A new video has been added to the Rush.comMultimedia: Rush Video section. This video features Geddy Lee backstage in the tuning room before the Austin show. Geddy talks about the tour and how much fun the band and crew are having. He's really enjoying the days off between shows and mentions how he went golfing and drinking with Alex in the day off prior to the Austin gig. Thanks to cincyrushgirl for the heads up.
UPDATE - 5/13@10:44PM: Some more details are starting to trickle in via Draco over at Counterparts. Apparently the cause of death was a heart attack brought on by complications from diabetes. His family will be making an announcement as to where to send a charitable donation in his memory within the next few days.
If you've been keeping up with the comments in the original blog post over at the Q107 Rock Report you may have noticed a few comments from some notable names in Rush history. Here's one from the woman credited with discovering Rush back in 1974 - Donna Halper:
When I discovered Rush in Cleveland in 1974, John was the drummer and he looked really frail even back then. There were rumours he was on drugs but NO! He was not. He was struggling with diabetes, and would all his life. I hope he rests in peace-- a very good guy with a disease that today is treatable, but back then, not so much. Posted by Donna L. Halper on 5/13/2008 3:27:15 PM
John was an integral part of the band Rush in the beginning. It was his drive and leader- ship that first help establish the band. A solid drummer with a flare for showmanship made him unique. What a pleasure it was to play with John,Geddy and Alex in the those early days of Rush. Goodbye, my friend. Posted by Lindy Young on 5/13/2008 5:00:49 PM
Now that I've had all day for this news to sink in, and after a few listens to Rush's debut album ... I'm pretty bummed out about it. Rest in peace John.
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The Q107 Rock Report is reporting that Rush founding member John Rutsey passed away over the weekend according to Rush's management company Anthem. Rutsey was with Rush from 1968 to 1974 and played on the band's self-titled debut album after which he quit the band due to creative differences and health issues. He was replaced by Neil Peart in the summer of 1974. He died on Sunday, May 11 at the age of 55. As of the moment there has been no official statement on a cause of death nor plans for a memorial service. Thanks to Jay C and Brian S for the heads up.
I wanted to take a few moments to alert everyone to a campaign that's currently underway to get Rush a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. If you are a Rush fan, it's very likely you have heard the name Donna Halper. Donna is credited with discovering Rush while working at WMMS-FM in my hometown of Cleveland back in 1974. She was also pivotal in getting them signed to a record contract, and they dedicated their first two albums to her. Donna along with Rush fans extraordinaire Keith and Kevin Purdy are spearheading this project and have already received the blessing of the band and their management. They could also use some help from us - the fans. Since the nominations are reviewed in June each year, they are soliciting testimonials from Rush fans across the world about how the band and their music has played a positive and meaningful role in their lives. There is no format per se - emails, letters, etc. are fine. They simply need to be well-written and come from the heart. If possible, please send your testimonials to kdpurdy@hotmail.com by Friday, May 23rd so they can be packaged up and sent to the Hollywood Walk of Fame committee.
As part of the nomination effort, an account will be set up at some point to collect the $25,000 needed to fund the Hollywood Walk of Fame star. The money is not due until 30 days prior to an eventual induction ceremony, the date of which would be the band's choosing if (when hopefully) they are chosen. That date realistically would be no sooner than mid-year 2009. They hope to have the account set up later this summer and will keep everyone posted.
Donna, Keith and Kevin want to thank everyone in advance for their assistance in this effort. The image above of the Hollywood Walk of Fame Rush Starman is courtesy reader Matt R.
Rush played their 2nd of 2 shows at the Nokia in LA last night and will head to Vegas and Irvine over the weekend before taking a 9-day hiatus. If you have photos from any of the shows that you'd like to share, you can upload them in the tour section. To view fan photos, check out the tour photo gallery. The Rush.com website has also been very up-to-date with adding great quality photos from shows to their Multimedia: Rush on the Road section.
Speaking of Rush on the Road, on Thursday of last week the first episode of the long-awaitedRush road crew documentary series Backstage Secrets finally aired on the appropriately-named RUSH HD in Canada. The second episode aired last night. Reader sandman saw the first episode and reported the following:
The show focused on two main guys on the crew; that being the monitor tech and the sound engineer for the shows.
