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 27, 2010@11:37AM | comments removed/disabled

UPDATE - 8/28@7:54PM: I'm now hearing that plans to film the Columbus show have been scrapped in favor of another show later in the tour. I have no information on what the reasoning behind this decision was, or which show will end up being filmed.

Rush rolled the Time Machine through the US heartland this past week playing shows in Wichita, St. Louis, Chicago and Omaha. This coming week they'll make their way east starting off with a show at the Minnesota State Fair tonight where fans can wish Alex Lifeson a Happy Birthday, then onto Columbus, Allentown, Syracuse and New Jersey before taking another extended break. Sharing the bill with Rush at the Minnesota State Fair will be fellow longtime rockers KISS, and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune recently featured a couple of articles on the fans of both bands. There's this article which focuses on the love 'em or hate 'em attitude most people have regarding the two bands. And our own Rush/Geddy Lee superfan PetieLee was profiled (along with her awesome Rush tatoos) in this article titled Some fairly fanatical fans. Rumors still abound that the show at Nationwide Arena in Columbus will be filmed. That show had been sold out but just yesterday Live Nation pushed the stage back and added a few more sections. Before you purchase any tickets be sure to check out the updated seating chart at Ticketmaster! Most broker sites still have the old seating chart up which is causing a bit of confusion.

Other than the tour, the big news of the past week was a recent interview with Alex Lifeson that appeared in Allentown's The Morning Call newspaper on Wednesday (**SETLIST SPOILERS**). Alex spoke about the Moving Pictures album, the tour and revealed several new details regarding the band's upcoming Clockwork Angels album. From the article:

... the band has six songs pretty much ready to go and three others almost done. The group plans to write at least a couple of additional songs after the tour. ... "There is the epic song, 'Clockwork Angels,' which is really taking shape. It's a multi-parted piece, very dynamic," Lifeson says. "Then there's some stuff that's very melodic and on the softer side, on acoustic, with a strong melody. So there's great diversity there. Honestly, I can't wait until we start really working on these songs. We've sort of got them to the stage where Geddy and I were happy with the arrangements and then Neil kind of comes in and starts working on his drum arrangements, and they go from there. So they're sort of in that pre-drum stage right now, and it's great to see them come to life." ...

You can read the entire article at this link (**SETLIST SPOILERS**).

Neil Peart continues to battle inner ear issues on the tour and has been wearing headphones in lieu of in-ear monitors ever since the 2nd Red Rocks show back on August 18th. Neil Peart drum tech Lorne Wheaton posted the following to his MySpace page last Thursday:

Feeling for the boss, who is dealing with an inner ear issue. Back on the cans for a while. Mood: anxious
3:46 PM Aug 19

As an apology for the canceled/rescheduled 2nd Chicago show back on July 7th, Rush had free baseball caps passed out to all concertgoers on their way out of Monday's makeup show at the Charter One Pavilion. The cap is light gray with a blue Rush 1974-2112 baseball logo on the front, an embroidered number 3 on the side and the words The Rain Date - Rush - Chicago 2010 stitched on the back. These have inevitably already made their way to eBay.

The night before the St. Louis show Geddy Lee attended the Cardinals-Giants baseball game. Cardinals coach Tony La Russa acknowledged Geddy Lee in the post game interview, stating that he was a special guest of the Cardinals.

Portraits of Bluesfest 2 took place yesterday evening at the Cube Gallery in Ottawa. Portraits from July's Ottawa Bluesfest created by 13 local artists including a couple of Rush-themed ones were on display and available to purchase in a charity auction. The 2 Rush-themed portraits were a 12x12 oil on canvas painting of Geddy Lee by Phillip Craig, and a cartoon drawing of the band playing live by Zeke Zavacky. You can check out all of the portraits at this link.

I'd mentioned back in the Los Angeles thread how major league baseball pitcher turned photographer Randy Johnson had taken some photos from that show that ended up being posted on Rush.com. Apparently he was also at the Irvine show taking photos from the sound booth; reader Mitch18ss snapped this photo of Johnson behind the lens. Speaking of Irvine, there's a great bootleg of this show available for listening in the Listening Room at RushTrader.com.

Also at RushTrader.com is a recently posted rare old interview with Geddy Lee from 1989. It was a radio interview conducted by John Sebastian of the 60's pop group The Lovin' Spoonful. The two discuss Rush's career to that point and new album at the time, Presto. You can give it a listen at this link (thanks Ant).

