While I have most of Rush's concert discs, the Snakes and Arrows Blu-Ray so far ranks #1 with regards to sound and picture quality.
First the sound, which I believe Rush guitar player Alex Lifeson was partially responsible for, showing up as half the mixing team in the credits. Overall sonically this was mixed with a perfect balance of "studio quality" versus live venue-esque sound. I'm sure the live audio engineering performed throughout the nights performance also contributed to the excellent sonic characteristics of this concert disc as well.
Everyone's instruments were very well balanced, really displaying how they were possibly very well playing at the top of their musicianship game on this tour. Do yourself a favor and make sure you select the "DTS 5.1" soundtrack as I believe it defaults to "Stereo 2.0".
Neil's steadfast hard hitting approach on the drums, including subtleties most drummer cannot replicate, is still astounding. I've never heard Geddy's voice sound so good, seriously he somehow was able to replicate the same vocal range of each of the song's studio versions he recorded up to 30 years prior. And his base playing is unreal, with the aforementioned excellent sound track of this film really making his Rickenbacker and Fender Jazz bass guitars sound phenomenal. Alex didn't miss a note with his guitar playing, and his use of guitar pedal effects was very tasteful and true to the original songs.
Although you can probably assume Alex has lost a little bit of his hearing as the upper mid range can be a bit brash. This usually results from overcompensating for such while mixing in the studio due to ones lack of being able to hear well at certain sonic frequencies.
Regarding the video quality of the concert it is as top-notch as it gets obviously managed by a very professional and well-versed film production crew. The intermingling of the fairly hefty 3-screen rear stage video experience with the substantial amount of live shot angles was very professionally done.
On that note the produced footage shown on these rear screens, as well as in its full quality form from time to time, was as quirky and fun as you'd expect from such a cool band. Loved the behind-the-scenes look at those "mini productions", including the Easter egg only found on the Blu-ray disc's menu in the "Bonus Material" section by navigating all the way down to the bottom selection, navigating down one more step so nothing is highlighted, then clicking enter... Watch and find out!
I have watched all their concert vids from Exit Stage left, A Show Of Hands (so good, wish they had better master material), up through R30, Rush in Rio, and now Snakes and Arrows, and as I mentioned prior give Snakes and Arrows the current #1 ranking!
Next endeavor will be there Clockwork Angels and R40 Live concert Blu-rays. Sure hope they employed the same audio and video production teams...will report back.
