Rush is a Band

A blog devoted to RUSH:
Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Fri, Mar 29, 2024

Updates and other random Rush stuff

Fri, Jul 16, 2010@8:44AM | comments removed/disabled

UPDATE - 7/16@9:13PM: According to the Used Bin Radio Facebook Page, Donna Halper will be a guest on Used Bin Radio this coming Tuesday, July 20th.

Rush brought the Time Machine Tour to their native land of Canada this past week hitting festivals in Sarnia, Ottawa and Quebec City along with a show in their hometown of Toronto at the Molson Amphitheatre. They'll close out their short Canadian leg of the tour at the Air Canada Centre for a second Toronto show tomorrow night. Then it's on to the Eastern US for 4 dates next week before taking a 2-week break and heading back west. Last week Rush was forced to cancel their 2nd show at the Charter One Pavilion in Chicago due to heavy rains causing damage to some of their equipment. The show has been rescheduled for Monday, August 23rd. Last Saturday we learned that one disgruntled fan filed a lawsuit against the band for the canceled show, and the Chicago Sun Times published this article yesterday which mentions Rush and discusses what's involved in canceling a show (thanks Dennis).

The Rush Time Machine Tourbook has been transcribed along with some of the images scanned, and made available online for your viewing pleasure. You can check it out at Cygnus-X1.net or at Power Windows. Neil Peart's writeup is particularly interesting as he talks about the concepts behind the whole time machine/steampunk theme of the tour and how all that might translate to the band's upcoming album Clockwork Angels. You can purchase your own copy of the tourbook at the Rush Backstage Club.

The 10th annual RushCon Rush fan convention takes place this weekend from July 16-18th in Toronto, ON at the Courtyard Marriott Toronto Downtown. Tonight there will be a harbor boat cruise with guest speaker Jack Secret and a special performance by Jacob Moon. Tomorrow Donna Halper will be the guest speaker, Neil Peart's Chromey drum kit will be on display and Rush will perform live at the Air Canada Center. On Sunday will be the RushCon charity auction, a tour of Anthem and a special screening of Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage. There will also be plenty of games and prizes throughout the convention. For all the details check out the RushCon website and go to this link to view registration options. You can follow RushCon on both Twitter and Facebook.

In addition to an appearance at RushCon this weekend, Neil Peart's Chromey drum kit will be made available for the public to view at Lakeside Park in Port Dalhousie on July 22nd from 1-11PM and July 24th from noon to 10PM. Fans can visit the park that was immortalized in the Rush song Lakeside Park and have their photos taken with the kit and even play the kit to raise money for the Friends of the Carousel.

Speaking of Neil Peart drumkits, this recent article from Chris Stankee at Sabian.com describes the evolution of the steampunk-themed cymbals from Neil Peart's new Time Machine Tour kit. The article describes all the various design incarnations for the cymbals along with several pictures, and how they evolved into the final product which is currently incorporated into Neil's new kit on the Time Machine Tour.

The Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage was released to DVD/Blu-ray a couple of weeks ago. Reader RushFanForever located this video interview with Alex and Geddy from Canoe TV where the two discuss the documentary. Here's a positive review of the Blu-ray version of the documentary from blu-ray.com (thanks rosmakloma). Then there's this review from conservative political blog The Other McCain (thanks muskies-n-rush). The film also continues to be shown in theaters. At the end of this month it will be featured at the Traverse City Film Festival where filmmakers Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen will be on hand to introduce the film (thanks red tide). The DVD/Blu-ray of the documentary contains over an hour of bonus footage including a couple of live videos of the band playing with John Rutsey on drums at Laura Secord High School back in 1974. Both of these vids have already found their way to YouTube; you can watch Best I Can and Working Man (thanks DubLife).

The CD version of the Caravan/BU2B single was released at the end of last month and can be purchased via the Rush Backstage Club for $4.99. You can also purchase digital copies of both Caravan and BU2B at this link. The Caravan single has been getting a good bit of airplay on rock radio stations and has settled into the top 10 on the Mediabase Rock Chart. At the time of this posting it's #8 and moving up.

On Wednesday - in addition to it being Bastille Day - Rush released its first official iPhone application along with a really cool website showcasing the app. The application costs $2.99 USD and is available at this link. Complete details along with several screenshots are available on the app website.

Last weekend we learned that Geddy Lee's out-of-print 2000 solo project My Favorite Headache has been reissued by Wounded Bird Records for $10.98. Wounded Bird Records specializes in the reissue of out-of-print and hard to find albums, and all of their releases are properly licensed from the owner of the original masters. They also reissued Alex Lifeson's Victor last year and have it available for purchase at this link. You can check out the album's electronic press kit video at this link.

Adventures of Power is an indie film which chronicles the adventures of air-drummer extraordinaire Power (played by filmmaker Ari Gold) and contains a cameo from Neil Peart along with a slew of Rush references. It first hit the film festival circuit back in early 2008 and made its theatrical debut last fall. According to the latest official newsletter from the film, it will be getting a DVD release on November 2nd.

Rush graces the cover of the latest issue (issue #9, July 2010) of Classic Rock's Prog magazine and is the subject of a 6-page feature article. Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee are interviewed along with Rush documentary filmmakers Sam Dunn and Scot McFayden. Thanks to Anthony J for the heads up.

Peter Simpson of Canwest News Service explores the reasons why we love/hate Rush in this article from earlier this week (thanks Kevin in Indy).

Reader Radio Spirit let me know that the latest issue of The Believer (July/August) contains a piece about Rush by Skylaire Alfvegren titled Grokking Rush. You can read an excerpt from the article at this link. The full version is available in the print edition of the magazine.

Reader PhillyMike pointed me to this PopDose.com article which discusses Rush's Time Stand Still as part of a series on power balads. You can check it out at this link.

Here's another one from the archives courtesy Eric at Power Windows. It's a interview with Neil Peart from the November 25, 1976 issue of Circus Magazine in support of the release of All The World's a Stage. You can check it out by clicking on the thumbnails. Reader RushFanForever also located this old Macleans magazine article from 1991 which features Rush from journalist Nicholas Jennings.

Last fall Neil Peart was the subject of the cover feature in the September, 2009 issue of the American Motorcyclist - the magazine of the American Motorcyclist Association. The article contained several photographs of Neil with his motorcycle that were taken by photographer Holly Carlyle. Carlyle recently wrote about the experience on her blog and included all the shots of Neil she'd taken. You can check it out at this link (thanks Sean).

Andrew Olson recently added 2 new drum kits to the replicas page on his Neil Peart site; Joe Connolly's custom Tama Art Star kit and Paul Rheinfelder's Pearl kit.

Reader More Evil Twin of ByTor let me know that there are a bunch of full Rush concert bootlegs available at SugarMegs.org. Just do a search for Rush.

Fellow Canadian band and good friends of Rush The Barenaked Ladies played a show in Chicago on July 9th - just two days after Rush's canceled show at the Charter One Pavilion. They took a little time out from their show to poke some fun at Rush for canceling the show and also played portions of several Rush songs. You can check out the video at this link (thanks RushFanForever):

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend!

NOTE: Posts over 10 years old are partially archived. All comments, images and other embedded media have been removed.

Share