Freewill Clip - Alex Sings

[RockFromDownUnder23]

alex has sikk backing vocals. Not to mention an absolutely astounding guitar style and immaculate talent. Geddy has the best voice of any rock band, and the greatest bass playing of all time. And neil , is just, the god of drums. No one even comes close, its sickening how good Rush is, and even more sickening how undderated they are. Rush is a landmark in music history, and Canadian. Like this if you agree ;)

[Billzdubbs]

Alex doesnt make a half bad singer, him singing a song would be something cool for them to look into

[denisethepainter]

This and YYZ are my favorite RUSH songs!

[ufofan1980]

Washing Machines WTF. You gotta love these guys!

[bllpg9]

he sings in every chorus of the song at SARS

[LivingInTheLimeligh7]

Did Alex say "If you choose to suicide"? XD

[georgenoory]

hahhahahaa Alex, good man

[fifielcoolio]

wat the fuck is with washing machines???

[dfinitlydisturbd]

@fifielcoolio even rock gods must do their washing XD

[zackjp]

@fifielcoolio back in the test for echo tour geddy started this joke and hooking up amps to odd things in 96/97 he had a fridge in 2003/04 he had the washing machines in 07/08 geddy had these chicken roaster things 2010 they both had these steam engine looking things which is somthing from there new album clockwork angels which is to be realeased in 2011

[ufofan1980]

@fifielcoolio It just gets stranger. They set up a rotisserie oven with a live chef cooking at a concert in Vancouver one time. Geddy is cool!

[102rush]

RUSH PWNS ALL BANDS!!!

[UrSkulled]

He's harmonizing with Geddy.

[mrfeet1970]

nobody had to change anything. the compression of the video makes certain quieter parts of the mix louder. look uo dynamic range compression. its why youtube music always sonds like crap. ALWAYS

[zackjp]

if u choose not to decide you still have made a choice you can chose from phantom fears and kindness and can kill i will the path thats clear I WILL CHOOSE FREEWILL

[G4331]

Is Neil Peart wearing a headband or a Kufi hat?

Maybe Neil did a Cat Stevens on us.

[G4331]

If Gedy were a chic, I'd want to bite Geddy's nose.

[G4331]

Alex's voice sounded great from what I could hear. I would love to hear more of it!

[zackjp]

sounds weird hearing him not say SUBDIVISIONS or SUPERCONDOCTOR

[pima262]

Good stuff!! Alex is pretty good at signing, but his real talent is with the guitar. lol. I love the random dude crowd surfing!!

[nickthecomedian]

rush is my favorite band i have been listening to them since i was 5 years old. i idolize alex, neil, and geddy

[freewill51]

He sounds better than I thought he would. Rush rules!

[tacosalad98]

and they do laundry

[genesaddictiontexas]

Gotta love Geddy's washer & dryer bass rig!

[paragshah2112]

his voice was cracking everywhere trying to keep up with geddy :) but thats ok tho' i know i'm not the only one who would still pay to see that  i love that band so much

[hellojacobhitch4545]

i think his singing was awesome

[PikePounder]

sarsstock!

[dontspitswallow]

haha love on show of hands when they mute Alex's singing as if it were toxic/corrosive!

[bllpg9]

hes not that bad of a singer, but forzaudinese is right, stick to guitar

[ChoadaLoad666]

hahahah yeaaaahhh

[forzaudinese124]

not bad but he should stick 2 playing guitar :)

[proudlyrushian]

They should let Al sing more often - his voice isn't THAT terrible. 8D

[GreenDarylRocks]

washers and dryers....hahaha!

[SirGrotius]

ha, cool. i'm not familiar with this clip. what's up with the washers and dryers in the background??

[MartinJWillett]

Look up Geddy's page on Wikipedia, it is all explained on there.

"As of 1996, Lee no longer uses traditional bass amplifiers on stage, as he prefers to go direct into the venue's FOH console which helps the sound reinforcement during their concerts. Faced with the dilemma of what to do with the empty space left behind by the lack of large amplifier cabinets, Lee chose to fill the space in a unique way."

[reaperflynn3]

it was also a joke he made up for "a warm clean sound"

[zakourmademon]

Yeah, finally some vocal respect

[rushaholic]

Yay Al!!!!

[jigar12346]

He has a heavier accent than Geddy does, at least that's the way it seems in interviews.

[Unholybarrelmaker]

Wow alex is a pretty good singer

Usually they turn down his mic or filter it to make him sound like geddy but he's good!

[4myself4]

Yeah. Watch Snakes and Arrows live (or I guess any Rush DVD but that's what I have), you can clearly see him sing alot of songs, but you can never hear him!

[EASTWC15B]

RUSH ROCKS

[EMBOBZ2112]

Ohh yehh!

long live RUSH!

[Scars4lyfe08]

Best concert since Woodstock

[JealousPhantom]

Alex Lifeson is God.

[kikme778]

sorry i meant to give it a +1..

