RUSH IS A BAND

Friday, March 7, 2008

Updates and other random Rush stuff

After tomorrow, tickets for every show on the 2008 leg of the Snakes & Arrows tour will be on sale to the general public. There is however still an outside chance of them adding a second show at a venue or two depending on how ticket sales go; Puerto Rico and Toronto come to mind as a couple of possibilities. But for the time being, pre-sales are over and the countdown to opening night in Puerto Rico begins - 5 weeks from today on April 11th.

Ticket sales are still a bit sluggish but picking up in some markets. Some good news is that Ft.Lauderdale, Orlando, Puerto Rico, New Orleans, and Dallas have seen a surge in ticket sales over the last 2 weeks and should expect to go over the 10,000 ticket mark. However, there are currently over a dozen shows that have only sold around 5,000 seats, the worst being Hershey at just barely over 4,000 tickets. Atlantic City also is not fairing well and has yet to sell out its 5,200 seats. Hopefully things will pick up. They do seem to be advertising the tour as demonstrated by this commercial for the tour that reader the2112 saw during South Park a couple weeks back. Banners advertising the tour have also been spotted at several NHL hockey games - they must figure hockey fans like Rush... a valid assumption I'd guess. :)

The band is in rehearsals for the 2008 leg as of last week. I have no details regarding the specifics yet, but I'm told that they do plan on changing out at least around 8 or so songs. It's early though - so I doubt that even the band knows what the final setlist will be. But since we all love to speculate, I thought this would be a good time to remind everyone of the reports that photographer Ross Halfin gave back in October regarding soundchecks. He witnessed the band rehearsing the following songs during soundchecks on the European leg of the tour and reported it in his October, 2007 online diary: nearly the whole of Hemispheres and most of A Farewell To Kings; Cinderella Man, The Analog Kid and Here Again; Beneath, Between & Behind and a bit of La Villa Strangiato. There were also reports that Fly By Night was played in soundcheck at the October 3rd Glasgow show. So assuming Ross can be believed, the fact that they may have been rehearsing these songs in soundcheck might be a clue regarding additions to the 2008 leg's setlist. We'll see.

In last week's poll I asked you which of Rush's never-played-live 70's-era songs would you most like to hear on the 2008 leg. I should first point out that I just realized I included Different Strings on the 70s-era list even though it was released in 1980 (barely though - it was January). My bad. And guess what song won with 29% of the vote? ... Different Strings of course. The number 2 spot surprised me a bit; The Fountain of Lamneth with 21% of the vote. That was my selection actually - I love that song. Next was Making Memories with 12%. The rest of the tracks had less than 10% each. You can see the complete results here. For this week I'm asking the same question but shifting our focus to 80s-era Rush. So which of Rush's never-played-live 80's-era songs would you most like to hear on the 2008 leg? Take the poll and let us know what you think.

It was a relatively quiet week for Rush news. The only item of significance was the news that the Workin' Them Angels Live single from Rush's upcoming double live CD Snakes & Arrows Live is now available on iTunes. You can get it at this link. The single is already in rotation at several radio stations nationwide and is scheduled to officially impact radio this coming Tuesday, March 10th. It's also floating around the internet in various mp3 formats.

Despite a few hiccups, I was able to launch the Rush is a Band store earlier this week. You can purchase from a variety of apparel items such as t-shirts, hoodies and sweatshirts for both men and women. You can even get a RushIsABand mousepad or mug! The items are all fully customizable so you can add your RIAB username, or some lyrics... or whatever you can come up with - and about 20% of the price goes towards supporting the site. So go take a look around when you get a chance. If there are any items you'd like to have me add to the store, let me know. I'll be adding more stuff over the next several weeks, and I'm working on a design for black shirts too.

There's been a Rush sighting on yet another Cartoon Network Adult Swim show. Xavier: Renegade Angel joins the ranks of other cartoons on the network that have contained Rush references such as Sealab 2021 , Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Harvey Birdman and Squidbillies. In episode 6 of season 1 (titled World of Hurt, BC) which first aired on December 9th, 2007 the main character Xavier goes back in time by eating bacon and smoking (because it takes minutes off of your life ... get it?). He then regurgitates the bacon to go back to the future. However... he goes a bit too far to the year ... you guessed it - 2112! He then eats some more bacon to get back to the right time. Sounds pretty wacky. Thanks to Codackussell for the heads up.

In my updates post from a couple weeks back I mentioned how Neil Peart's original Tama Kit is currently owned by a guy named Adam Roderick who won it in the Modern Drummer giveaway back in the 1980s. He uses the kit in tribute shows to Rush with his band Trilogy. Trilogy guitarist Chris Meek saw the post and sent me this link which includes some pictures Adam gave him from way back when he won the kit. Neil's drum tech at the time Larry Allen delivered the kit to Adam's house, and Adam was later able to meet Neil at a show on the GUP tour. Very cool stuff.

Speaking of Neil Peart kits, a few weeks ago I mentioned that the last of the Neil Peart R30 commemorative drumkits had finally been sold. However, reader Danny has one of the kits and is looking to unload it. So if you have $30K lying around shoot Danny an email. :)

Here's an interesting Rush history-related tidbit; reader Richie has a close friend who owns Tree Sound Studios in Atlanta. It turns out that the mixing console in Studio 11 is the very same board that was in Le Studio. From their website:

The centerpiece of Tree Sound Studios is an SSL 4000 E/G console, serial #11 - the eleventh SSL ever made! This console has some of the coolest vibes, having been Le Studio's A room console, installed in 1980. One of the first bands to use it was Rush for the recording of "Moving Pictures". They also worked on it for some of "Exit...Stage Left" and "Signals". The Police also utilized old #11 for some of the recording of "Synchronicity" and "Ghost in the Machine". The console lived at Le Studio until it was sold in 1985 and changed hands several times until 1991 when it ended up at Chesire Sound in Atlanta. Tree Sound acquired the console in 1993, where it continues to yield great sounding records, and will cruise on into the next century.

Reader crusher87 let me know that 92.3 K-Rock in New York is running their March Bandness competition. Rush is one of the contenders, so go vote for them if you get a chance. And while you're at it, go vote for Neil Peart in this poll too (thanks Tim A).

Reader Victor S pointed me to the Red Ferns Music Library site which has many amazing shots of Rush posted. Just go to the site and do a search on Rush.

Reader jim alerted me to a Rush reference in online web comic Chad the Fat Kid. And emajor7th pointed me to this unflattering Rush reference at CNN.com in an article discussing why people think the 70s were so funny. From the article:

... 70s-set comedies remain relevant because of a universal theme of old meeting new -- albeit a "new" often ridiculously dressed and grooving to Rush. ...

Baseball season is nearly upon us so reader The Clansman 2112 has started a fantasy baseball league at yahoo.com especially for Rush fans. You can join up by going to this link and entering the league ID and password (ID # 155895, Password: atmsite). You also need to have a Yahoo account.

The 3 lucky winners of the MusicToday-sponsored RIAB contest will be chosen sometime in the next few days. I should have the list sometime next week. That's all for now. Have a great weekend!