Audio: Rush at the Agora, 1975

In 1974, this riff-heavy band from Toronto started showing up on WMMS airwaves. Rush was a hard-rocking, blue-collar power trio, and Cleveland embraced them as such before any other market in the U.S. caught on.

"As soon as I dropped the needle on 'Working Man,' I knew this was a perfect record for Cleveland," former WMMS music director Donna Halper told the PD. Years later, Rush brought Halper along when the band received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

This early show, recorded May 15, 1975, captures the band before a lot of their progressive influences began taking hold later in the 70s and in the 80s. 

Setlist:

Finding My Way
Best I Can
What You're Doing
Anthem
Beneath, Between and Behind
In The End
Fly By Night
Working Man - Drum Solo
In The Mood
Need Some Love
Bad Boy




Here's our roundup of other vintage audio/video from around Cleveland:

AC/DC at World Series of Rock at Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1979
Smashing Pumpkins in Tremont in 1991
Queens of the Stone Age at Euclid Tavern in 1999
Warren Zevon at the Odeon in 2000
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the Agora in 1978
The Grateful Dead at Richfield Coliseum in 1990
Peter Frampton at the Agora, 1974
Bob Marley at the Agora in 1975
Kiss at the Agora in 1974
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Richfield Coliseum in 1978
Metallica at the Agora in 1983
David Bowie at Cleveland Music Hall, 1972