Rush is a Band

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

Mon, Mar 18, 2024

Updates and other random Rush stuff

Fri, Aug 6, 2010@9:53AM | comments removed/disabled

Rush kicked off the next leg of their 2010 Time Machine Tour last night in Salt Lake City, UT after having taken an 11-day hiatus. They'll hit Seattle on Saturday and then make a swing through California next week. An article in the August 19th edition of Rolling Stone magazine titled Amphitheaters Struggle in Tough Summer Season talks about how this summer dozens of major shows have been canceled due to poor ticket sales and mentions Rush as one of the few exceptions: ... some acts are still selling well outdoors: Dave Matthews Band and Rush are strong virtually everywhere (thanks Ross R). Go Rush! As he usually does during any extended break, Neil Peart updated the News page on his website earlier this week with some stories from the road. The update is titled Theme and Variations and you can check it out at this link. Speaking of Neil Peart, UK Drum magazine Rhythm is celebrating their 25th anniversary by asking readers to vote for the best drummer of the last 25 years. Neil Peart is of course in the running and needs your help. To vote for Neil go to this link. The anniversary issue will also be featuring an interview with Neil.

Tandem Digital is the company that produces many of the custom concert videos that are seen playing in the background at Rush concerts. Early last month they posted a couple of the videos from the Time Machine Tour to their YouTube Channel and now have high-res versions along with screenshots available on their website here and here (obvious SPOILERS). In addition to all of that cool stuff, they have 3-D renderings of Neil's Time Machine Tour kit available for viewing at this link.

High quality prints of all of John Arrowsmith's official Rush tour photos were recently made available for purchase at this link. They've made some changes to their pricing scheme and are now offering several photo packages for sale along with 5x7 prints starting at $20. All the photos come with a watermark displaying when and where that photo was taken, but John has been uploading non-watermarked versions of the photos as well for those who would rather not have the watermark.

The Rush Backstage Club has added a bunch of new Time Machine Tour-themed items to their Rush merchandise lineup. Included among the new items are shoelaces, earrings, socks, a windbreaker, several new shirt designs, yet another thong and much more. You can check out all the new stuff at this link. They are also running a meet-and-greet contest which you can enter at this link (thanks robertkincaid96).

A few weeks ago the official Neil Peart Time Machine Tour retail model drumsticks from Pro-Mark were made available to retailers. Pro-mark posted an official announcement on their website last week along with this cool advertisement for the sticks featuring Neil Peart. Thanks to Andrew Olson for the heads up.

I've finally made an archive of all the old RIAB polls available at this link. Speaking of which, for the current poll I'm asking the question What do you think of the Time Machine Tour setlist? If you haven't already, take the Poll and let us know.

A couple of weeks ago we learned that Universal will be releasing yet another Rush compilation as part of their new ICON series. It will retail for just $7.99 and be released August 31st. Allmusic.com has posted a low-res version of the cover along with the 12-song tracklist which includes some very interesting selections. You can check out all the details in this post.

On Saturday I alerted you to a short ESPN interview with Geddy Lee where Geddy talks sports with Jennifer Williams. You can check out the interview at this link.

The Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage had its US television premiere back in late June on VH1, VH1 Classic and Palladia. Shortly after that it was released to DVD/Blu-ray. According to the Banger Films blog, Banger Films has teamed up with Toronto-based film production, distribution and consulting company Tricon to handle international television distribution of the film. So soon all of our international Rush fan friends should be able to see the documentary on TV.

Maroon 5 played a show in Toronto earlier this week and reader Andrew W reports that when singer Adam Levine introduced guitarist James Valentine, Valentine played a bit of Tom Sawyer. Valentine is a known Rush fan and was spotted on an episode of MTV Cribs back in 2004 sporting a Power Windows t-shirt.

In last week's issue of the Dallas Morning News QUICK magazine there's a Rush reference in their Fun With Lists section. In reference to last week's start of the Dallas Cowboys training camp, their top ten list is as follows:

Fun With Lists: Things we'd like to see at Dallas Cowboys training camp, opening Saturday in San Antonio

1) DeMarcus Ware, Martellus Bennett and Anthony Spencer performing Rush's seminal album Moving Pictures in its entirety ...