They showed how the lights and speaker cabinets were rigged up, some notable stats, one being that they have 160,000 watts of (sound) power at their disposal, of which they do not use all of. Each speaker cabinet is roughly 500 lbs and it's all rigged up in only a few hours.
Essentially they went through a typical concert day, the one on the show was at the ACC in Toronto last fall. Their day is usually about 16 hours long. They start at 9:00 am unloading all the gear and then it showed what they did from that time until show time. The guys in the documentary also said they program all of the monitors etc when the band is rehearsing prior to the tour. It looks like the crew has a great sense of humor, something that they all need due to the stress of the job.
They didn't interview the band members, but it showed them hanging out with the roadies prior to the sound check etc.
One other notable interview was with Howard Ungerleider when he showed them the tour buses. They have FIVE tour busses that are absolutely gorgeous. Much nicer than any living room I've been in. Satellite TV, all leather and of course Howard showed us the bar. In addtion to the five tour buses for the band and crew they have seven semi's to haul all the gear.
I just added a couple more Geddy Lee radio interviews from earlier last month to the radio interviews thread (thanks AnalogKidAudioVideo). If you haven't heard Rush's Rockline interview from a couple of weeks ago yet, you can listen to it at this link.
Snakes & Arrows Live has fallen to #178 on the Billboard album charts (thanks Sean) in its third week of release; down from #18 in its debut week and #110 last week. The iTunes store gave the album a great review - you'll need to have iTunes installed to check out the full review but here's a snippet:
... it is all killer. After nearly 35 years, Rush are as vital and creative as ever - not just in the recording studio either, as anybody who's seen them live in recent years will attest. If you're a fan, you gotta have this, and that's it. ...
iTunes users have also given it an average review of 4.5 out of 5 stars. Thanks to Chris B for the heads up. Also, the Workin' Them Angels live single from the album continues to hold in the mid-20s on both the Mediabase Mainstream Rock Chart (#24) and the Radio and Records Rock Chart (#23).
Long-time Rush fan, musician, musicologist and RIAB reader Chris McDonald is writing a book on Rush and he needs our help. The book will be an academic (musicological) study of the group published by a university press. He has put together a survey for Rush fans so that he can include a representative range of opinions on the band. So if you have a few minutes, take his survey and email your answers to rush_survey@hotmail.com. You can check out the questions below the fold.
Michael of NeilPeartDrumSticks.com recently made several updates to the Fan Gallery section of his site, adding many pics from the recent tour. Check them out at this link.
Wednesday marked the 15th anniversary of Harvard Lampoon's induction of Rush as Musicians of the Millennium. Here's a video of this monumental event:
Last week I reported that Rock 100.7 DJ Jeff Burrows (formerly of The Tea Party and The Big Dirty Band) hosted a 24-hour drum-a-thon for Transition to Betterness over the weekend at the Rock Head Resto Pub in Windsor. The event was a huge success, raising $12,000 for the charity. Jeff has also put together a Rush concert dream package that is being auctioned off on eBay. The package includes two first class return Via One Rail tickets to Montreal from Windsor, London, or Toronto; a two-night hotel stay at The Chateau Champlain Hotel in Montreal; premium seating at the concert; and 2 meet-and-greet passes. The charity auction runs through 8PM May 12th. You can place your bid at this link. Thanks to sandman for the heads up.
On Monday I let you know about reader ReGorLaTroy's challenge to all Rush fans to help out the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity. He was inspired by Rush's recent donation of $100,000 to the Katrina relief effort. There's been a great response to his challenge and he's working on getting some kind of official link for donations set up. I'll keep you posted.
Steve Robles of webzine 10 Zen Monkeys posted a humorous article last week titled Rush: The Last Taboo where he admits to his love of Rush and gives an explanation. Thanks to Sean for the link.
On a recent edition of the Dennis Miller radio show Dennis mentioned that he was going to see Rush in LA and chatted a bit with a listener about Neil Peart. Dennis also has some Rush in his Bumper Music section of his website and the current poll on his home page asks readers what their favorite Rush song is. Thanks to Bryan S for the heads up.
