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Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

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Rush Sirius XM Town Hall interview report and photos

Sat, Nov 14, 2015@11:51AM | comments

UPDATE - 11/17@9:38PM: John at Cygnus-X1.net has written up his report detailing his participation in the Town Hall. Here are some highlights:

... The entire meeting was fantastic. Michael Moore was incredibly well spoken and talked about his long-standing appreciation of Rush through the years. The questions were varied and touched upon the secret of the band's longevity, their selection process for the R40 set list, obvious questions about the future, and more. One question asked Geddy and Alex to select THE defining Rush album or song - the one they would be remembered by. After some thought, Geddy indicated that 2112 was that defining album for many reasons including how it was the pivotal moment in the band's history that changed everything.

As for my question (see pics below for my question card) I decided to ask something less about Rush and more about the music industry. I joked around with friends saying that it was the nature of this question that won me the spot in the town hall. I truly wasn't sure how the question about the changes in the music industry would be taken by Geddy and Alex. To my surprise, it spawned a lengthy conversation largely between Geddy and Michael Moore about the topic, with Geddy outlining many points on how things have changed and how it's more difficult for the public to 'discover' new talent nowadays, despite the advent of the internet.

Geddy took the lion's share of the answers while Alex cracked jokes now and again but, jokes aside, Alex had some very introspective answers to many questions as well. The entire meeting lasted about an hour and as the time went by, the entire atmosphere became more and more comfortable, like a group of friends sitting around talking and reminiscing. My thoughts often went to that one classic Rush lyric "Freeze this moment a little bit longer..."

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This past Monday Sirius XM's Classic Rewind (Channel 25) hosted the radio premiere of Rush's upcoming R40 Live CD. They'll continue to broadcast the audio every other day or so from now through December 6th with the full broadcast schedule available here. Sirius XM also hosted a town hall interview with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson at their New York City studios yesterday afternoon which was moderated by filmmaker Michael Moore. Subscribers were given a chance to attend the interview this past week via an online sweepstakes where contestants were asked to submit questions for the band. John at Cygnus-X1.net was one of the lucky attendees and reports that there were about 20 people at the event. Everyone was given the chance to ask their question to Geddy and Alex, and were treated to a meet-n-greet and photo-op afterwards. A few photos of the event are available at the Getty Images site (thanks RushFanForever), and there's also this Instagram post. The interview will be broadcast as a one-hour show airing Wednesday, November 25th at 6PM EST with several rebroadcasts the following week. Here's the full schedule:

Rush Sirius XM Town Hall broadcast schedule

Wed, Nov. 25: 6PM, 9PM EST
Thu, Nov 26: 2AM, 8AM, 1PM, 7PM EST
Fri, Nov 27: 1AM, 6AM, 4PM, 9PM EST
Sat, Nov 28: 10AM, 6PM EST
Sun, Nov 29: 2AM, 8AM, 2PM, 8PM EST
Mon, Nov 30: 12PM, 6PM EST
Tue, Dec 1: 12AM, 9AM, 4PM EST

If you aren't already a Sirius XM subscriber, you can get a free 30-day trial at this location.

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