Rush wrapped up their 4-night stint at Chicago's United Center last night to yet another sold out crowd. For their Chi-town run they ended up playing the same 4 setlists that they played in LA (and Fort Worth for the first 3 shows). This lends more weight to the notion that the special Setlist G that we saw for the rescheduled 4th Fort Worth show was just a one-off as we'd speculated. That's not to say that we won't see that G set again at some point down the road - it's just not a part of the standard 4-show rotation. That said, after MSG and Toronto they won't have any more 4-night stints, so they'll have to change things up as far as the rotation goes at that point. I'd wager that they'll do something similar to what they did for the pair of Mexico City shows, but we'll have a better idea after they do a few 2-night stints later next month. Now the band takes a much-deserved 6-day break before heading to the Big Apple for another 4-night residency at New York City's Madison Square Garden. RushCon will be hosting a Madison Square Garden pre-show party next Saturday August 1st - the day of the 3rd of 4 MSG shows - with tickets available here. The event will take place at The Rutherford a 3PM, and it's SOLD OUT (but there is a waitlist). Rush along with Anika Nilles and Loren Gold, all posted thank you Chicago messages and photos to Instagram following the final show, as seen here.
Following their MSG run, Rush will then head to the hometown of Toronto for their final 4-night residency where several competing Rush fan events will be taking place. The first of these is RushFest Canada, which will take place on the Thursday before the band's first show on August 7th at The El Macambo with host Cathy Rankin and featuring special guests Terry Brown, Hugh Syme, Nancy and Judy Peart, and Bob "Starman" King. Next up is the big event - the return of RushCon - which will kick off Friday night and run through the entire weekend. And last but not least, Henderson Brewing will be hosting their annual Rush Day on Saturday, August 8th between Rush's first pair of YYZ shows.
Parade magazine wrote a feature this past week on Rush's Cinderella Man, which was inspired by the film Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and was one of the few songs where Neil Peart did not write the lyrics:
... Unlike many of Rush's songs from the late 1970s, "Cinderella Man" wasn't written by drummer and lyricist Neil Peart. Instead, bassist and vocalist Geddy Lee penned the lyrics after watching Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Starring Gary Cooper as the humble and generous Longfellow Deeds, the film follows an ordinary man who unexpectedly inherits a fortune and chooses compassion over greed. The story clearly resonated with Lee, who reimagined its themes in the song's lyrics. The result was one of the most accessible tracks on A Farewell to Kings. ...
One of the few things that have remained consistent from show-to-show over Rush's first 14 performances on the Fifty Something tour is the Xanadu show opener along with the Working Man show closer. Those are the only 2 songs that have been played at every show and in the same position in the set. For that Working Man closer, the band had the team at FANTOONS create a wonderful animated backdrop video that plays during the band's performance. The vid celebrates Rush's early days with John Rutsey, featuring several photos of Rush's first drummer along with animations of the band. Coincidentally, the late John Rutsey would have celebrated his 74th birthday yesterday, and his final show with Rush took place 52 years ago tomorrow at Centennial Hall in London, Ontario. FANTOONS' David Calcano was a guest on the Something for Nothing podcast this past week to discuss their involvement in the tour, and you can listen to the conversation below or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hudson Music posted a video this past week featuring behind-the-scenes footage from the recording of Neil Peart's Taking Center Stage instructional DVD showing Neil and producer Rob Wallis planning parts of the video.
That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!