Geddy Lee got a mention in this recent article about Toronto's annual Pug Awards. The awards gives Torontonians an opportunity to vote on the most contemptible new works of architecture greater than 50,000 square feet in the city. Geddy is a member of the Pug advisory board. From the article:
... "He cares so much about the buildings that are being erected around here, even as he's touring around the world," says Simone. "That itself speaks volumes about the impact of Toronto architecture. His level of knowledge blows my mind."
Reader Vince R let me know that during a recent telecast on WGN of a baseball game in Toronto between the Blue Jays and White Sox they had a poll asking folks what their favorite Ontario-based band was. Rush won with 65% of the vote with Neil Young in 2nd at 15%
Apparently NASCAR racer Carl Edwards is a Rush fan. During coverage of the Richmond race last week several of the drivers were asked their opinion on the greatest rock bands ever. Carl said Tom Petty, Rush and The Eagles. Thanks to 2112-YYZ for the heads up.
The Greatest of All Time blog is currently running a poll pitting Rush's 2112 up against Iron Maiden's Powerslave; both great albums in my opinion, but you know who to vote for. So go vote for Rush!!
UPDATE - 5/10@11:40AM: Ross Halfin has some photos from the show up on his website (thanks TorontoWriter).
UPDATE - 5/8@11:10AM: Here's a good review from the Orange County Register titled Rush still fierce in a smaller setting. It also includes a few snippets from an Alex Lifeson interview along with the review.
UPDATE - 5/7@2:28PM: Rock photographer Ross Halfin was at the show and gave the following report in his online diary:
... I go with Andy Curran to see Rush who are playing at Nokia Theatre in downtown LA. Go and watch the soundcheck, take a few photos, great to see them again. Neal Peart looks healthy - he's lost weight. Alex tells me they really liked the photos from Europe. They've added sixteen pages to the tour book, plus the new live cd, and it looks impressive.
Go hang out backstage, see Bob Rock with his blow-dried hair. At first I thought Bob was Kevin THE CAVEMAN Shirley come to have a rock'n'roll party and tell everyone about the new Judas Priest cd.
Went out to watch and shoot a bit of the show. The crowd was wasted, on Alex's side fairly well behaved, but Geddy's side was a different matter. Middle-aged men so fucked up they didn't know where they were. Stumbling around in circles, playing pretend drums and air guitar and bass. The strange part I don't get was that they mostly tended to not look at the stage, just bother everyone next to them as if it was their show. How can you say pay $1500 for a ticket then not have a fucking clue what you went to see? It was as if they'd regressed into being three-year olds with speech impediments who found their parents booze. One, who was about six foot five, kept leaning into me pointing in the air going 'Uuuuugh' or 'Yaaaaguh', then saying 'Yoooooour in the waaaaaaaaay.' In the way of what?
Alex had a girl the size of a herd of buffalo in front of him, she sang, cried (mainly cried - I thought they were good, nothing to cry about), made strange signs and after the show was standing holding in the air an LP of Signals with a pen. What did she think was going to happen - they come back on and sign her record? I suppose Alex could have taken pity and given her a bucket of KFC from Geddy's on stage rotisserie. Someone should film the crowd, horrifying. Imagine watching it in say thirty years - 'Welcome to America, the most civilised country in the world.'
I did manage to finish the night in a civilised way, drinking Dom Perignon with Donovan Lundstrom, Rush's very suave tour manager...
He certainly has a way with words... And he still can't spell Neil's (Neal?) name right. Thanks to LovLee for the heads up.
----- snip -----
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 6th @ 8:00PM Show Number: 14 Venue:Nokia Theatre Place: Los Angeles, CA
One of the many reasons I admire Rush so much is their tremendous generosity. They've used their fame to help out countless charitable organizations over the years, raising millions of dollars for those in need. So whenever I hear of a Rush-related charity or charity event I always try and give it some exposure on Rush is a Band. Rush fan and RIAB reader ReGorLaTroy was inspired by Rush's recent donation to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort in New Orleans to put forth the following challenge to Rush fans.
THE GREAT RUSH FAN CHALLENGE
Greetings to all of my fellow RUSH fans out there.
