Rush is a Band

A blog devoted to RUSH:
Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Tue, Mar 19, 2024

Updates and other random Rush stuff

Fri, Mar 26, 2010@11:39AM | comments removed/disabled

UPDATE - 3/26@2:57PM: Yet another interview surfaced today; this one is with Alex Lifeson and appears in the Toronto Globe and Mail. He reiterates much of what was said in his CBC interview, but adds several details regarding the tour! You need to check this out!!!

... We were off for a year and a half, and now it's just pouring. Everything is totally crazy and there's not a minute left in the day. We've got these half-dozen songs, and we'll probably go in the studio and work on a couple of them and see how it goes, perhaps release something - and I say perhaps - and then we plan on being on the road in the middle of June. Ideally, we'd like to showcase a couple of these songs on the tour, come off tour in mid-October, go back in the studio and continue writing, then record through late this year and early next year, and then release the album in the spring of 2011 on a slightly more substantial tour. This [year's] tour will probably be about 45 dates. Most likely summer, 2011, would be more like 70. ...

Leave it to Lerxst to spill the beans! :) Wow. It sounds like they have a plan.

----- snip -----

Things are heating up in Rush-land! There was a lot going on this past week and things promise to only get better from here on out. This coming Sunday, March 28th Rush will be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame at the Hall's 6th annual Gala at the George Weston Recital Hall, Toronto Centre for the Arts. Rush's management finally let our three heroes off their leashes in order to talk about the induction; we hadn't heard anything from the band since Neil Peart's mid-January Canadian Press interview. On Tuesday the CBC posted a nearly hour-long video interview with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson where they discuss the upcoming induction with Laurie Brown. The two reveal that the band has been writing new material and have 6 new songs written already. Then yesterday the Canadian Press published an article/interview with Neil Peart regarding his thoughts on the induction and he also reveals some information regarding the band's new material:

... he says the band plans to do pre-production on two new songs in the coming weeks, with a tour possibly following.

"We're going to put those (songs) together and if they turn out well, we'll maybe even release them (on their own)," he said. "We're saying, what if we do a little songwriting and then a little touring to play those songs, and then get back to the songwriting again? It would be an interesting way to shake up our usual way.

"There's nothing I can confirm yet ... these things are immensely complicated and so much involved, all I can say is that we're considering that." ...

So Neil is careful not to confirm anything, but it now seems more likely that we will at least see a couple of new Rush songs released digitally prior to the tour.

Tickets are available for the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala and can be purchased via ticketmaster at this link. There is a special offer for Rush fans; simply enter the pass code SONGS when requesting tickets and get a 20% discount. The ceremony will air on radio the day after the Gala on March 29th at 7PM on CBC Radio 2 as a special presentation of Canada Live and at 4PM on Espace Musique. Rush will be recognized for their songs Limelight, Closer to the Heart, The Spirit of Radio, Tom Sawyer and Subdivisions. For my next poll I thought I'd ask everyone which of these five songs is your favorite? Take the Poll and let us know. You can check out the results of the last poll where I asked everyone what their favorite song off Fly By Night was at this link. By-Tor and the Snow Dog was the clear winner with Anthem and In the End making a strong showing.

The only downside of the new Rush interviews mentioned above was the absence of any sort of official tour confirmation. I'm sure the guys were instructed by the Rush PR machine to stay mum on the subject until the official announcement can be made. That said, I can assure you that the tour is still a go. Don't forgot about Lorne Wheaton's March 17th MySpace post:

Off to YYZ for sessions...on the road this summer. Mood: pumped :)
Posted at 11:20 AM Mar 17

And I am continually assured from multiple sources that the tour is still happening and have heard absolutely nothing to the contrary. Since last Friday's post I've received three more tentative tour dates: September 14th at the TD Center in Boston, MA; July 23rd at the Saratoga PAC in Saratoga Springs, NY; and July 1st at the KC Starlight Theatre in Kansas City, MO. Here's the complete list of tentative/rumored dates so far:

June ?? (mid-late June):
[venue unknown] - Albuquerque, NM

July 1st:
KC Starlight Theatre - Kansas City, MO

July 3rd:
Summerfest - Milwaukee, WI

July 19th:
Mohegan Sun Arena - Uncasville, CT

July 23rd:
Saratoga PAC - Saratoga Springs, NY

July ??:
Nikon at Jones Beach Theater - Wantagh, NY
Darien Lake PAC - Darien Center, NY

Aug 5th:
USANA Amphitheatre - Salt Lake City, UT

Aug 22nd:
Verizon Wireless Amphitheater St. Louis - Maryland Heights, MO (outside St. Louis)

Aug ?? (early August):
Shoreline Amphitheater - Mountain View, CA
Sleep Train Pavillion - Concord, CA

Sept 14th: TD Center - Boston, MA

Sept ??:
PNC Bank Center - Holmdel, NJ

??:
Molson Amphitheatre - Toronto, ON
Blossom Music Center - Cuyahoga Falls, OH

It's anybody's guess as to when the official tour announcement will occur, but I would assume it will be either this coming Monday (March 29th) or next (April 5th). Have patience Rush fans!

