webs of gold and razor wire

Everything is connected to everything else in this world, and, yet, this can mean we’re each attached to both the good and the ill.  Thus, man must be:

Superman in Supernature Needs all the comfort he can find Spontaneous motion And the long-enduring kind

“Totem” looks, rather whimsically and mockingly, at all types of religions, meshing Christianity with Hinduism with a variety of pagan practices.  The song ends, ominously, with “Sweet chariot, swing low, coming for me.”

“Dog Years,” the seventh track, again revealing Rush’s rather humorous side and considers exactly what the title claims: the life of a dog, complete with fleas, sniffs, and howls.  That this song appears after totem is not accidental.  Both explore irrationality and instinct.  Peart, however, considered the song a “feast” at the time of its release, arguing at length about its own depths.

Well, no. As always I try to weave it in on several levels, so certainly the listener is welcome to take it just as a piece of throwaway foolishness. That’s certainly in there. Even the story of its writing is kind of amusing, because it was right when we got together for the first time, the three of us, after quite a long break apart. We did a little celebrating the first night and the following day I was a bit the worse for wear, and a little dull-witted, and I thought, “Gee, I don’t think I’m going to get much done today, but I’m a professional, I’d better try.” So I sat down all muzzy-headed like that and started trying to stitch words together – that’s what I was there for, after all. “Dog Years” is what came out of that kind of mentality, and born of observations over the years too, of looking at my dog thinking, “What’s going through his brain?” and I would think, “Just a low-level zzzzz static.” “Food. Walk.” The basic elemental things. When I look at my dog that’s how I see his brainwaves moving. Other elements in there of dog behavior, and I’ve had this discussion with other dog owners too: “What do you think your dog is really thinking about?” I say, “I don’t think he’s thinking about too much.” That was certainly woven into it as well. [11]

A heavy track that would not appear out of place on Counterparts, “Virtuality” considers the reality and unreality of the world wide web, connecting all things intangibly, one to another.

“Resist” is a deeply personal anthem, a restatement of Peartian principles of individualism, but done so in a very acoustic, singer-song writer friendly way.  Inspired by the dark romantic, Oscar Wilde, Resist never crosses the line into melodrama. [12]   Rather, it successfully embraces a bardic feel.  “I can learn to close my eyes/to anything bug injustice.”  Combining humor with a progressive rhythm, “Limbo,” offers an instrumental Rush version of the “Monster Mash,” complete with Frankenstein sound effects. Interestingly enough, it’s also a play on and against a more infamous Rush, Rush Limbaugh–Rush Limbo. [13]

“Carve Away That Stone,” finishes the album on an uplifiting note, rewriting the tragic Greek myth of Sisyphus.  In the traditional story, the gods punish Sisyphus for his deceit, making him roll a stone up a mountain, only to have it roll back down, forcing Sisyphus to start all over again, endlessly.  In the ancient version, the gods punish Sisyphus not just for his deceit but also for his hubris, that is, his very challenge of and to the power of the gods.  Peart’s extremely Stoic lyrics call for the good person to accept the fate of the gods, and to push the stone with all his best effort and integrity, thus showing to the gods and all of humanity that man can indeed best them.  The song ends with the wry note: “If you could just move yours/I could get working on my own.”  In other words, every man, woman, and child shares the fate of Sisyphus in this world.  Accept it and move on.

[1] Peart, The Test for Echo Tour Book: Official Guidebook and User’s Manual (1996).

[2] Peart, Test for Echo Tour Book .

[3] Peart, Test for Echo Tour Book .

[4] Lee quoted in Jim Abbott, “Echo Has More than One Meaning,” Minneapolis Star Tribune , October 27, 1996.

[5] Lee quoted in Vinay Meon, Rush: An Oral History, Uncensored (Stardispatches, 2012, iBooks).  At the time of the album release, Lifeson felt great about it.  See his interview with Steven Batten, “Testing for Echo: Rush Return After Two Years in Hiding,” Northeast Ohio Scene (October 31-November 6, 1996).  Lifeson especially liked the “aggressiveness” of his guitar.  Peart thought that the tension came from Lifeson, as he had the experience of producing Victor on his own and wanted to assert much of what he’d learned from that.  See Alan Sculley, “Rushing Back Into the Spotlight,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 5, 1997.