Thanks to David C for the heads up and the scan.

Reader ThomasG_2112 located a Rush reference in this recent article from Tech Republic titled 12 must-have cross-platform applications. One of the featured applications is the VLC media player and in the accompanying screenshot Rush's BU2B is playing.

Reader Radio Spirit let me know that the latest episode of Sound Opinions features an interview with Stephen Malkmus of Pavement. He briefly references Rush when discussing the band's move from the experimental album Wowee Zowee to the more accessible Brighten the Corners:

... People didn't really like [Wowee Zowee] very much on the critical side. A lot of my friends did, so that was enough. It was kind of a sales disappointment. Normal stuff that bands go through. Like Rush did for Caress of Steel. But instead of going farther like Rush, we pulled back and did Brighten the Corners. ...

You may recall that Pavement make reference to Geddy Lee in their song Stereo which contains the lyric What about the voice of Geddy Lee? How did it get so high? I wonder if he speaks like an ordinary guy. You can listen to the interview at this link; just look for show #244 from July 30th, 2010.

Reader David C dug out this old relic from 1983. It's a scan of the sleeve from a 2-album cassette release of Rush's first 2 albums; Rush and Fly by Night.

Triumph's Rik Emmett was recently interviewed for Gibson.com and spoke a little about fellow Canadian guitarist Alex Lifeson:

... I had seen [Rush] at a couple of places, a couple of bars in Toronto. I do remember when Triumph was playing at the Gasworks, a legendary Young Street bar in Toronto. Alex came down to one of the gigs that we were playing there. Mike Myers used a kind of a version of the bar – an incredibly idealized version of the bar – in one of the Wayne’s World movies. It was just this long, narrow thin bar right on the Young Street strip. It was kind of like a proving ground – if you played there, you were now sort of into the bar circuit. I’d seen Rush there. Geddy had his nails painted black.

My strongest memory was Alex just tearing it up. He played a version of Jeff Beck’s “Going Down,” and he just tore it up on a 335. He came to say “Hi” and we had a drink at the bar, that sort of thing. I’ve known Alex through the years, and from time to time he and I have gotten together. There’s a thing up here – a guy named Brian Murray runs a thing called Guitar Workshops Plus – and he’d been trying to get Alex out there for years and years. Finally we did one together. That was two or three summers ago. That was a lot of fun. We spent the day just hanging and telling stories and jammed together at night on acoustic guitars, then electrics after that as sort of a closing finale of the day. Alex is an extremely gracious guy. I don’t really know the other guys well. I don’t know Geddy and Neil very well at all. But every time I’ve ever had the pleasure of being in Alex’s company, he’s been an extremely gracious and humble type of guy. And he’s not such a bad guitar player either! ...

Thanks to Eric D for the heads up.

In the latest installment of his music discovery podcast and blog Bands Like Rush, Ben Sommer talks to guitarist/singer/songwriter Andy Milk of Boston-based prog rock/punk trio The Vital Might. Ben and Andy discuss the recording & production process, how to achieve a big sound as a prog power-trio, moving from grunge to pop to metal to pretentious prog – all in one song, and Andy's vocal affinities with Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon. The podcast also includes 2 full tracks; a whacked out track called Make My Day from their debut album, and the heavy late-Rush style track Phantom Spaceman from their latest album Red Planet. To find out more about the band check out their website at this link. You can listen to the podcast at this link.

Reader RemixVaporTrailsNOW sent me this YouTube video of Frank Hannon (Tesla, Frank Hannon Band) doing a live cover of Rush's Working Man.

The Canadian vampire horror/comedy flick Suck was released to theaters in Canada back in October of 2009 and had its US premier at the SXSW Film Festival in March in Austin, TX on Wednesday March 17th. Alex Lifeson makes an appearance in the movie as a border guard. You can get a glimpse of Alex in the film's trailer at this link (at about the 1:50 mark). We learned earlier this week that the movie will be released to DVD and Blu-ray on September 28th and is currently available for pre-order. It'll also be getting a limited theatrical release starting September 2nd through D&E Entertainment - the same distributor that handled the Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage theatrical release. All the details along with theaters/showtimes can be found at this link.

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

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