Rush - 28 November 1974 - Whisky A Go Go, West Hollywood, California [MASTER]

Rush live at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California during the debut Rush tour. This features one of three known rare recordings of non-album Rush song Fancy Dancer, as well as an early live version of In The End.

There's a lengthy delay following In The Mood due to needing to replace Neil's busted drum head. Geddy apologizes for the delay, and Alex fools around a bit on guitar by doing his infrequently heard "country ditty". While continuing to wait for the repairs on the drum kit, you can hear bit of tuning and noodling around with guitar and bass. At one point, Geddy oddly states: "In case you can't see, we're having a shoe kissing contest."

Rush performed a second set during this show, with The Butts Band playing in between, however no recording is known to exist. The second set would've likely featured Best I Can, Need Some Love, Here Again, Working Man, Neil's drum solo, and Anthem, in no particular order.

Track Listing:​

01 - Intro​ [0:00]
02 - Finding My Way​ [0:59]
03 - Fancy Dancer​ [6:17]
04 - In The Mood​ [10:28]
05 - Interlude: Drum Repair​ [14:17]
06 - In The End​ [18:46]
07 - What You're Doing​ [25:31]
08 - Bad Boy​ [30:43]
09 - Guitar Solo​ [35:11]

This is the second of five consecutive nights Rush played at the Whisky in 1974.
This recording has long circulated misdated as November 27, however Geddy wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and "hopes everyone had a good dinner", and Thanksgiving was on November 28th in 1974. Due to this, there were allegedly only about 20-30 people in the audience.

This show was recorded by Kip Brown, from whom you can read his full firsthand story at the Rush Archives website below. Special thanks to Kip, who was very kind and easygoing as we were talking about his original tape. While this show has circulated as higher generation copies for decades, a digital transfer of his master tape has not circulated before May 2025. His master reveals a lot of clarity and detail, such as the bass and intimate feel of the small building, which were mostly lost in the old circulating copies. The master tape also features slightly longer sections of audio during the intro and drum repair that are not present in the old circulating copies.

Downloads:
rush-archives.net

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