UPDATE - 8/24@2:29PM: Hmmm.. Regarding my mention of the show Feasting on Asphalt using Red Barchetta as theme music - that seems to be incorrect. Readers questrider and texanmgm emailed me to tell me that it wasn't Red Barchetta, nor was it even a Rush recording. What it was - and is since they're continuing to use this musical passage as part of the theme music for the show - was something that sounds like The Analog Kid. There's a thread over at Counterparts discussing it.
Leg number 3 - the Middle West leg - of the Snakes & Arrows tour is now underway. Rush hit Kansas City last night and will play 9 more dates throughout the Midwest before heading to the Great White North in mid-September.
Neil Peart presented us all with yet another great news update during the tour break. If you haven't read it yet, check it out. Neil also added the Bobby Standridge-produced video for Malignant Narcissism to the Xtras page on his site (thanks Nettie).
A portion of the Eddie Trunk interview with Geddy and Alex from a few months ago was finally released by Atlantic on Wednesday ... unfortunately it looks like they have since taken it down. Hopefully it'll reappear in some form in the future.
If you haven't yet be sure to go and vote for Rush in the Classic Rock Magazine 2007 Roll of Honour.
Alex Lifeson will be celebrating his 54th birthday this coming Monday, August 27th. In honor of this joyous occasion I thought I'd put up a Lerxst-related poll as I'd mentioned in my last updates post. So where would you place Alex Lifeson on the list of the best all-time rock guitarists? Take the poll and let us know. Thanks to reader sbkp for the poll suggestion.
In the previous poll I asked everyone what their favorite song off of Rush's debut album was. With over 400 total votes, Working Man was the clear favorite, picking up nearly one-third of the votes. Rounding out the top 5 were Finding My Way (17%), Before and After (13%), What You're Doing (12%) and Here Again (9%).
The soundtrack to the Rob Zombie remake of the 1978 classic horror flick Halloween was released this past Tuesday. As I reported last month the soundtrack includes Rush's Tom Sawyer along with several other classic rock tracks. The movie will be released August 31st. The trailer can be seen at this location.
Here's a bit of sad news. Max Roach - one of Neil Peart's influences and one of the greatest jazz drummers of all-time - passed away recently. Thanks to LosingIt for the heads up.
According to the Rocky Mountain News, Geddy Lee was apparently spotted chowing down on gravy fries and fried cheese at Steuben's in Denver. I'm assuming this was on the Rush off-day prior to the Red Rocks show.
It wouldn't be a random Rush update without mentioning Dream Theater. At their August 18th show in Toronto they began their encore with a small tribrute to Rush by performing the intro to Xanadu with a few bits of The Trees and YYZ thrown in. Thanks to Xhail for the news.
Paul Friswold of the St. Louis Riverfront Times recently wrote a series of 2 interesting/humorous Geddy-Lee-related posts on his Twelve Angry Fingers blog in the run-up to tonight's Rush show in St. Louis. Apparently Geddy Lee saved his life when he was a kid ... twice.
Internet entrepreneur (CEO/co-founder of both Raindance Communications and lijit.com) Todd Vernon is a huge Rush fan and attended the Red Rocks show 2 weeks ago. He had some great things to say about it in his blog. Thanks to Barney M for the heads up.
Reader Todd noted that there's an early 90s-era pic of Rush on the home page of Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock site. It's part of a montage image used as the background on the site. Cool.
Reader bp92 let me know that the Food Network program Feasting on Asphalt used Red Barchetta as the opening song of their show on August 11th. The song could be heard when rejoining the show after a commercial break. Feasting on Asphalt is a show where the host, Alton Brown, rides his motorcycle around the back roads of America visiting all the mom & pop diners looking for the real American cuisine and trying foods he never tasted before. Sounds like a show that Neil Peart would love. :)
Speaking of Pratt... I'm sure he'd get a kick out of this photo of a street sign taken by reader Jen S in Baltimore. :)
That's all for now. Have a great weekend!
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