Rush is a Band

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

Tue, Mar 19, 2024

Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson guest appearance on tonight's episode of NBC's Chicago Fire

Tue, Nov 17, 2015@1:16PM | comments

UPDATE - 11/20@9:42AM: Facebook user Brian S has uploaded a video of just the Rush parts here:

Chicago Fire RUSH Clip

I took all the RUSH scenes from Chicago FIre and stitched them together to make a condensed version.. RUSH RULES !!!! even on a fictional TV show

Posted by Brian Stumpfol on Thursday, November 19, 2015

----- snip -----

UPDATE - 11/18@9:48AM: The complete episode is now available for viewing on the NBC website here. The basic premise regarding the Rush involvement centered around the team helping out a guy who happens to be a roadie for Rush. The roadie is wearing a Signals t-shirt (screenshot here). Apparently in the universe of the show, Rush decided to add an extra one-off Chicago show to the R40 Live tour. The roadie informs Mouch (Christian Stolte) - who happens to be a huge Rush fan - about the show, and in the next segment Mouch is searching the internet for some Rush tickets (screenshot here). The roadie later comes down to the station and gives the team four tickets to the show along with meet-n-greet passes (screenshot here). They then have a YYZ air-drum contest to determine who gets the tickets. In the final segment the guys go to the show and a very nervous Mouch, who is wearing a jean jacket and 2112 t-shirt (screenshot here), tells the band a story about how he and his friend wore numbers 21 and 12 in highschool. The story comes out a little wrong, making it sound like he said he had seen the band when he was 21 with his 12-year-old friend, which caused Al and Ged to raise their eyebrows a bit (screenshot here). The team then takes a photo with the band (screenshot here). They then realize that their backstage tickets were really behind-the-stage tickets and their view of the show is obstructed.

A few weeks ago Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson visited the set of the NBC drama Chicago Fire to film a scene for an upcoming episode of the show that will air this evening on NBC. The show's creators Michael Brandt and Derek Haas are huge Rush fans as pointed out in this TV Trippin article from this past week where they talk to the cast and crew about the episode and getting to meet/work with Rush:

... The co-creators of "Chicago Fire" light up like a five-alarm fire when talking about Tuesday's episode featuring the legendary rock band Rush. "We've been friends with the Rush guys for years," Michael Brandt said. "They're hilarious. Total hams. They did us a favor." ... The storyline involves Rush performing a concert in Chicago. A few lucky Firehouse 51 fans snag free tickets to the show. "We've been thinking about [having them on] for four years, so the fact that they finished their last tour and said that they would do it is awesome," co-creator Derek Haas told me during an interview Monday at NBC press day in Chicago. ... "We originally were approached by NASCAR to do a crossover episode," showrunner Matt Olmstead said. "We explored it. As oftentimes happens ... logistics got the best of everybody. So we had to pull that storyline." ... Instead of getting tickets to a NASCAR event, why not have the firefighters get freebies to a concert, Olmstead suggested. "Derek's like, 'Rush! It's gotta be Rush!'" Olmstead said. "Thus began the whole process of clearing rights to music. Those guys [Haas and Brandt] wrote the Rush substitute storyline in about five minutes. That came from deep, deep, deep. Lifelong dream realized for those two guys." ...

We first learned about the guest appearance a few weeks ago when Haas tweeted out a photo of the cast sheet from the episode, confirming that Geddy and Alex would appear, and also revealing the episode's Rush-inspired title - 2112. The show follows the lives of firefighters and paramedics working at the Chicago Fire Department, and the title of the episode is likely a reference to the NFPA 2112: Flash Fire Protection Standards, as well as being a nod to the episode's special guests. Here's the episode's synopsis which gives a glimpse into how Rush, Geddy and Alex will fit into the episode:

"Chief Boden (Eamonn Walker) meets his new neighbor (guest star Ilfenesh Hadera), who asks him for a favor that leads to serious consequences. Severide (Taylor Kinney) takes offense to being treated like a candidate by Captain Patterson (guest star Brian White) by undermining him during a call and the situation reaches a boiling point. Cruz (Joe Minoso) receives a surprise visit from his past when Freddie (guest star Ralph Rodriguez), a gangbanger who knows Cruz's brother Leon, comes to visit and ask for a favor. Elsewhere, the team is called to a harrowing scene of an 18-wheeler and receive a thanks in the form of tickets to see the band Rush, much to Mouch (Christian Stolte) and Herrmann's (David Eigenberg) delight."

The episode will air this evening at 10PM EST on NBC.

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