On October 20, 1996, Rush played Buffalo’s brand-new Marine Midland Arena on only the second night of the Test for Echo Tour, the band’s first ever billed as “An Evening With Rush,” with no opening act. The Toronto trio split the night into two sets, closing the first with “2112” performed in its entirety, all seven parts, a feat Rush had never attempted live before this tour. The second set opened on the new album’s title track and ran through “Subdivisions,” “Freewill” and “The Spirit of Radio” before “Tom Sawyer” and a “YYZ” encore; Buffalo was also one of just two shows on the tour, with Albany the night before, to carry both “Resist” and “Time and Motion.” Thirty years later, it remains one of the earliest performances of the only tour on which Rush played “2112” from start to finish.
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