As most of you know by now, on 17 April 08, Alex, Geddy and Neil donated $100,000 to further help the people affected by Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans region.
I was so impressed and moved by what our favourite band's "random act of kindness," and thought, "Wouldn't be great if we RUSH Fans could follow their example and do something likewise"?
Enter, "The Great RUSH Fan Challenge."
My challenge is simply this,
I want to encourage a minimum of 1000 RUSH fans to donate $10.00 each to The New Orleans Area Habitat For Humanity ... No calculator needed here, that would be $10,000 donated to this most worthy of causes.
The tour rolls on; Rush will play Reno and Concord over the weekend, then 2 LA dates, Vegas and Irvine next week before taking a 9-day break. Here's a little preview article for the LA shows from The Press-Enterprise which includes a few snippets from an Alex Lifeson interview.
Yesterday was the first anniversary of the release of Rush's 19th (18th if you don't count Feedback) studio album - Snakes & Arrows. Last year right around this time I asked everybody what their favorite song off the album was. The winner was The Main Monkey Business with Armor and Sword a close second. I thought it would be interesting to ask this same question now that we've had a year to let the songs sink in. So what's your favorite song off of Snakes & Arrows? Take the poll and let us know.
Snakes & Arrows Live has fallen to #110 on the Billboard album charts - down from #18 in its debut week. It also fell from #8 to #59 on the Canadian charts. I have one more review to report. Reader madjock from Scotland let me know that the UK's Kerrang! Magazine recently reviewed the album and gave it 4 out of 5 stars.
Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee were the featured guests on Rockline this past Wednesday night. If you didn't get a chance to listen to it, the interview is now posted up on the Rockline website at this location. One spoiler warning though - the new additions to the setlist are revealed.
The long-awaited Rush road crew documentary series Backstage Secrets finally aired its first episode last night on the appropriately-named RUSH HD in Canada. I don't know of anyone who actually saw it though. If you did, please let us know what you thought. Hopefully the series will be available for purchase on DVD at some point.
Last week's episode of Land and Sea on the CBC in Canada contained a 15-minute segment on New Brunswick-based Sabian Cymbals. The show chronicles the history of Sabian and Neil Peart is prominently featured. You can watch the show online at this location but you will need Real Player. Thanks to bigleaf at Counterparts for the heads up.
Reader rushfan_132 let me know that Canadian syndicated radio program The Legends of Classic Rock hosted by Jeff Woods is running a contest to determine the 40 greatest classic rock drummers of all time. During the month of May over 4 consecutive weeks on the Legends of Classic Rock weekly hour-long show, Jeff Woods will count down the 40 Greatest Rock Drummers of All Time, as chosen by Legends listeners. So go vote for Neil Peart at this link!
Reader sandman let me know that Rock 100.7 DJ Jeff Burrows (formerly of The Tea Party and The Big Dirty Band) will be hosting a 24-hour drum-a-thon for a great cause called Transition to Betterness this weekend at the Rock Head Resto Pub in Windsor. Those who donate will have the chance to win 2 backstage passes to see Rush.
Most Rush fans already know all about Bob and Doug McKenzie and their relation to Rush. But just in case you don't know, Bob and Doug were a pair of walking Canadian sterotypes who were originally introduced on SCTV in Canada back in 1980 by actors Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas. The pair hosted a recurring sketch panel show called The Great White North. The sketch became so popular that in 1983 a movie featuring the duo titled Strange Brew was released that has since become a cult classic. The duo's first album Great White North featured an appearance by Geddy Lee on the main track Take Off. About a year ago the CBC aired a prime time special celebrating the 24th anniversary of the release of Strange Brew and Geddy Lee made a surprise appearance. The duo's latest project is an animated series which will premier next year in Canada and hopefully in the US too. There's a trailer for the show available online which you can watch at this link. The trailer features Freewill as some of the background music. Thanks to Will C for the heads up.
I recently came across some more Rush-inspired artwork. Artist Mark Blanchette is a fine art photographer who specializes in darkroom created photomontages. Much of his work is Rush-inspired and he donates a piece of his artwork every year to the charity auction at RushCon. You can check out his creations at www.Grymwish.com.
