Earlier this summer Rush and Anthem/Trafalgar announced the first annual Cinema Strangiato - a theatrical film experience that will bring Rush fans together for a special look into Rush's R40 Live tour, with new backstage footage, special guests, and performances. Cinema Strangiato will hit theaters worldwide for one night only later this month on Wednesday, August 21st and tickets are now available at cinemastrangiato.com. There's also an official, 1-minute trailer for the film which you can watch below or on YouTube at this location. For all the details and to sign up for email updates, visit www.cinemastrangiato.com. Geddy Lee described the film in a recent Preston and Steve Show interview:

... What it is is basically a way of celebrating the 'R40' tour in the sense on a big screen. It's taking a lot of stuff that fans might have seen on that video, the concert footage, but it's added a few twists to it - there's some soundcheck footage, there's some pieces that people haven't seen and haven't been released, and there are interviews with various musicians blah-blah-blah-ing about us. [Laughs] So I think the intent of the record company, in that regard, was just to create something that you can't have at home. Going into a venue with a ton of other like-minded RUSH fans and celebrating the final tour, as it were. ...

A couple of years back, Tech 21 introduced their GED-2112 Geddy Lee Signature SansAmp at the 2017 NAMM show as described in this post. At this year's show back in January, Tech 21 unveiled their pedal format version of the GED-2112 - the SansAmp YYZ:

Wanting to streamline and simplify his gear for new projects, Geddy Lee partnered with Tech 21 to design a signature rackmount SansAmp, the GED-2112. This challenging collaboration involved distilling a boatload of equipment into a single rackspace. Challenging ourselves, to bring a super-compact, portable alternative, we further distilled the rackmount into a pedal format. The SansAmp YYZ offers Geddy's core sound and the versatility for many different styles.

Earlier this week Sweetwater posted a 5-minute review/demo of the SansAmp YYZ to YouTube as seen here (thanks RushFanForever). The SansAmp YYZ is now available for purchase via Sweetwater and other retailers.

The Toronto Globe and Mail published a story this past week profiling the AIR Montserrat Neve console, now installed at Toronto's Subterranean Sound Studios. The Neve "AIR Montserrat" recording console (serial number A4792) was custom-designed in 1977 by the recording equipment pioneer Rupert Neve and is perhaps the most revered analog sound board ever made. The board's storied history includes The Police, Dire Straits, Paul McCartney, Guns N' Roses, and many others, including Rush:

1985: The Canadian trio Rush fly to Montserrat to overdub Alex Lifeson's guitars on the album Power Windows. "It was a kind of cruel trick we played on Al," Rush singer-bassist Geddy Lee would later recall. "He'd be slaving away in the studio, while Neil [Peart] would be out swimming in the ocean, and I would be going back and forth from the swimming pool to check in on how Al was doing. There was no small amount of jealousy coming from the amplifiers in the room."

Back in 2014 a few diehard Rush fans who were inspired by Rush's many charitable donations over the years, put together the 501(c)3 charitable organization Overtime Angels with the goal of helping individuals in need that might not be able to receive help from large charitable organizations. The organization will be hosting their third annual RushCamp event/fundraiser over Labor Day weekend later this year. This year's event will take place from Friday, August 30 to Sunday, September 1st at Independent Lake Camp in North East Pennsylvania, and feature performances by David Barrett, Brandon Dyke, Solar Federation and Second Contact. Tickets are now available at overtimeangels.org/rushcamp2019. For all the details visit the Overtime Angels website and check them out on Facebook.

Thrillist.com posted their list of All 180 Rush Songs, Ranked this past week and rounding out the top 3 were Tom Sawyer at #3, 2112 at #2 and Red Barchetta in the top spot. You can check out the full list here.

Rob Radburn and Chris Love posted an article over at Tableau.com this past week where they analyze the data behind concert setlists, focusing on which artists play the same songs over and over (or don't). They came up with a Consecutive Set Similarity (CSS) score to measure how similar a band's setlist was to previous setlists and Rush was one of the bands profiled. A score of 1 means that every setlist was the same, while a score of 0 means every one was different. Rush scored on the high end with a 0.92, with only Iron Maiden and Roger Waters (both with 0.94) scoring higher. You can check out the full analysis at this location (thanks Phil Simon).

Ultimate-Guitar.com posted their list of the Top 10 Guitar Legends That Also Performed as Bassists In Their Career this past week and Rush's Alex Lifeson made the cut:

While in Rush he had the legendary bass virtuoso Geddy Lee, on his mid-90s solo album "Victor" Alex Lifeson played bass guitar along with some other instruments as well. While it wasn't exactly a huge commercial success, it was definitely interesting to hear him do something on his own.

Speaking of Alex, this summer is the 50th anniversary of the release of the iconic Andy Kim pop hit Sugar Sugar and Music Life magazine profiled the song and its milestone anniversary for an article this past week (thanks RushFanForever). The article includes some interview snippets with Kim where he talks about the song's history and mentions his annual charity Christmas show, in which Alex Lifeson often participates and plays guitar on the song:

... Since 2005, [Kim] has also hosted a star-studded show before Christmas each year in Toronto, with proceeds going to a different children's charity each year. The esteem in which Kim is held by the Toronto music elite, and the importance of the charity is evidenced by the artists who come out to show their support and join Kim on stage. This group has included the likes of Ron Sexsmith, Alex Lifeson, Tom Cochrane, Kim Mitchell, Bif Naked, Broken Social Scene, Billy Talent, Jacksoul, Hayden and more. ... "I have been very blessed all my life, and when you can call a big artist and they say yes without question, it blows me away every time. Alex Lifeson of Rush has done it three times already, and this past year came up with something great for when we all did Sugar Sugar. There is so much love and so much caring in this music community that is here in Toronto and surrounding area. I am always blown away." ...

Here's the trailer for Cinema Strangiato, coming to theaters for one night later this month:

Happy birthday Geddy! Ged turned 66 this past Monday, July 29th. Next up is Alex Lifeson, who will turn 66 later this month on August 27th. That's all for this week. Have a great weekend everyone!!