[6] Peart, Traveling Music , 34.

[7] Peart quoted in Betsy Powell, “Peart is a Different Drummer,” Toronto Star , June 30, 1997, pg. E4.

[8] Peart quoted in Eric Deggans, “Rush Recharged,” St. Petersburg Times , December 6, 1996, pg. 18.

[9] Lee interview, “Text for Echo World Premier, WKSC-FM (Chicago), September 5, 1996.

[10] Lee interview, “Text for Echo World Premier, WKSC-FM (Chicago), September 5, 1996.

[11] Peart interview, “Test for Echo World Premier,” WKSC-FM, September 5, 1996.

[12] Peart, Test for Echo Tour Book .

[13] Paul Verna, “After a 3-Year Break, Trio Regroups for New Atlantic Set,” Billboard (August 3, 1996).

32 thoughts on “ Testing for Echo: Rush’s Odd but Brilliant 1996 Masterpiece ”

Thanks for the book excerpt. Test for Echo is one of my favorite albums, but I have to admit, I never cared for ‘Dog Years’. It’s one of those songs I’ve just skipped over (for the last 20 years). After reading this, I’ll have to give it another whirl.

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Pat, I don’t think it’s their best song, but it definitely makes sense in the context of the album.

Ironically………..as odd as this may sound……………RIGHT AROUND that exact TIME,this album came out,my Beloved German-Shepherd/Collie mix,had passed after a Long life……….and each time I listen to that song…………it ALWAYS makes me smile and fills my head with wonderful memories for me,back to when she was just a puppy!!! As over the years,I TOO have often sat there,watching her,wondering to myself “WHAT in the WORLD could she POSSIBLY be thinking about right now? ” I WILL tell You this,even if her thinking was nothing more than a basic,rudimentary survival list of “basics”………..the Love,warmth and affection she BROUGHT to me over the years,was definitely worth it’s weight in GOLD!!! 🙂

Congratulations again Bradley. Well done. And some fine writing too!

Thanks to Robert Pashman of 3RDegree–typo/mishap on my part. Peter Collins produced: Power Windows; Hold Your Fire; Counterparts; and Test for Echo.

From where can I buy an autographed copy of the book? 🙂

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I think that will be very possible, Erik!

I want one of those TOO Sir-Brad!!! Lol. 😉

Reblogged this on Stormfields .

HYF and TfE contain some of my favorite Rush, containing dynamic contrasts and brilliant play not found anywhere else in their work. I am glad to see that appreciated! This excerpt comes accross as too dense. I hope it will be significantly expanded before publication.

Gregg–thank you! Yes, I agree completely. My prose needs to breathe a bit more. This is exactly the kind of feedback I need. Much appreciated–Brad

I love Test For Echo but HYF is just okay for Rush. Some great songs but linger in the era of synth too much. Their next album kind of fixed that with Presto. Tjough that album needed a better engineer…too thin on the sound.

How about Neil Peart Generations, Part IV of a Triology?

Great suggestion! Let’s really confuse everyone!!!

Brad, very well written and engaging . You could just title it ‘Pennings on Peart’:)

Nice. Peartian Pennings?

I look forward to the new book.

Thanks, distant cousin!

Congratulations on the book deal, Brad! I don’t know anyone else who can write authoritatively on Tolkien, Kirk, AND Peart. You are a true Renaissance Man (or should I say, “New World Man”)!

A penetrating excerpt of what will be a definitive work. Dr. B’s magnum opus!

Enjoyed reading this and that sounds like a book I’d be interested in reading. I had a much different interpretation of the Carve Away the Stone lyrics… which is fine of course. In the verses I think he’s saying that to accept an unsatisfactory fate is to live in denial (“You can try to deny the weight of the load”) and just like Sisyphus with the stone the progress you think you’re making is just an illusion and you only wind up going in circles (“You will still find the past right behind you”). It reminds me of the saying that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In the chorus, Peart says that instead of accepting that supposed fate, look for other alternatives. Sisyphus’s stone represents the heavy burdens we carry in our life, and instead of carrying them with us we should take active steps to remove them. Carve away at them.

