UPDATE - 10/9@11:36AM: For Seattle fans, Rush's Seattle stop will feature a pop-up merch store that will be open daily through Monday starting TODAY at 12PM (PDT). It will then be open from 10AM to 6:30PM the rest of the weekend and through Monday. It's located at Tom's Watch Bar directly across the street from Climate Pledge Arena.
Rush was rocking in the Rockies this past week, playing a pair of incredible shows at Denver's Ball Arena on Monday and Wednesday. They'll now move on to the West Coast next, with shows lined up in Seattle and San Jose in the upcoming week. From there they head back East for another couple of one-off shows in St. Louis and Cincinnati. Earlier this week Rolling Stone magazine posted a new, bonus video interview from their recent Rush cover feature story, with all 3 members of Rush sitting down together with senior writer Brian Hiatt to talk about the band's Fifty Something tour. They discuss the drumstick Nilles dropped and caught in the opening minutes of LA night one, the moment Geddy realized some Rush songs were almost impossible to explain to outsiders, the three days it took Nilles to learn Xanadu, why Lee and Lifeson love Steely Dan, and more. You can watch the full 20-minute interview below or on YouTube.
Rush announced yesterday evening via their newsletter that Alex Lifeson is launching a special Strings For Kids charity initiative featuring guitar strings played by Alex during Rush's Fifty Something tour. This special initiative was created by Alex to turn pieces of his own touring history into meaningful support for two causes close to his heart; The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. To launch the initiative, Alex is making a personal donation of $100,000, adding his own contribution to the funds raised through the project. They are offering up a set of Collector Strings for $600 along with a Framed Collector Edition for $3000. Unfortunately, the Collector Strings have already SOLD OUT completely, and only a few of the Framed editions remain. It's unclear at this time if more strings will be made available. From the announcement:
Own a Piece of Rush History
Collector Strings
An authentic set of Alex's concert-used guitar strings, complete with the original packaging signed by Alex, an exclusive collector's bag featuring artwork from The Bag, and a commemorative card with a note from Alex.
Framed Collector Edition
A premium framed presentation featuring Alex's concert-used strings, an original setlist from the performance signed by Alex Lifeson, a live concert photograph, and a custom commemorative plaque.
Each set is a unique piece of Rush's Fifty Something Tour history, available in extremely limited quantities.Making a Difference Together
Net proceeds from the collectible guitar strings and VIP upgrades will benefit SickKids and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, helping support their vital work caring for children and families facing serious illness.
As Alex puts it:
"I've played thousands of notes on these strings and will kick off this project with a personal donation of $100,000, which feels like a dollar per note! Together, we can make a profound difference for these kids and their families. All strings attached."
Rush's breakout 1976 album 2112 was quietly granted 4X Platinum certification by the RIAA in early August, just over 50 years after its March, 1976 release. The album was first certified Gold back in November of 1977, and Platinum in February of 1981. It last received a certification bump 40 years ago back on November 17, 1986 when it was granted 3X Platinum status, but a burst of album sales due to the album's anniversary and Rush's Fifty Something tour this past summer helped to finally push it over the 4X milestone. A limited-edition liquid vinyl edition of the album was just released last week, and can be purchased at this location. Although several Rush video and live releases have received certification in the recent past, the last time a Rush studio album was given a certification was when Moving Pictures was bumped to 5X Platinum 5 years ago, and before that back in 2001 when Roll the Bones finally received Platinum status.
Rush's Alex Lifeson was a recent guest on The Rocco Hour podcast on Sirius XM where he talked golf with his friend and golf pro Rocco Mediate. The full interview is available online to subscribers, but Rocco has also posted a couple of video clips from the interview to Instagram here and here. Alex talks about some of his health issues and how they've affected his playing on the tour.
The new documentary on the late Neil Peart titled No One's Disciple premiered on the CBC a few weeks ago as part of the documentary series The Passionate Eye. It was also made available for streaming via the CBC Gem app and gem.cbc.ca for free in Canada (or if you're using a Canadian VPN). If you aren't in Canada, it's also been popping up on YouTube in multiple locations, although it's not clear how long that will last (although they are all still there!). One of the highlights of the film were all the segments with Geddy and Alex jamming Rush songs with several of Neil's drumming buddies, one of whom was Stewart Copeland of The Police. Stewart was a recent guest on Joann Butler In Studio With... and spoke about the film, and his very positive but emotional reaction to seeing Anika playing with Rush, as seen in this clip.
Before his untimely passing in 2020, Neil Peart was working on a coffee table book highlighting his extensive classic car collection titled the Silver Surfers. The collection was sold at Gooding & Company's 17th annual Pebble Beach Auctions in 2021, and Neil's widow Carrie finished the book and ultimately published it back in 2024. One of the cars from Neil's collection was a 1965 Maserati Mistral 3500 Spyder, and that car is being sold at auction once again as seen here (thanks Will C).
The Rutgers University marching band performed a tribute to Rush during their halftime show this past weekend in a loss to the Hoosiers. You can check out video from the performance online here, and there's also this pro-shot video showcasing the performance. The show included renditions of Rush's YYZ and The Spirit of Radio.
Rush archivist/historian Ray Wawrzyniak was a guest on the latest edition of the RushRash podcast to discuss Rush's Fifty Something tour and his role as host of the VIP Lounge, among other subjects. From the description:
Come, join Chaz and Schatz on your very own VIP experience with Ray Wawrzyniak! Ray is a Rush historian, collector, author, podcaster, and longtime fixture in the Rush community. And lately, he's added another line to the résumé: life on the road with Rush. After twelve shows on the current tour-and counting-Ray joins the boys fresh from Montreal to talk about his unlikely gig as docent of the Xanadu VIP Lounge, what it's like watching this version of Rush night after night, and what you begin to notice when you've seen Geddy, Alex, Anika and Loren do this thing you never thought you'd ever even see again at all.
That's all for this week. Have a great weekend everybody!
