UPDATE - 6/8@3:57PM: Reader Damon H spotted another Rush tour billboard southbound on I-170 in St. Louis. And best of all he got a great picture of it. Thanks Damon!
It's the last Friday before the start of the tour! Only 5 days left until opening night and the excitement is really starting to build in Rushland. I should have a new feature up and running by opening night. I'm planning on attaching a tour photo gallery to each tour date in the tour section. Registered users (over 1500 now!) will be able to upload their tour photos for everyone to enjoy. I may not get this up by opening night but I'll try.
I also wanted to take a second to thank everybody who has donated to the site. I really appreciate it. And remember, if you donate at least $3 to the site, I'll send you a free RUSH IS A BAND bumper sticker. Reader Rushfn1 received his sticker and sent me a pic of it proudly displayed on his Mini Cooper. The sticker will look great on your bumper this summer while on your roadtrip(s) to see Rush on tour. :)
Speaking of the tour, the big news last week was the addition of the long-rumored show at Madison Square Garden in New York on September 17th. Tickets for the show go on sale next Saturday. For presale information see this post. Steve let me know that there was a full-page ad for the show in The Village Voice showing the desert highway pic with the New York City skyline on the horizon and billing the show as Rush's Final U.S. Performance ... I'm assuming they're talking about this tour and not for all time. :)
Also, if you don't have tickets for the tour yet, I've been receiving word from several folks that Ticketmaster has released more tickets for several of the shows. So you may still be able to grab some.
A few readers (primemover, Captwilb and others) have noticed that there is a billboard advertising the Snakes & Arrows tour show at the PNC Arts Center in New Jersey on July 8th on the New Jersey Turnpike Northbound just before exit 13A. Cool.
Surprisingly enough, there's not been any tour setlist leak yet. And on the subject of the setlist, I do plan on posting it once I have it (late Wednesday/early Thursday I presume). I will be sure and put up a spoiler alert and not display the selist directly in the post. I know a lot of you don't want to ruin the surprise, but just as many (more actually) want to be spoiled. :) Out of respect for those who don't want to see it, I ask everyone to put spoiler alerts in their comment posts as well when discussing the setlist. This is just a request - I'm not going to ban anyone over it or really police it at all. So be warned; if you really don't want to see the setlist you unfortunately may just need to stay out of the comments altogether for a while.
Last week we learned that the next single from Snakes & Arrows was Spindrift with plans to release The Larger Bowl later this summer. Indeed, Spindrift is beginning to get some airplay in certain markets according to MediaBase. In last week's poll I asked everyone their thoughts on what they thought the next single should have been. Workin' Them Angels was the clear winner with nearly 26% of the vote. Rounding out the top 5 were The Way the Wind Blows (16%), The Larger Bowl (12%), Armor and Sword (10%), We Hold On and Spindrift (tied with 8%). For this week's poll I ask the question what song from the album are you most looking forward to seeing live? Take the poll and let us know.
Reader Clemdiggity sent me the latest Snakes & Arrows review. It comes from Blender Magazine and is surprisingly good. Reviewer J.D. Considine gives the album 4.5 stars and has this to say:
After spending half of the '90s on hiatus, Rush made a tentative return with 2002's Vapour Trails, then found their feet with two live releases and a collection of covers (the '60s–themed Feedback). On Snakes & Arrows, Rush combine their strengths, offering plenty of the flash that made them guitar–magazine pinups in well–focused, hook–savvy tunes. So, though they may play more notes per song than some bands play on entire albums, Rush ensure those notes matter - from the churning, semi–orchestral swell of "Faithless" to the quiet intensity of the acoustic–guitar solo "Hope." Even better, there's an edge to the lyrics that makes bassist Geddy Lee's keening vocals seem unusually urgent (as when "Wind Blows" assails know–nothings "from the Middle East to the Middle West"). The result is their best album since Moving Pictures in 1981.
And here's another review from the Spins section of CreativeLoafing.com. The reviewer Scott Deitche gives the album 3.5 stars.
Several weeks ago Rush was scheduled to appear on the CBC program The Hour but it never panned out due to the NHL playoffs. I've heard from a couple readers (thanks Steve and ghost__rider) that Geddy Lee is now scheduled to appear on the program this coming Thursday. Since they'll be on tour at this time, I'm assuming it'll be pre-recorded but I don't know for sure. There's nothing about Geddy's appearance on their schedule on their website yet either.
The June 2007 issue of Bass Player magazine contains a transcription of Closer to the Heart. You can read the introduction at this link
but you need to buy the magazine to see the transcription. Thanks to reader Rob B for the heads up.
Rush's The Spirit of Radio is included on a recently-released UK compilation album from UMTV called Classic School of Rock.
Kim Mitchell has posted a few pics from his interview with Geddy and Alex up on his MySpace page.
Reader Chris W alerted me to a series of programs that will run on the BBC called The Seven Ages of Rock. They have several preview clips up on the website and in one of them they speak with Dave Grohl (Nirvana, The Foo Fighters). In this clip Dave talks for over a minute about how Rush's album 2112 and Neil Peart inspired him to play the drums.
That's all for now. Have a great weekend!
NOTE: Posts over 10 years old are partially archived. All comments, images and other embedded media have been removed.