On Monday it was confirmed that the Rush documentary's world premier will occur at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 24th. Here are the theaters and showtimes:

Sat, Apr 24, 9:30PM SVA Theater 1
Sun, Apr 25, 1:30PM SVA Theater 1
Mon, Apr 26, 3:00PM Clearview Chelsea Cinema
Fri, Apr 30, 11:59PM Village East Cinema 1

Visit the Tribeca Film Festival website for information on obtaining tickets. And on Wednesday it was revealed that the Canadian premier will occur at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto, which runs from April 29th to May 9th. Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage will be shown Thursday, April 29th at 9:30PM at the Winter Garden Theatre and Friday, April 30th at 4:00PM at the Isabel Bader Theatre. For ticket information visit the Hot Docs website. Power Windows also reported that the DVD is finished and will be tentatively released on June 29th.

The Rush Backstage Club is running a new contest where you could win a Vapor Trails Pen with Lanyard. This item is not currently available for purchase and would make for a very unique Rush collectors item. The contest ends on April 8th and you can sign up to enter at this link.

Voting for DRUM! Magazine's 15th annual Drummies reader's poll is now open. Neil Peart has won Drummer of the Year for the past three years along with several other awards. You can place your vote at this link. Thanks to Spindrifter for the heads up.

Last Friday I'd mentioned how RIAB reader and Brigham Young University English professor Patrick Madden (Pat) has published a book of personal essays called Quotidiana (University of Nebraska Press). It is just recently available at Amazon and other booksellers. Its chapters cover a wide variety of subjects, from laughter to fatherhood to the nearly infinite nature of nature, but one unifying theme is the influence of Rush on the author. Half the essays are peppered with Neil Peart's lyrics in conversation with the author's life. Pat used so many lyrics, in fact, that he had to get Neil's permission (it was graciously granted). The book's third essay, Remember Death (those who deciphered the skull-and-femur Morse code message in their Roll the Bones tourbook will recognize this phrase), is especially Rush-related. It chronicles the author's epiphany one summer day in 1981 when his friend placed headphones on his head and played Tom Sawyer. From there, it builds a meditation on death through the lens of Rush. One of the tropes prominent in the essay is the vocabulary Pat learned from Rush lyrics. The essay itself intentionally includes dozens of "Rush words." Pat and the University of Nebraska have produced a PDF of the Remember Death pages for RIAB readers, along with a contest. Read Remember Death, noting all the "Rush words" you find (hint: there are between 50 and 100; they're mainly from the albums through Hold Your Fire). Send your alphabetically organized list in an email to Pat at pcmadden3@yahoo.com with RIAB Vocabulary Contest in the subject line before Friday, April 12th. The person who identifies the most Rush words will win a signed copy of Quotidiana plus a vinyl New World Man single (with an otherwise unreleased live version of Vital Signs on the back; according to several sites, this is the only time, other than their 1973 self-released 45, that Rush has ever released a single that does not appear on a full-length album). Two runners up will win one vinyl 45 each, of either The Big Money (b/w Middletown Dreams) or Time Stand Still (b/w High Water). Each winner will also receive a RIAB bumper sticker.

Geddy Lee appeared briefly on the Monday, March 23rd edition of CTV's eTalk Sightings. They caught some footage of Geddy shopping in Toronto's Yorkville neighborhood. You can check out the footage at this link at about the 6:35 mark. Thanks to Rob S for the heads up.

Apparently Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson will be appearing on an upcoming episode of Canadian reality TV show KayvonTV according to the show's website. There's no word as of yet regarding air times or the nature of their appearance. Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.

Reader John B pointed me to this Popular Science article and accompanying video showcasing a 1969 GTO with an iPod Touch remote control. Guess what's playing when he turns on the stereo? Rush of course!

There was a Rush reference in the Monday, March 22nd episode of Lopez Tonight on TBS. In a skit titled The Classics: in a friggin' nutshell with Andrew Dice Clay, the Diceman says a few words about several literary classics including Tom Sawyer:

Tom Sawyer ... ahead of his time. I didn't really read the book, but the song by Rush kicks ass.

You can watch the video at this link; the Rush bit occurs at about the 50-second mark. Thanks to State of Grace via Counterparts for the heads up.

User baldiepete over at The Rush Forum located this gallery of pics from a Rush show at The Apollo in Glasgow on June 10th, 1980. Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.

NBC Sports was using Rush's Animate as bumper music during their coverage of the PGA golf tournament last weekend. Thanks to gezopete and RushSkins for the heads up.

Reader Mike W let me know about a brief (and inaccurate) reference to Rush and 2112 made by philosopher Harry Binswanger on the Ayn Rand Center's TV website during a discussion about Ayn Rand's influence on modern culture. You can listen to the discussion at this link. The reference occurs at about the 41-minute mark.

Rocker Joan Jett caused quite a flap a couple of months ago when in several interviews she accused Rush of ridiculing her all-girl 70s band The Runaways when they opened for Rush back in 1977. Jett was making the interview rounds promoting the just-released biopic film The Runaways. Now her former bandmate Cherie Currie is reiterating Jett's comments. From a recent CTV article:

... Rush shared the same label as The Runaways. Currie says the band members showed little respect to the girls. "They were sabotaging our equipment. Sabotaging our stage show. They were doing everything they could to stop us. But, we were unstoppable. The only thing that stopped us was ourselves," ...

The Runaways actually attended a party in Rush's honor in December of 1976 as pictured here but didn't tour with them until a couple of months later in February of 1977 where the alleged incident(s) would have taken place.

Primus frontman Les Claypool will be playing a version of The Spirit of Radio at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala on Sunday. For a preview you check out this bootleg video of Claypool performing the song at a show in Tel Aviv, Israel earlier this week (thanks RAKA):

That's all for this week. Have a greate weekend!

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