UPDATE - 5/7@8:05AM: Pics from the show are now up on Rush.com in the Multimedia: Rush on the Road section.
Rush heads to the Cricket Pavilion in Phoenix tonight before hitting dates in Nevada and California over the next week. Geddy was spotted at the Diamondbacks game last night (thanks to azbubba for the pic).
Date/Time: Thursday, May 1st @ 8:00PM Show Number: 11 Venue:Cricket Wireless Pavilion Place: Phoenix, AZ
UPDATE - 5/1@9:14PM: The interview is up on the Rockline website (thanks dwman). It should be noted that there are spoilers in the interview; they reveal the new additions to the setlist.
UPDATE - 5/1@10:18AM: I was not able to listen in last night, but from all the reports I've read there was not much new in this interview. The program should be posted up on the Rockline website in the next couple of days.
As previously reported, Rush will be appearing on the nationally syndicated radio show Rockline hosted by Bob Coburn tonight at 11:30 PM EST (8:30 PM PST). Fans can talk live with Rush by calling 800-344-ROCK (7625). To find a station near you or to listen to the show live via webcast, go to the Rockline website. I'm assuming that it will just be Alex and Geddy on the program.
UPDATE - 5/2@12:36PM: The album fell to #59 on the Canadian charts in its 2nd week.
UPDATE - 4/30@3:23PM:Sean just let me know that the CD sold 4,012 copies according to Soundscan in its 2nd week compared to nearly 21,000 in its debut week.
Snakes & Arrows Live - after a strong debut at #18 last week - has begun it's downward spiral off the Billboard album charts. RollingStone.com is reporting (in its typical snarky manner) that in its 2nd week of release the album has plummeted out of the top 100 to settle at #110. This phenomenon is typical of Rush albums; we diehard fans tend to know exactly when the album is coming out and buy (or pre-order) our copies immediately - thereby front-loading the chart numbers. Personally I think this is reflective of the loyalty of Rush's fanbase and something to be proud of.
In addition to debuting at #18 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart, the album debuted at #2 in internet sales and #5 on the Rock Albums chart. I don't have info yet on how Snakes & Arrows Live faired on these 2 charts in the 2nd week of release, but based on the #110 number my guess is it is no longer in the top 10 on either chart. I also haven't received any word on the 2nd-week Canadian sales figures yet. The album debuted at #8 in Canada.
UPDATE - 5/8@4:34PM: Reader sandman saw the first episode and reported the following:
The show focused on two main guys on the crew; that being the monitor tech and the sound engineer for the shows.
They showed how the lights and speaker cabinets were rigged up, some notable stats, one being that they have 160,000 watts of (sound) power at their disposal, of which they do not use all of. Each speaker cabinet is roughly 500 lbs and it's all rigged up in only a few hours.
Essentially they went through a typical concert day, the one on the show was at the ACC in Toronto last fall. Their day is usually about 16 hours long. They start at 9:00 am unloading all the gear and then it showed what they did from that time until show time. The guys in the documentary also said they program all of the monitors etc when the band is rehearsing prior to the tour. It looks like the crew has a great sense of humor, something that they all need due to the stress of the job.
They didn't interview the band members, but it showed them hanging out with the roadies prior to the sound check etc.
One other notable interview was with Howard Ungerleider when he showed them the tour buses. They have FIVE tour busses that are absolutely gorgeous. Much nicer than any living room I've been in. Satellite TV, all leather and of course Howard showed us the bar. In addtion to the five tour buses for the band and crew they have seven semi's to haul all the gear.
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Back in December I'd mentioned that WhistleStop Productions was putting the final touches on a 5 part documentary series which follows various members of the Rush road crew during a typical day out on the road with the band. It was shot in High Definition and Dolby 5.1 surround audio during the Canadian leg of the Snakes and Arrows tour and is called Backstage Secrets. It was originally supposed to air this past February on RUSH HD in Canada but was delayed and is now scheduled to air each Thursday evening at 9PM over the next 5 weeks starting this Thursday, May 1st. In order to receive RUSH HD you need to subscribe to Bell Express Vu and sign on for their high definition package. It's not clear if or when the program will air in the US but I had been hearing it would be shown on RAVE HD. There were also some rumblings that Anthem was working on putting the series together in some kind of box set for fans to purchase. The series features Rush Lighting Director Howard Ungerleider; sound guys Brad Madix and Brent Carpenter; instrument technicians Lorne Weaton, Bobby Huck, Tony Geranios and Russ Ryan; video guys David Davidian and Bob Larkin; and production manager Craig Blazier. Many thanks to David at WhistleStop Productions for the heads up.
