Go Back To December 1976 When Rush Performed “Fly By Night” In Capitol Theatre, NJ

Go Back To December 1976 When Rush Performed “Fly By Night” In Capitol Theatre, NJ | Society Of Rock Videos

via Rush on MV/YouTube

An Epic Gig

Rush played an eight-song set on December 10, 1976 at Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ. This was just a few months after the release of their breakthrough album “2112.” The performance showcased the band’s virtuosity as they powered through some of their early material – songs from their first four albums.

On the video below, they’re playing “Fly by Night” – the title track to their second studio LP.

Geddy Lee told Rolling Stone: “I remember that gig. Capitol Theater. Obviously, this was a really good time for us. We have staved off our demise. In late 1975/ early 1976, we definitely thought we were going down the drain. We honestly thought this was going to be our last album. When it came out, it was mostly word-of-mouth. It wasn’t getting much airplay, obviously. But you could tell there was a buzz amongst fans when we played it. We were feeling very optimistic.”

He continued, “I do remember this show. I used to love the theater gigs. I remember they had a very good caterer at that particular venue. You remember gigs sometimes by what you ate before you went on. This is just two years after the first video, but it was a big two years. A lot of growing up. We were on tour all the time. We were doing over 200 shows a year, probably in excess of that. We didn’t take much time off. We did back-to-back-to-back-to-back shows. At one point, I remember someone counted that we did 17 one-nighters in a row, 17 different cities.”

“We were headlining at this point, but very small venues. This was just as we were becoming a headliner. We couldn’t headline big venues, but we could play places like this theater, and they were often multi-act shows to get people to come out. We weren’t selling a ton of tickets, so we needed help to get people out. There was change in the air. You could feel there were things happening to us. . .Where do they get videos like this?”

Capitol Theatre 1976 Setlist

1. Bastille Day
2. Stage Banter
3. Anthem
4. Stage Banter
5. Lakeside Park
6. 2112
7. Stage Banter
8. Fly By Night / In The Mood

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