I've seen every tour since Counterparts. It's hard to say which was my favorite. Probably my original Counterparts tour. Here's why:
Opening band. (Candlebox) I can see why people would prefer Rush just play for 3 hours and skip the opening band. But I enjoy an opening act, simply because I am curious to see who Rush deems worthy to be an opening act for them. It's a great honor, and the opening bands tend to play their hearts out. Candlebox did a great job opening for Rush in 1994. I also think that too many of those 3 hour shows is responsible for Rush calling it quits earlier than their fans would have preferred. Maybe if Rush only played 2 hour sets all along we might have gotten a few more years from them.
The setlist was pretty awesome. It was a nice balance between the synth era and the post RTB more hard rock era. Hearing Xanadu and Mystic Rhythms in the same setlist was amazing.
They did an amazing job integrating the songs from their latest albums. Opening with the 2001 A Space Odyssey sequence and launching into Dreamline with the flashing lights was awesome. They also had this incredible disco ball effect during the "wilderness of mirrors" parts of Double Agent. They also use a lot of powerful lasers in the show, which was very well done during Red Sector A.
There was no theme. While I think it's kind of neat that Rush had been doing themed shows such as the Moving Pictures tour, Time Machine, R40, etc... it has become a little...predictable. It's as if the band has been slowly saying goodbye for the past 10 years. A non-stop homage to themselves. For me, Counterparts (and TFE) represents their last shows as just a regular band. Everything since then has been bigger, longer, and an attempt to recapture their past.