The tour is well underway now. Rush played their 9th show last night at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. Anecdotal evidence points to the attendance levels at the last few shows being much better than the first few. Thanks to reader Mark S we have our first official Billboard attendance numbers; for opening night in Puerto Rico the attendance was 6,855 out of a capacity of 9,598 and the concert grossed $740,155 in ticket sales. Since I'm bound to get questions about it, I believe the capacity number just means that there were 9,598 tickets available for sale and 6,855 of those were purchased. It has nothing to do with the actual maximum capacity of the venue; the Coliseo can hold a lot more than 9500. I've also been informed that 600 tickets were released last week for the first show at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles which had been sold out; and that Live Nation is slashing ticket prices and offering special ticket packages at many of the outdoor venues. Check the specific venue(s) for details.
Geddy and Alex continue to give several interviews across the nation to promote the tour and the album. Earlier last week a very interesting interview with Alex Lifeson was published in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. In it Alex admits to considering a B-track Rush tour or possible performing 2112 with an orchestra! Friday another interview with Alex Lifeson was published in The Oklahoman titled Mountain haven inspires Rush to reach new peak. I also recently added the Paul and Young Ron interview with Alex Lifeson from April 7th that was aired on BIG 105.9 and 98.7 The Gater to the radio interview thread. Also, as I'd mentioned last month Rush (just Geddy and Alex I assume) will be the featured guest on the nationally syndicated radio show Rockline with host Bob Coburn this coming Wednesday, April 30th at 11:30PM EST. Fans are encouraged to call in to speak with the guys toll free at 1-800-344-ROCK (7625). For a station near you and for information regarding how to listen online go to the Rockline website.
Alex Lifeson finally got a bit of good news in his ongoing case against the Ritz-Carlton involving his and his son Justin's New Year's 2004 run-in with Florida police. A federal appeals court ruled that a lower court judge in Florida was wrong to dismiss a negligence claim by Lifeson's son against the hotel and the security manager on duty at the time of the altercation. In other Alex Lifeson news, his house in the affluent Toronto suburb of Rosedale is up for sale.
Many of you older farts (like me) might remember that from 1982 to 1993, Neil Peart answered Modern Drummer magazine readers' questions in a column called Ask a Pro. Andrew Olson has posted scans of these fan Q&As over on his Neil Peart site site. These are really cool - I suggest you check them out when you get a chance. Thanks Andy!
One of my favorite Rush fan sites is Cygnus-X1.net. John has been providing great content for the online Rush community for about 4 years. He has the best and most comprehensive library of Rush album art out there. About 2 weeks ago, John's site was the victim of a MalWare virus attack. As a result of the attack several visitors to his site were also infected and his site blacklisted at Google. He shut down his site, fixed the files, found the cause and corrected the problem. It was quite an ordeal - you can read all the details here. John came close to just packing it in and shutting down his site. So if you get a chance stop by his site and send him a few words of encouragement.
Several readers emailed me about a Rush sighting at an NHL playoff game last week in Detroit. The Red Wings hosted the Predators at Joe Louis Arena and there was a huge billboard at center ice advertising the June 10th Rush show (which I'll be attending by the way). Reader PhillyMike sent the screenshot.
Reader Bravest Face hosts a radio show on HAY98 on Friday nights from 9PM-2AM. He wanted me to let everyone know that this coming Friday night, May 2nd at 10PM he'll be playing the entire Snakes & Arrows Live disc completely from start to finish with no interruptions. To listen online just go to www.hay98.com and click on the listen live link.
