With the exception of the last two tracks on the third disc, the album was recorded at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on the final night of the Vapor Trails Tour.

[6] The track "O Baterista" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 2005, but lost to Brian Wilson's "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow".

It is the band's first live album that presents a single night's performance in its entirety (not counting the two bonus tracks).

In an interview about the album and DVD, Alex Lifeson and James "Jimbo" Barton noted that it took an extended amount of time to mix the sound due to technical difficulties in recording the audio on primitive equipment.

In a rare departure from the band's practice of re-creating the sound of their studio work during live performances, the song "Resist" (on disc 2) was rearranged into a stripped-down acoustic version featuring Lifeson and Geddy Lee, with Peart sitting out after his drum solo.