UPDATE - 7/13@4:13PM: I just determined that the 2112th confirmed registered user at Rush is a Band was ... (Neil Peart drum roll) .... jersey-skeeter! Please come forth and claim your free RIAB bumper sticker (I'll email you too). :)

It's break time for Rush. It seems that they wanted to take Bastille Day (tomorrow) off and Geddy wanted to catch the MLB All-star Game Tuesday. :) Their last show was Monday at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, and their next show isn't until next Wednesday. They'll be heading out west to play their first Canadian date in Calgary and then hitting the US West Coast. Be sure to check out all the great photos, bootleg videos and fan reviews from the first 16 East Coast dates in the tour section. If you have photos of your own from any of the shows so far, please upload them here.

I'm proud to announce that sometime earlier this week the 2112th registered user at Rush is a Band signed up! As it stands right now we're almost at 2200. Thanks for everyone who has contributed their comments, photos, clicks and dollars to the site. It is very much appreciated. To get your very own RUSH IS A BAND bumper sticker just donate at least $3 to the site and I'll send one off to you.

My next site enhancement will likely be the creation of a Daily Chat area; a daily comment thread where users can go and chat about whatever they want. I've been getting several comments from users requesting such an area so that idle chat can be kept separate from comments regarding a specific post. As it stands right now, many users are utilizing the post comments to chat among themselves - which I'm fine with since that's the only outlet currently available to them. But this irks some folks who'd rather keep comments to the subject at hand - also understandable. I think this is a good compromise. Once this is in place I'll politely ask folks to try and keep idle chit-chat to the Daily Chat Area but I won't really police this. It's not my policy to dictate what people discuss in the comments as long as they keep it civil. But at least now folks will have an option available outside of the regular comments. Now all we need is a name... I was thinking the Rush Pub (open 24 hours a day) since that's the de facto name already. :) Also on my to-do list is a member list to help facilitate users getting in touch with one another.

In last week's poll I asked concert-goers which songs should have been included in the setlist that were left out. The results are in (SPOILERS) and the winner comes as no surprise. Since the first leg of the tour is complete, I thought that this week I'd conduct a survey of readers to see which show(s) they attended. You can let us know here.

This week I have several random Rush references to report. This first one comes via Power Windows. A couple of nights ago a new show on cable TV channel G4TV premiered called Code Monkeys. The show features a pixelated animation style and is set in the 1980s at the beginning of the video game era. During the opening credits of the show, a Rush poster can be seen hanging on the wall in Dave and Jerry's office. It's a pixelated version of an actual Rush poster the original of which can be seen here.

Continuing with the theme of 80s video games, this next Rush reference was sent to me by reader Andrew S. In 1985 Nintendo released a futuristic driving game called Mach Rider where you race a machine-gun equipped motorcycle across a desolate Earth. Guess what year the game takes place? 2112 of course! Here's a screenshot with the 2112 sighting. The game was re-released for download this past Monday for the Nintendo Wii.

Chris sent me this tiny Rush reference from the Within the Cranium blog.

There was a Rush sighting on Canadian Idol according to snowdogged over at The Rush Forum. One of the female contestants on the show - Tara Oram - said that even though she was a big country music fan, she would really love to see Rush in concert because they represent great Canadian musicianship.

Rush is mentioned in this recent article from the Hartford Courant which discusses Ayn Rand and Objectivism. Thanks to Ron S for the heads up.

The World Series of Video Games held its second event on its Guitar Hero II competitive circuit this past weekend in Dallas, Texas. Winning the competition was Freddie Wong with his amazing performance of Rush's YYZ. For details check out this article at Blabbermouth.net and for video of the performance go here. Earlier this week it was announced that Rush's Tom Sawyer would be included as one of the songs in Rock Band, the upcoming sequel to Guitar Hero 2.

bruins over at Counterparts reported that prog-metal band Tool opened a show at the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, ON with a riff from A Passage to Bangkok. Tool have often cited Rush as a major influence.

Readers TSOR and Metal Tim pointed me to this article about the new MVI format in which Rush is mentioned.

LASERS!!! Reader Laurie M let me know that Vancouver's Rock 101 FM will be sponsoring a Laser Rush show which opens tonight. Here are the details from the website:

LASER RUSH

Classic Rock 101 Presents LASER RUSH!!!
Laser Rush - Vancouver's first Rush laser show features the best songs from the new chart topping cd SNAKES AND ARROWS, plus many of their great songs from the past 30 years

Tickets to the July 13th opening night are only $1.01 !
Look for the Rock 101 crew on location that night!

Location: HR Macmillan Space Centre.

Here's an impressive video of reader rootwitch performing Alex Lifeson's Hope.

And here is a challenge to everyone from reader Nettie:

I want to make a dare/challenge to all those on the site:
If someone can get a photo of Neil smiling while at his drum kit during a concert, I'll donate 20 dollars to S-CAP (rushtofightaids) and 20 dollars to Second Harvest for the first photo posted on the site.

I challenge everyone to pledge money to these charities (or others) and donate it when the picture appears. If you like, they can contact me with the pledge and I'll keep track of who pledged what.

I'll take pledges from today until the end of the July tour break (July 17th). People would be responsible for sending the money in themselves, I won't keep track of that.

You can contact Nettie using her personal contact form.

That's all for now. Have a great weekend and a pleasant Bastille Day tomorrow! :)

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