Late last week we learned that NASA was conducting a Space Rock contest where they are asking folks to vote for their favorite wakeup songs to be played on the upcoming STS-133 Space Shuttle mission. One of the songs being considered is Rush's Countdown. Over the past week there has been a flurry of voting with the lead bouncing back and forth between Countdown and the Star Trek Theme. But now Steppenwolf's Magic Carpet Ride has jumped into the fray and pushed Rush back into third place because of one enthusiastic Star Trek fan's admitted cheating. Cheating or not, the top 2 songs will be chosen so it's important that we put Rush back into the top 2. You can vote for Rush at this link. You may vote as many times as you wish. Vote often!

Earlier this week we learned that VH1 will be airing an updated version of thier 100 Greatest Music Artists of All Time special over 4 nights starting with a 2-hour program on Monday, September 6th. The list was determined by polling well-known music artists and industry experts including Rush's Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. VH1 conducted the same poll back in 1998 as their first ever countdown special. At that time Rush did not make their list, but this time they come in at #75. You can read the official press release at this link.

Rush is featured in the latest issue of the Columbus-based free music magazine Melt. The August/September 2010 issue has Rush gracing the cover along with a 2-page article on their upcoming show at the Nationwide Arena on Sunday. You can check out the article by clicking on the thumbnails. Thanks to Power Windows for the heads up.

The latest issue of Guitar World's special Guitar Legends series focuses on the 30 Greatest Classic Rock Guitar Heroes. Featured on pages 48-9 is our own guitar hero and birthday boy Alex Lifeson. Thanks to Power Windows for the heads up.

Speaking of Lerxst the birthday boy, Gibson.com recently posted an article profiling Alex Lifeson and the Gibson guitars that he currently uses and has used over the years. The article is titled Caress of Steel: Rush's Alex Lifeson and His Guitarsenal and you can check it out at this link (thanks RushFanForever).

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 a few weeks ago that the movie will be released to DVD and Blu-ray in the US on September 28th and is already available for purchase in Canada. The film is getting a limited theatrical release sponsored by horror magazine Fangoria starting this coming coming Thursday, 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.

Reader Ant from over at RushTrader.com let me know that he recently dug up and posted an old interview with Geddy Lee to the site. This rare radio interview was conducted back in 1989 by John Sebastian of the 60s pop group The Lovin' Spoonful for a radio broadcast. Geddy talks about Rush's career up to that point and discusses the band's Presto album. You can listen to the interview at this link. There's also currently a great bootleg of the Irvine show from earlier this month posted in the Listening Room section of the website.

Reader chino23 let me know of a small Rush reference on last night's episode of the Canadian police drama Rookie Blue (season 1, episode 10). At one point one cop asks another what kind of music he likes and the other cop replies HUGE Rush fan.

In the latest installment of his music discovery podcast and blog Bands Like Rush, Ben Sommer talks to guitarist/singer/songwriter Jared Mullins of San Diego power rock trio Heavy Glow. Ben describes the band as ... Cream crossed with early Rush circa Fly By Night, only with a white-boy baritone blues singer. The podcast also includes 2 full tracks from their most recent self-titled album; Grinning In The Dark and Trailin' St. Judas Blues. To find out more about the band check out their website at this link. You can listen to the podcast or read a transcription at this link.

Reader BigLeaf sent me this Toronto Star article on the recent demolition of McClear Place Studios in Toronto where Rush frequently recorded. From the article:

No, the receptionist at the McClear recording studio told the Rush fan, the members of the band were not around.

Moments later, a man wearing cycling attire and pushing a bicycle walked by the fan. The fan barely noticed - though the cyclist was Rush drummer Neil Peart.

"I guess he thought he was a bike courier or something," said former McClear transfer engineer Dean Allen, "because he was all dressed up in bike gear. Rolled right past him, and the guy didn't even know."

Peart made his incognito entrance into a studio that was itself easily ignored. To its right was the Club Toronto bathhouse, to its left townhomes. The nondescript McClear building, at 225 Mutual St., near Carlton and Jarvis Sts., was only one storey tall. ...

Last year Canadian rapper D-Sisive released his album Let the Children Die where he extensively samples Rush's The Necromancer for the song The Super Bowl is Over. You can listen to the track on YouTube at this link. Thanks to Claudio D for the heads up.

The Drum Channel recently posted to their YouTube channel a short preview video from their upcoming DVD release of Mike Portnoy's appearance on their Art of Drumming program with Terry Bozio. In the video Portnoy discusses Neil Peart and how he influenced his drumming. You can watch the video below or at this link (thanks speckbrot).

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

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