Legendary rockers The Who are currently on tour and hit Toronto's Budweiser Stage earlier this week with Tom Cochrane supporting. Towards the end of his set, Cochrane brought out Rush's Alex Lifeson to play on Red Rider's Human Race and Lunatic Fringe, as well as his solo hit Life Is A Highway. You can watch videos of all three performances at this location. Alex is good friends with fellow Canadian Cochrane, and has sat in with him at several events over the years.
In addition to being the world's greatest bass player, a wine connoisseur, baseball aficionado, and more - Rush's Geddy Lee is also a dog lover. Over the past decade, Ged would often post to Instagram photos of himself with his pair of Norwich terriers, Dr. Lucy and Stanley Wasserman. Unfortunately the pair crossed the rainbow bridge back in May, 2024, as seen in this Instagram post. Now over a year later, Ged has gotten a new furry friend - meet Dottie Wasserman:
After mourning the loss of our beloved Stanley and Lucy Wasserman for over 15 months, our hearts are lifted up once again. Thanks to the actions of a few thoughtful and generous souls, to whom I will be eternally grateful, a little furry angel has descended into our midst, into our household to brighten our lives and the lives of so many others close to us...please meet Dottie Wasserman - our little pepper pot, retired beauty queen and sweetest new member of the clan. ...
Back in late 2023, Geddy Lee wrote a book of baseball stories titled 72 Stories from the Collection of Geddy Lee that he included as part of a package given to the winning bidders in a baseball auction that included much of Ged's extensive collection. He then announced via Instagram back in October of last year that he would be releasing the book for wide distribution sometime in 2025. A special, limited-edition version of the book was briefly made available around Christmas at the Rush Backstage Club. That edition is autographed, and comes encased in a red cloth-bound slipcase which includes an exclusive, custom-made Geddy Lee baseball, created specifically for this project. The standard version of the book will be available later this month, with a slated release date of September 30th (just in time for the MLB playoffs) and pre-orders are available here. And if you missed out on the special edition last year, it's been made available again, and you can order one at this location. John at Cygnus-X1.net has posted an excerpt from the book's Introduction and made it available online here.
MusicRadar.com posted an article earlier this week on electronic drumming pioneers where they list off 11 trailblazing players who raised the bar for electronic and hybrid drumming, one of whom is Rush's Neil Peart:
Not only was Neil Peart one of the most influential drum heroes of all time, he was an electronic drum enthusiast too, implementing many different brands at various points in his career to help bolster the power trio sound of Rush. Like many drummers, The Professor started using Simmons pads in the '80s. The album Grace Under Pressure featured a Simmons Clap Trap (handclap synthesizer) and SDS-V module as well as four Simmons pads and Shark trigger pedals. Neil's love of electronics reached its peak with his monstrous hybrid Time Machine/Clockwork Angels tour kit. The 360-degree setup was loaded with electronics, from the distinctive DrumKAT Mallet KAT Express (with its piano-like pad layout) to the Dauz 'target' pad (a tribute to The Who) to the custom-built DW shells housing the guts of Roland V-Drum pads triggering sounds from a Roland TD-30.
The Telegraph recently asked their readers what they think is the greatest guitar riff of all time, as reaction to all the feedback they'd received regarding an article earlier this summer where they listed off their 30 greatest guitar riffs of all time. Apparently their readers were not happy with the list, so the author compiled the more than 1,500 comments they'd received and rounded up the 30 most popular omissions, one of which was Rush's Limelight (thanks RushFanForever):
This has to stand for the many guitarists that people wanted to see honoured - "Nothing from Michael Schenker during his golden era with UFO?", for instance. But there were too many calls for Rush to be on this list for the band to be ignored. "No Alex Lifeson of Rush?" was a question posed by David Rodney with the hearty approval of Joe The-Pom. As for many gifted guitarists, different riffs were proposed, but this one, with its melodic power and elegance, had enough momentum to swing it.
Martin Popoff wrote a piece for Goldmine Magazine this past week where he lists off the top 20 other bands Rush fans like. Taking the top 3 spots were Dream Theater at #3, YES at #2, and Porcupine Tree in the first spot:
We know Alex guested on a Porcupine Tree song - "Anesthetize" from Fear of a Blank Planet-so there's a stamp of approval coming from the elder. But Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree didn't need the namedrop for Rush fans to be all over Porcupine Tree from early on, or certain beginning with 2002's In Absentia. Perhaps the next one, 2005's Deadwing, sounded the most like Rush, and it's more so the '90s Rush, which few bands dare address, with Tiles being another notable practitioner. But yeah, it would be more convenient, and more like a Grateful Dead situation, if someone from Rush joined Porcupine Tree, but even without that, I feel like this is the main next Rush for Rush fans still mourning the death of Neil and the demise of this special band.
Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy was recently interviewed for the Eddie Trunk podcast, and was asked which Rush album he believes was Neil Peart's best work. Being the fan that he is, he couldn't name just one:
... As far as which album showed Neil's best drumming or at least my favorite drumming, it would be either Hemispheres (1978) or Permanent Waves (1980). That's the sweet spot for me - Permanent Waves, Hemispheres, A Farewell to Kings (1977) - that group of albums from the late '70s early '80s, that was Neil in his prime ...
Classic Rock magazine posted an article earlier this week titled 25 complicated concept albums explained as simply as possible, and one of the albums profiled is Rush's 2112 (thanks RushFanForever):
Only one side of the album, but a triumph of Ayn Rand-like individualism, resulting in the liberation of the planets of the Solar Federation!
MusicRadar.com posted their ranking of all 19 Rush studio albums this past week, with Moving Pictures taking the top spot. You can check out the full list online here.
This past Monday was Labor Day in the US, and Rush's Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson posted a short video shout-out to all their US fans to Instagram as seen here:
Back in May, System of a Down played a show in Chile and played a snippet of Rush's Red Sector A, and they did the same at their Toronto show earlier this week as seen in this video (thanks Bruce L):
The Tapes Archive YouTube channel posted a new mini-documentary on Neil Peart this past week titled The Evolving Mind of Neil Peart: Ayn Rand, Misinterpretations, and What a Politician Got Wrong. The 20 minute video does a good job of explaining Ayn Rand's influence on Neil Peart's early lyrics and how they were perceived in the press and by fans:
Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart remains one of rock's most fascinating thinkers. From discovering Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead as a young musician in London, to weaving Objectivist themes into Fly by Night and 2112, Peart explored big ideas through rhythm and words. But as his career evolved, so did his philosophy - moving from Rand's stark individualism to what he later called "bleeding heart libertarianism." This documentary dives deep into Peart's relationship with Rand and Objectivism, the controversy around Rush's 2112 and the infamous 1978 Barry Miles NME article, and how politicians like Rand Paul misused Rush's lyrics for their own agendas. ...
45 years ago today, on September 5, 1980 - the film Return of the Secaucus 7 was released, which includes a Rush mention during a bar scene, as seen in this clip:
That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!!