If you aren't already aware of it, Between Sun & Moon is an online handcrafted jewelry store with Rush-inspired merchandise owned and operated by Rush fan and Rush Is A Band reader Katy. Mother's Day is right around the corner (just 2 weeks away!) and - as she has done several times in the past - Katy is offering an exclusive coupon for Rush is a Band readers. Even if the mother in your life isn't a Rush fan she will be a fan of Rush inspired jewelry by Between Sun & Moon. I've given my wife (definitely not a Rush fan!) a couple of Katy's pieces and she absolutely loves them. Custom order Mother's Jewelry for your wife, mother or grandmother with her children's birthstones and names. It's a completely unique gift she will love for a lifetime. Mother's Day is Sunday May 11th, order your custom creations by tomorrow, April 28th and all other designs by May 5th to ensure timely delivery. Use discount code RUSHISABAND for Free Priority Mail shipping. Thanks Katy!
The Great Zo over at the Counterparts message board is running a Name That Rush Tune charity drive for the 3rd year in a row. The contest has been cranking along for several months and it's now down to the semi-finals. As of right now, the Name That Rush Tune charity fund is sitting at $1430.00. If you want to contribute to the cause, please visit the charity donation page at this link. To see how the game has gone so far, visit the homepage at this location.
Earlier this year I'd put up a post about an independent film which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival this year called Adventures of Power. The film is chock full of Rush references and most notably includes a cameo from Neil Peart; his first speaking role in a live-action film. The movie just won the Audience Award at the Vail Film Festival earlier this month and the filmmakers are pursuing getting it distributed to theaters. For details on Adventures of Power and to sign up for the mailing list you can visit its newly-revamped website at this location.
Kaki King is an American virtuoso guitar player and singer-songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. She was recently quoted in Spinner magazine as saying the following:
"Somehow, Rush can still sell out arenas. If I was sitting in row one, I would take my chair, unbolt it from the ground and run away." --Kaki King
I'm not sure exactly what this means but I think it's a slam of some kind? Whatever. Thanks to Dave R for the heads up.
Reader Terry H is a professional welder who fashions artistic creations using rebar (cool, huh) and made a very neat Rush starman logo which you can check out here. Its made out of 1/4 inch round steel, and the man figure is 3/16 inch round steel.
One last thing. Many of you have noticed that there's been a delay of 15 seconds or so when posting comments. At this time I'm not sure exactly why this is happening but I'm aware of the issue and am working on a fix. Thanks to everybody who alerted me to this.
UPDATE - 4/27@10:02AM: No setlist changes. Pics from the show are now up on Rush.com in the Multimedia: Rush on the Road section. There's also this short but sweet review in The Oklahoman.
Rush will be playing Oklahoma City tonight for the first time since May 25, 1992 on the Roll the Bones tour. For those going, have a great time. I'll be posting my regular Updates and other random Rush stuff tomorrow.
Date/Time: Saturday, April 26th @ 7:30PM Show Number: 9 Venue:Ford Center Place: Oklahoma City, OK
UPDATE - 4/26@8:55AM: No setlist changes. Pics from the show are now up on Rush.com in the Multimedia: Rush on the Road section.
Rush finishes their Texas swing tonight playing the Superpages.com Center in Dallas. I'll have my regular weekly Updates and other random Rush stuff post up either tomorrow or Sunday. For everybody going tonight, have a blast!
Date/Time: Friday, April 25th @ 7:30PM Show Number: 8 Venue:Superpages.com Center Place: Dallas, TX
A new video has been added to the Rush.com Multimedia: Rush Video section. This video features Geddy Lee backstage in the tuning room before the Austin show. Geddy talks about the tour and how much fun the band and crew are having. He's really enjoying the days off between shows and mentions how he went golfing and drinking with Alex in the day off prior to the Austin gig. Thanks to cincyrushgirl for the heads up.
UPDATE - 5/13@10:44PM: Some more details are starting to trickle in via Draco over at 
I wanted to take a few moments to alert everyone to a campaign that's currently underway to get Rush a star on the 
One of the many reasons I admire Rush so much is their tremendous generosity. They've used their fame to help out countless charitable organizations over the years, raising millions of dollars for those in need. So whenever I hear of a Rush-related charity or charity event I always try and give it some exposure on Rush is a Band. Rush fan and RIAB reader ReGorLaTroy was inspired by Rush's recent donation to the 
Earlier this year I'd 
