Rush is a Band

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

Thu, Mar 28, 2024

Updates and other random Rush stuff

Fri, Apr 1, 2011@1:15PM | comments removed/disabled

Happy April Fools Day!!! I hope everyone enjoyed my little joke earlier this morning. Now onto serious Rush business... Rush successfully kicked off the 2011 leg of their Time Machine Tour Wednesday night at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, FL. Alex Lifeson had stated in multiple interviews that the band would not be making any changes from the 2010 Time Machine Tour and that's exactly how things played out; no setlist or stage show changes of any kind. For complete coverage of opening night including photos, reviews and discussion check out this post. Next up is tomorrow's show at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC which had originally been scheduled for tonight but was postponed one day because of unforeseen circumstances. This change precipitated a scheduling change chain reaction of sorts and to avoid a 4-shows-in-5-days stint, they also postponed their April 6th show in Toledo to April 13th. Hopefully there won't be any other postponements. For those on Facebook, Rush roadie Tony Geranios (aka Jack Secret) uploaded a really cool gallery of tour rehearsal photos.

Rush.com launched a slick new Time Machine-themed website on Wednesday to celebrate the kickoff of the tour. The content of the site seems to be stripped down a bit though; there's no more multimedia section, background music or photo galleries that I can find. Speaking of which, official photos from opening night are now posted at John Arrowsmith's Rush on the Road website. I'm not quite sure why this is no longer linked from the new Rush.com.

In addition to the tour kick-off, the other big news of the week was the Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage winning the Juno Award for Music DVD of the Year this past weekend, and Geddy and Alex presenting the Juno Award for Album of the Year to Arcade Fire at the Juno Awards ceremony Sunday night. Here's an audio clip of Alex and Geddy presenting the award along with this video clip, and a transcript in this post. For complete coverage of the event including photos from across the web, check out this post.

Earlier this week I received my first report from someone who has actually received their 2011 Time Machine Tour VIP ticket package swag along with this great photo (thanks RestlessOldRomantic). Here are the package contents as listed at Ticketmaster:

  • Copy of "Rush - Classic Albums - 2112 and Moving Pictures" DVD (the making of "2112" and "Moving Pictures")
  • Rush "Caravan/BU2B" CD single
  • Specially Designed Tour Shirt (exclusive design, available to ticket packages only)
  • Exclusive Tour Poster (numbered, limited)
  • Official Time Machine Tour Program
  • Set of Official Rush Guitar Picks

The Rush 2112/Moving Pictures Classic Albums DVD and the Caravan/BU2B CD single were the only 2 items on the list where it was clear as to what would be included in the package. The tour shirt this time around is a white jersey-style t-shirt with black sleeves and a movie cue card Time Machine Tour logo. The poster is a retro-style Rush live tour poster. The guitar picks come in a little black and white metal case with the classic RUSH logo on it that has sliding lid. Inside are two white picks with the classic RUSH logo, two red picks with the Starman logo, and two black ones with both the classic RUSH logo and Starman logo. The white ones have Alex's signature on the back of one, and Geddy's on the back of the other. The big disappointment is that the Tourbook looks to be the 2010 Tourbook rather than the updated version for the 2011 Tour.

Both the DVD and Blu-ray versions of the Moving Pictures 30th anniversary deluxe edition will release this coming Tuesday, April 5th. The DVD version will be available via multiple retailers but the Blu-ray will only be sold exclusively through Best Buy for the first 30 days; other retailers will have the Blu-ray version on May 3rd. In celebration of the release, John at Cygnus-X1.net is holding a contest to give away five copies of the CD/DVD version - one per week with the first drawing occurring today. To enter just go to this link. You can get more details regarding the Moving Pictures deluxe edition in this post and pre-order your copy at Amazon (CD+DVD, CD+Blu-ray). And speaking of Moving Pictures, Red Barchetta topped the list of the Toronto Globe and Mail Drive section's Top 10 Canadian car tunes over the weekend.

A new interview with Geddy Lee aired Wednesday night on UK radio station 106.1 Rock Radio. Geddy talked a lot about Rush's recent Classic Rock Living Legend award, their Hollywood Walk of Fame star, their involvement with the film I Love You Man, the Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, the Moving Pictures 30th anniversary deluxe edition, and - of course - their impending journey across the pond in May to bring the Time Machine over to Europe. He also touched on their progress with the upcoming Clockwork Angels album:

... We've got about - I guess - 3/4 of the record written and are kind of ready to go. We've got 2 or 3 more tracks we'd like to write. We've kind of run out of time now. We're gonna have to go on tour so when this tour is over we'll get back to writing and hopefully finish the record in the Fall. ... We're having fun with it. I mean - you know - there are some very complex moments. There are some very beautiful moments. It's kind of what you'd expect from Rush I guess - a little bit of everything. Now, the indication you can get from the first 2 songs kind of sets the tone for where we're going with this record. But there are a few surprises as you get deeper into the record.

So it sounds as if they have a little more writing to do but still plan on finishing up this Fall. The interview runs about 11 minutes and you can listen to the entire thing at this link.

Geddy was also interviewed by the Toronto Star yesterday for an article celebrating opening day of professional baseball here in the US and Canada. The article was titled The old ball game brings together Canadians of all stripes and they asked Geddy along with several other famous Canadians about their favorite baseball game ever. Here's what Geddy said:

... "Game 6 of the 1992 World Series in Atlanta," Lee said this week, just as the band was leaving Toronto for Tampa to open a tour. "Sitting with my brother Allan and beside Candy Maldonado's dentist from Puerto Rico and the wives of the Blue Jay coaches ... an island of Jays fans in a sea of Braves T-shirts, cheering in the top of the 11th inning as Dave Winfield hit a double off of Charlie Liebrandt to drive in two runs, which would lead to the Blue Jays capturing the Holy Grail, a long-awaited World Series championship. "Truly the greatest Blue Jay play for me ... Even the 1993 championship and Joe Carter's jaw-dropping home run could not compare to that spectacular moment in Atlanta." ...