[AltaInfidelitas]

Alex isn't that bad - it works for the backing vocals. Lead... not so much. Sorry Al. haha

[droctogonapus84]

if im right this is the benefit concert they did fars S.A.Rs in canada. according to neil alot went wrong in that performance. such as there were you can actually hear alex sing lol. you guys still rock!!

[davidbruceworship]

alex needs to stick to guitar playing and jokes. singing? yuk...

[astrochicken1016]

This is the first video of Rush I've ever seen that Geddy sings in. This was the start of a hardcore, life-threatening addiction.

[raginrEggie]

...dude geddy is the lead singer, apart from what.. ther like 3 instrumentals he sings in every song...

[alexlifeson4pres]

He sings, plays bass, piano and synth, and in some cases, (as I have seen in a live performance of the trees) plays secondary guitar. WHAT A STUD.

[PcaKestheaod]

Man. Why doesn't CBC show stuff like this more? It'd ROCK!

[darknessgodzamorak]

"I will choose Freewill!"

man, Rush fucking kick ass

[ccbgmo]

@darknessgodzamorak YES

[RUSH1200]

Geddy Lee Of RUSH Makes A Cameo Appearance In The Film "I LOVE YOU MAN" In Theaters On March 20, 2009 VERY COOL..........

[aeroterek]

actually, the whole band is in the movie

[Meiloyn]

Damn you Alex! That puts an end to my running joke that he's only sung two words through out his entire career!

(Super, and conductor, of course.)

[willisingo]

what about subdivisions

[Meiloyn]

He kind of says 'subdivisions' rather than speaking it.

Really, all Alex needs to do is learn how to sing. He already sounds better than half the vocalists out there.

[pisyuu]

I know your comment was posted a while ago, but I thought I'd add to it. Alex does say "subdivisions" in the show, but the person who actually said it was if I'm not mistaken Mark Daly. He also does speaking on A Channel.

[pisyuu]

Made a mistake on my earlier comment^^. The guys name is actually Mark Dailey rather than Mark daly, and he is "The Voice" of City-tv

[cyberprunes]

Don't forget Sub and Divisions

[dontcareenough]

Doesn't he do a lot of backup vocals as well, as in singing words

[RUSHman95]

alex does have a good voice

[trubala360]

hrothgar is wrong me and geddy are good friends and he was playing a joke on alex because he had these huge amps and geddy had small ones, so to get back at alex, geddy got the dryers

[hrothgar64]

The real reason Geddy has dryers and chicken rotisseries behind him onstage is that he doesn't use a back-line. He plugs direct into the mixing desk and the dryers are there purely to make the stage look 'balanced'. If he didn't have them, there'd be a big gap behind him.

On the R30 Tour, the dryers contained ltd. ed. t-shirts made specifically for that night and they were thrown into the crowd at the end of the show. Each show had about 12 shirts with that nights details printed on them.

[guystix]

Why do people ask about this on EVERY LIVE RUSH SONG ON YOUTUBE?

[Dumpes]

also geddy has a sense of humor

and he does it for fun

[zigzaghookie]

The this is... The chicken roasters are geddy's amps not kidding... And also, these Dryers are geddys amps.

[justsomedude405]

Maybe the dryers on stage where Geddy's metaphorical way of saying that they were "airing thier dirty laundry" in public.

I was at this show , a half a block from the stage (that was front row at this concert).

They had big monster sony screens for the people in the back. The audio and video had to be delayed and synced because sound only travels 500 and something feet per second.

Does anybody remember the 1.5 million empty water bottles on the ground as you were leaving?

[AppleRecords140]

I hope the cloths that come out of the dryer smell good !!!! Anyways, keep rockin!

[opiate9]

I was into Rush half a life time ago. I've noticed on newer videos, Geddy has washers and dryers behind him. What the fuck is THAT about?

[woodencabinetfilms]

Geddy used to put dryers behind him during the shows....just his weird sense of humor. He says that the dry air makes things sound better. This last tour he switched to Chicken Roasters. (No kidding, check out the last tour videos)

[opiate9]

Huh. yeah, weird. I mean, I don't even get how it's funny though...like, if there's some sort of pun or something involved.

Just watched a 2008 vid, con roasters. wtf.

Thanks for the response.

[DJmcRUSH]

To: Everyone who thinks this video is fake.

Alex's voice isn't very perty not much his singing either. It was ment to be a prank on both Alex & Geddy for the concert by the sound crew said alter in an interview. If you've never even heard Alex talk before then your way off base.

From:DJmcRUSH

[Mikkysixx]

Nice touch with the washing machines on stage:P

[AndrewMon2008]

lol this is definately faked....sounds like you sung over it. love how his mic randomly gets louder in the middle...nice try tho. of course he sings, but its not that loud and he doesnt sing like that.

[spiderbait90]

This is actually real, this was taken from the Live TV coverage though, not the DVD / Video. The levels on live TV were done by the TV company, not Rush's engineer, therefor, when the saw alex singing, they were like "Shit, we better turn his mic up abit", which is why it gets louder. Its not like that on the DVD because rush's sound engineer would have had some say in what that levels were in the mix.

