Rush has completed their first set of Canadian dates on the tour and will be heading back to the states tomorrow to play the Gorge Amphitheatre. The official attendance numbers for the first part of the tour were released Wednesday. So far the average attendance has been 7,715 tickets sold out of 9,555 available and the average gross sales has been $538,754. To compare to the 2007 leg, the average attendance on that tour was 10,633 tickets sold out of 15,052 available with gross sales of $589,333. So the attendance has fallen nearly 25% but gross sales are about the same. So that obviously means higher ticket prices this time around. Indeed, on the 2007 leg the average ticket price was $55.37. This time around it's $73.10 - an increase of about 30%.
Last weekend was the unofficial kickoff to summer here in the States. So I thought for my next poll question I'd ask everyone what concerts (other than Rush of course) that they plan on attending this summer. I tried to include all the major tours that I thought a Rush fan might also like to see although I'm sure I may have missed a couple. So take the poll and let us know.
Earlier this week we learned that Rush donated $100,000 of the ticket sales from this past Saturday's show in Winnipeg to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Way to go guys.
Filmmaker Sam Dunn (Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, Global Metal) recently was interviewed and had a few words to say about the upcoming Rush documentary he's working on with Scott McFadyen. To check out what he said see this post.
Sean let me know that WLUP in Chicago is running a contest to win Rush tickets to the Chicago show along with $250 worth of Rush merchandise. For details, check out this link.
Reader PhillyMike alerted me that the May 30, 2008 issue of Entertainment Weekly, featuring its summer music preview, has a short interview with Taylor Hawkins (drummer for the Foo Fighters). One of the questions relates to Alex and Geddy's guest appearance at the Foo's show in Toronto:
Q: During a Foos show earlier this year, you played Rush's "YYZ" with the band's guitarist Alex Lifeson and bassist-vocalist Geddy Lee. What was that like?
A: That was a real frickin' dream come true. First of all, man, I'm no [Rush drummer] Neil Peart, not by any stretch of the imagination. But a lot of times when I warm up, I'll just play through that song. Alex and Geddy were definitely slumming it. But it goes down as one of the top five most exciting stage moments for me ever.
Reader thedigitalman let me know of a Rush reference on the Canadian comedy reality TV series Kenny vs. Spenny. In episode 11 of season 2 titled Who Can Sell More Bibles?, Kenny was reciting mock Bible exerpts and one of them was from the book of Jean-Luc Picard 21:12. You can check out the video here.
Reader coder_ pointed me to this cool electronic song posted at rifflet.com which combines several pieces from a bunch of Rush songs. Check it out here.
And finally, reader UltimoGuitarist wanted me to let you all know about his new Rush Tribute Band project over at YouTube.
That's about it for this week. Have a great weekend!
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