Geddy also made RollingStone.com's list of the Top Ten Bassists of All Time last week coming in at #4.

Last August Heart released their new album Red Velvet Car which was produced and engineered by Ben Mink and David Leonard respectively, both of whom had the same credits on Geddy Lee's 2000 solo album My Favorite Headache. One of the tracks on the album is called Death Valley and the following appears in the credits: Geddy Lee - Whistle on 'Death Valley,' Mazel. The Mazel part simply means good luck or congratulations in Yiddish. Other musicians on the album also have their names listed with the instrument they performed on along with a phrase that represents who they are by heritage, character, and/or personality. At the time it wasn't initially clear what Geddy's contribution was, but after some intrepid research by RushFanForever - who emailed sound engineer David Leonard - it was revealed as simply an inside joke between Ben and Nancy Wilson:

I just heard back from Mr. Mink. Kudos to you for picking up on an inside joke between Ben and Nancy Wilson. Ben says "Nancy (Wilson) heard some hi pitched thing in "Death Valley" and he (Ben) said "it's probably Geddy whistling". They gave Geddy credit. That's the story.

But we learned earlier this week that there was more to the story. Nancy Wilson was recently interviewed for New Mexico's KZZR radio and had the following to say:

... When Ben was mixing Red Velvet Car, Geddy Lee was around, and he got the voice of Geddy Lee hidden in the beginning of the "Death Valley" song. It's sort of a secret signal from Geddy." ...

You can listen to the interview at this link - it starts around the 3:30 mark.

Early last month Rush's BU2B was quietly released as a radio single, and just about nobody noticed. The song had already been released on June 1st of last year as the side B to the Caravan single that was released for mp3 download. So most stations had already been playing it for some time and it even emerged onto a few of the radio charts last summer. Not to mention the fact that Rush included it as part of their setlist on the Time Machine Tour. Sirius/XM satellite radio made a relatively big deal out of it and premiered it as their Breaking Bone track on Sunday, March 6th. It's now in its 4th week of release and has moved into the top 40 on the Mediabase Rock Charts; at the time of this post it's sitting at #29. So if you are so inclined, call your local rock radio station and request the track. There also will be a 7" vinyl limited edition version of the song available for the UK's Record Store Day on Saturday, April 16; and a 7" vinyl Caravan/BU2B available for the US and Canadian Record Store Day on the same day.

Eddie Trunk's debut book Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal releases today. The book discusses Trunk's most essential hard rock and heavy metal artists and includes an entire chapter devoted to Rush. Eddie Trunk has been a radio and TV personality in the world of hard rock and heavy metal for more than twenty-five years. He is currently the host of VH1 Classic's That Metal Show and also has two weekly radio shows; Eddie Trunk Live on Sirius/XM radio's Boneyard channel, and the FM-syndicated Eddie Trunk Rocks. Trunk is a huge Rush fan and has been one of the loudest proponents for getting them inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He interviewed Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson for VH1 Hangin' With back in 2005 and Neil Peart for the same program back in 2006. Geddy and Alex were also guests on the first season of That Metal Show back in 2009. You can order a copy of the book at this link and check out a video preview here.

Here's a new bit from December of last year that slipped under the radar. Back in December the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) held their annual Miracle Day - the annual flagship fundraising event for the CIBC Children's Foundation. Back in 2009 Geddy Lee attended the event and it looks like last year Alex Lifeson quietly made an appearance as shown in this newswire.ca photo (thanks RushFanForever).

In the latest installment of his music discovery podcast and blog Bands Like Rush, Ben Sommer talks to Bjorn Egelius from the Swedish instrumental prog trio therhythmisodd. Ben jokingly describes a few things that set the band apart as being 1) they record live together in the studio, 2) they're ... Swedish, and 3) they're ... big, bald and scary! You can listen to the podcast, read a transcript and watch the video of the interview at this link. To find out more about therhythmisodd check out their website here.

Neil Peart was included in the New York Times crossword puzzle last week and they featured a picture of him at the paper's Wordplay blog (thanks Brie B).

Heavy metal band Benedictum's latest album Dominion contains a cover of Rush's 2112: Overture/The Temples of Syrinx as a bonus track on the international release. The album was released a few weeks ago via Frontiers Records and you can order a copy at this link and listen to the track on YouTube at this link. Carl Begai of Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles recently interviewed the band about the cover and singer Veronica Freeman had the following to say:

... "I'm a huge Rush fan," says Freeman I love 'em. "I just don't talk about it much because everybody wants to talk to me about the Dio stuff. Rush has always resonated with me, but I knew so many people that didn't like them back in the day because they didn't sound evil enough (laughs), so I became a closet Rush fan. I had always wanted to sing 'Temples'. I remember back in the times before CDs, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I had my wannabe souped-up Firebird blasting Rush on the cassette deck. The stereo was worth more than the car (laughs). I had the windows rolled up so nobody else could hear while I tried to hit those notes (laughs)." ...

You can read the entire interview at Begai's blog.

Heavy metal band Sylosis is featured in the March, 2011 issue of Metal Hammer magazine and reader Signals Under Pressure noted that one of the band members is wearing a Rush A Farewell to Kings t-shirt in the band photos accompanying the article.

Neil Peart was included on this Times Colonist list of the Top Ten Drummers (thanks RushFanForever).

Here's the 30-second video trailer for the Moving Pictures 30th anniversary deluxe edition:

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

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