[AndrewMon2008]

sounds very believable. im sure the Tv people know who alex lifeson is, and care that he would sing, as if they all knew geddy usually sang and this was some breaking news story.dude, most of the times, the band is muted out behind the reporter so we can hear him/her.

[spiderbait90]

Depends on the specific mixing guy, or, if there was a mistake made - overadjusting the level for example. Its better from a sound engineer to leave a level overset untill that instrument isnt doing anything, rather than changing level mid word. I think this is what happened, but it does not appear on the DVD.

[embroisured]

that's what alex lifeson sounds like.  and the mic "randomly gets louder" because they probably physically adjusted it on the mixer.

[huntsman0603]

Yeah this is not real. Alex does sing, but the whole clip of this doesn't sound like this.

[2112ovenmittboxing]

really good

[Imputa]

that is a HUGE fucking crowd

[SABS1177]

Alex also says "Subdivisions" Apparently..The first time I saw him do that live I was caught off guard.

[guitarguy93]

Haha, I was just about to say that. It is so powerful when he does that though, almost as good as a whole song sung by Geddy.

[primemover17]

Al is mah boy.

[querida2006]

Yeah he's always singing along as a backing vocalist on their cds and on the tours, you just normally never hear is that distrinctly, but if he wouldn't be singing he wouldn't have a mike there, would he????

[drumrcal]

I am sure he does not sing on the albums... Geddy just duplicates his vocals over and over... ALex has a mike on stage but it is WAY low in the mix...I believe they are triggering Geddy's harmony vocals onstage to fill in the space. Alex is an incredible guitar player, but vocally he is the Linda McCartney of the band.

[ZirclesAndZyre]

i went to see him about 2 weeks back, alot of it was lip syncing but he actually sounds pretty good despite what my father and other say about him.

[frimpit]

why does he sing it in unison? Harmony would have been nice.

[pepsilover1]

asex always sings taht part live

[SharinganSpirit]

asex hahahahaha

[diggafick]

its funny when ur moms ur sister

[edxing]

He DOES always sing this...The mic is up a little too high.

That said, I like it. It mixes it up a little bit and Alex doesn't have THAT bad of a voice.

So the mic being too loud...Isn't really a problem the way I see it.

[PhUTube4Evah]

Alex has a better voice than Neil. Neil's gone on record as saying his singing voice is only for the shower.

Alex's voice just doesn't mix well with Geddy's, but other than that he's got a great voice.

[pinkfloydrule27]

it works quite well now since geddies ludicrously high voice this would have sounded very strange in the mid 70s though

[plyror]

his mic is turned up to high

[StarclassicD]

alex always sings freewill...whats the big deal?

[greyfoxplaysbass]

badass

[mce7777]

tits.

[enjoiskateboarding76]

haha you can hear over geddy thats pretty insane!!!

[reginaron]

Just saw them on May 25th, here in regina.

Alex was turned up just like this vid.

It was fn great show.

[rondav2]

alex sings in quite a few songs. its not that uncommon.

[bobthehobo65]

I know but whenever he does you can barely hear him its almost as if he told the sound guy to put him lower than the actual band, i guess he didnt this time

[WhatHappenedtoJesse]

He does sound good.

[LastRowKid]

Wow, Lerxst sounds pretty young when he sings

[bumblefritz]

I think he sounds good.

[jonfiredaman02]

normally you can only just hear him enough to know hes there.. but here hes louder than geddy for some reason, thats weird.

[sgtpepper1138]

holy cow, you CAN hear him clearly, that never happens

[metic56]

hes only loud cuz the guy who posted this video amplified alexs voice....if u watch the other freewill videos from this same show....u will see that alex is definately not this loud...

[SnowSkierDude]

Uh, no I didn't. This was recorded from the original TV broadcast live. The sound mix was controlled by the broadcast folks, not Rush's sound engineer. So, they didn't know how to balance the mix like Rush usually does. When it was released on DVD later, the mix was more appropriate. I only posted this clip of the video, because some one was claiming on another website that Alex doesn't ever really sing live, and that his mic is not on.

[metic56]

oh ok...

[skifan07]

I don't know who ever said that Alex doesn't sing, but their wrong. Actually, he has sang back-up on several song throughout their career. As a back-up, he doesn't sound too bad, actually pretty good, but I wouldn't have singing up front.

[uvebeentagged]

at 00:04 there is a guy crowd surfing

[870expressmag]

I actually thought he sounded pretty good

[alansmcconachie]

Alex sounds great, its like when you play in a gig, you sing along and even if you've got a horrible voice it sounds great

[bulletman100]

no yokos on the back-up mic, alex.

[herrocker666]

When it comes to Alex singing, it's like mine: Some people love it some people hate it. Personally, I love it.

[theloladin]

dude, sorry to say this but: Alex can't sing. He's a great guitarrist but, no sorry..

[chrisdougkerr84]

I don't remember seeing them. My ex and I got there pretty late due to traffic and having to walk a good half hour just to get in. Music was going already. That was the best concert I've been to!

[jmb345]

Cool clip. Alex has a great voice. When I heard them in Phoenix at the Snakes and Arrows tour, Alex was backin up Geddy on damn near every song and he sounded great.