UPDATE - 4/18@11:54PM: I got a few emails regarding the Montreal show being sold out and I did some digging. The Montreal show was sold out... but it's not now. They opened up some more blocks of seats. These days "sold out" rarely really means sold out. :)

It's 1 week into the tour and Rush has 4 shows, 1 US territory, 1 state, and 2 rescheduled shows under its belt already. Whether it's due to the high ticket prices coupled with the poor economy, the lack of changes in the setlist from the first leg, or something else, attendance thus far has been mediocre as have ticket sales for the tour in general. That said, Rush is still putting on great shows and the fan reviews are overwhelmingly positive, despite a bit of grumbling about the setlist. There are also a few bright spots regarding ticket sales; the shows in Red Rocks, Montreal and the first Los Angeles show have sold out.

This weekend Rush will be hitting both Houston and New Orleans, but not in the original order planned. The band was forced to swap the 2 dates due to the NBA playoffs, inconveniencing large numbers of fans. You can read the explanation for this along with an apology in this official press release from Rush.com. In a very classy move, Rush has decided to donate $100,000 from the show to the post-Katrina relief effort in New Orleans. There's also a front page feature on the New Orleans fiasco in today's Times-Picayune titled Bumped band is a good sport.

Late last year when the tour itinerary was being worked out, Rush had planned to play at least one date in Atlantic Canada - and had even planned on opening the tour there. But due to last-minute scheduling conflicts with the originally-planned South American dates (these are now dead in the water), they were forced to reshuffle their entire itinerary and Atlantic Canada got left on the cutting room floor. However, a recent interview with Geddy Lee in the National Post gives reason to think there is still hope for Halifax; Geddy confirmed that the band was still working hard to add a date there.

To mark the start of the tour the Rush Backstage Club has added a bunch of new stuff to their website including a new 2008 version of the Snakes & Arrows tourbook that contains an extra 16 pages of photographs from the European leg of the tour taken by rock photographer Ross Halfin.

On the last leg I tried to be very careful regarding setlist spoilers out of respect for those who didn't want to spoil the surprise, and I'll continue doing that on the 2nd leg. Basically, as long as you stay on the main page of the site, you shouldn't see any spoilers. I say shouldn't because I may occasionally let slip some hint regarding the show and/or setlist. You have been warned. The whole spoiler thing is also not as big of a deal this time around since we all have an idea of what the setlist is from the 2007 leg and not much has changed at all for the 2008 leg.

Speaking of spoilers, this week's poll contains some. In my last poll I asked you what non-Snakes & Arrows songs you thought should be dropped from the setlist. The results are in and the Vapor Trails album is the big loser; Secret Touch and One Little Victory took the top 2 spots with 19% and 18% of the vote respectively. Rounding out the top 5 were Mission (12%), Dreamline (9%) and Between the Wheels (7%). You can see the complete results here. This week I thought I'd ask everyone what they think of the changes (as few as they may be) to the setlist. So which of the new additions to the setlist are you most pleased about? If you don't want to know the setlist changes, don't take the poll. Otherwise, take the poll and let us know what you think.

Rush's double-live CD Snakes & Arrows Live was released earlier this week. You can check out all the CD artwork at this link and listen to 30-second preview clips of all the tracks at Amazon.com at this link. The world premier radio special titled Inside Rush: Snakes & Arrows Live was posted online by FMQB Productions last week and you can listen to it here. The special features 7 songs from the album along with an interview with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. All Music has posted its review of the CD and given it 4 out of 5 stars. You can read the full review at this link. There's also this negative review from the Times Colonist. In addition, the Power Windows site has a very cool Snakes & Arrows Live theme featured. The Workin' Them Angels single from the CD is currently holding steady in the mid 20s on both the Mediabase Mainstream Rock Chart (#26) and the Radio and Records Rock Chart (#24).

Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee continue their radio and print interview blitz to promote the new album and tour. I've been adding any radio interviews I come across to the radio interviews post I'd put up a couple weeks ago. The guys also held a long press conference in Puerto Rico before the tour started. You can watch portions of that interview at this link. Geddy had a couple of great print interviews both with the Sun Media and the National Post last week. And just yesterday yet another short Geddy interview with the Austin American-Statesman was released.

I stopped taking questions for my Nick Raskulinecz Q&A last Friday. Thanks for all your questions; I have over 100 submissions to shift through. I'll be doing that over the next few weeks and then shipping them off to Nick. Hopefully he'll get to them before the end of the year! :)

I found this sad story in the Brantford Expositor about a very brave young Rush fan named Jared who was killed in a domestic violence incident 2 years ago. Jared's family and friends are holding their 2nd annual memorial walk to spotlight National Victims' Awareness Week.

There are a bunch of new ring tones at the Rush Mobile Store including many from Geddy's alter-ego Harry Satchel and Alex Lifeson doing his Genie voice. Thanks to AFarCryfromFBN for the heads up.

I received a bunch of emails about a Rush reference on the Wednesday, April 9th edition of Countdown with Keith Olberman. Keith was interviewing Elizabeth Edwards and when asking her about choosing between the 2 Democratic candidates he says something to the effect of ... is it like the old rock lyric: if you do not choose, you still have made a choice?.

Reader go maple go alerted me to a Rush reference on an episode of Jeopardy! which aired last Friday, April 11th. In the second half of the show one of the categories was Band Origins and the contestants had to name the country which the indicated band came from . The very last clue was Rush and no one got it correct.

Reader Stephen let me know that in the May 2008 issue of Maxim magazine on page 32 a reader asks Maxim, Why does so much music sound like total crap now? Maxim's response begins, You obviously haven't heard the latest Rush album. This is accompanied by a photo of Geddy in concert with the joke quotation Are you ready for some prog rock? Hello? Anyone?

SPIN - the company which was the creative force behind most of the Snakes & Arrows tour visual effects - has a short preview video spotlighting some of their contributions to the Rush stage show up on their website at this location. Thanks to tnhldr for the heads up.

Here's a vintage picture of Alex and Geddy on the cover of Guitar World from April, 1988 - 20 years ago. Thanks to RushFan19 for the link.

Sean let me know that Rush's Moving Pictures appeared at #13 on RHYTHM! Magazine's list of the 50 Top Drum Albums of All Time.

VH1 Classic has a program called Classic/Current which features video double-plays by established artists where they play a vintage clip paired with a newer song. Reader chordhead reports that Rush was featured on a recent airing of the program; they played Subdivisions following with Far Cry.

The latest issue of Golfworld Magazine has an article on golfer Mark Calcavecchia who happens to be a huge Rush fan. From the article:

... Calc is a huge rock fan, particularly the band Rush. There is a collection of seven guitars, several autographed, under the photo of Mark and Brenda's wedding party that hangs above the fireplace in the den. "If I could play guitar like Alex Lifeson or Eddie Van Halen, I would trade that for golf any day," he says. "They're just great every night. They make one or two mistakes a show, nobody knows anyway. I make a mistake, and I'm done for the week. I love playing golf and always have but, to me, if you could play guitar like that and stand up on a stage in front of all those people and do that, it just seems to me that would be the ultimate. ...

Thanks to Mark S and Pat for the heads up.

This next one is for all the ladies. Reader Hans located some pics of Geddy and Alex with a fan on the Adventure Rider forum. This in itself is not noteworthy, but the fact that Geddy is topless is. :)

Have a great weekend!

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