Enjoyable post. T4E is one I’ve listened to quite a bit and really like. Looking forward to your book. I’m all things Peart. 🙂

Just curious if this is out, and where to find it… Great article on a criminally under-rated album!

Mark, thanks! https://www.amazon.com/Neil-Peart-Repercussions–depth-professional/dp/1614753547/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471308230&sr=8-1&keywords=birzer+neil+peart

T4E has always been a very uneven record for me. Some songs I love and other do almost nothing for me. It’s seen by a lot of fans as one of the weakest Rush albums. I find Roll The Bones to be far weaker and nondescript by comparison. Driven is great but the Different Stages version is superior. Totem is a rollicking fun ride. Time and Motion is great but the rest just doesn’t do much for me. Limbo isn’t bad but not up there with their great instumentals. Dog Years is wretched and Virtuality starts out great but falls down hard on the lyrical parts. I also find the whole “net boy net girl” to be very cringeworthy. The rest is just… whatever although Resist is a good song. Not a favorite but still good.

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Most insightful take on “Test for echo.” We’re well into the digital age which T4E poignantly foresaw. It’s a brilliant work on so many levels and has long been a favorite from the band for this listener. Rush gave us a beautiful body of work to marinate in for all time.

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RUSH Test For Echo Tour Pictures

Amongst the most hated of Rush ’s work for some reason, their sixteenth full-length and the last before the tragic events in Neil Peart’s life shows the beginnings of their current sound; a guitar-driven, slightly Alt-Rock journey that whilst isn’t as complex as their 70s work still has their signature technicality at play. Really, there’s little wrong with Test For Echo ; the opening title track is catchy if a little long, Driven verges on Prog, the interplay between bass and guitar as fascinating as ever, Half The World having a little more of the Classic Rock influence... some complain of a soullessness on this album, a sense that Rush are just going through the motions, something I’ve never understood. Even ballad The Color Of Right is great, possibly one of their best, Alex Lifeson on fire, as usual. In some ways, this is better than their 2002 comeback album Vapor Trails ; the production is stellar here, for example.

Although there are still some synths here and there (the Tool y Time And Motion , for example, taking on more Progginess than you’d expect) far and away the lead instrument is the guitar. Geddy’s bass playing is up to his usual standard, and even though Neil Peart described his playing here as his best (in Ghost Rider, his book describing the journey taken after the deaths of his wife and daughter) I’d disagree; of course, it’s very good, but does it really compare to his best? Still, there’s plenty of great sticksmanship present; Atheist anthem Totem alone proves he’s the best drummer in the whole wide world.

As with most Rush albums, the more you listen, the more you get; even now, after many listens ( Test For Echo was one of the first Rush albums I bought) I’m still discovering new depths, cool instrumental parts I hadn’t noticed before, a lyrical line that makes me think or (more likely) laugh out loud – really, ode to internet dating Virtuality just might be the most ridiculous thing that Peart has ever written, although it’s a great song, and groovy rocker Dog Years compares dog lives to human lives in some half-baked philosophical treatise that never quite gets off the ground. Still, you can’t be a fan of Rush without being either a rabid Objectivist or, in my case, possessing both a sense of humour and a willingness to forgive. It says a lot that any other band writing rubbish for lyrics would lose fans en masse, but people have a fondness for Rush that allows them to overlook such nonsense as ‘put your message in a modem/and throw it in the cybersea’ – I’m rocking out to it as I type these words!

Everyone knows what happened next, and it’s a miracle that Rush have come back as strongly as they have, with two excellent albums to date and hopefully more on the way. What a band, really, outsold only by The Beatles , The Rolling Stones and Aerosmith (the latter the ultimate proof of God’s inexistence!) and yet so many hardly know them. Hopefully this little run-through of their discography will encourage you to listen to them if you’re a newcomer, and if you’re a veteran Rush ian then I hope it was fun taking the trip, even if you disagree with my views in places... we can agree how damn good the band is, anyways, and Test For Echo is yet another excellent outing from the three Canadian gods.

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