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Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Thu, Mar 28, 2024

Updates and other random Rush stuff

Fri, Sep 21, 2012@12:13PM | comments removed/disabled

Rush is now 7 shows deep into their Clockwork Angels tour which opened 2 weeks ago at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Manchester, NH. After playing 5 slightly different setlists for the first 5 shows of the tour, they seem to have finally settled into a pattern where they are alternating between a Night A and Night B set where they swap out 4 songs - 2 from each set - while keeping the encore constant. For last night's show in Columbus they performed their Night A setlist which they also played in Chicago this past weekend. And for their Tuesday night gig in Detroit they busted out the same Night B setlist that they had played in Indianapolis last week. Alex Lifeson addressed the setlist changes in an interview with the Detroit Free Press earlier this week:

... What happened is the thing that always happens -- the set was much longer than what we had to limit ourselves to. We didn't want to get rid of those songs, so we picked a Set A and a Set B, and since then we've been tweaking it a bit, playing a couple and moving them around. I mentioned to Ged the other day: It's kind of nice to arrive at a gig in the afternoon and decide which songs to switch out that night and keep it mysterious, especially now that everything is blogged and tweeted and e-mailed.

And it's been a whole set list controversy. Having a deep catalog like this makes it difficult to play enough songs that everybody wants to hear. Everybody has their favored and less favored songs. Rush fans are great at debating the merits of songs. And good at expressing their disappointment and elation. (Laughs)

We don't usually do this type of thing, so we may get back in our usual groove. I'd be an advocate for some other stuff, songs we didn't prepare perhaps. ...

Rob over at the Rush Vault posted an article earlier this week where he profiled the 8 members of the Clockwork Angels String Ensemble. He gives a brief background on each member including a photo and list of other projects they've worked on and musicians they've worked with. You can check it out at this link. Rush will play 2 more US dates in St. Louis and Minneapolis in the upcoming week before returning to the homeland to play 3 consecutive Canadian dates. After that they'll take a 10-day hiatus before continuing the tour back east in Bridgeport, CT. For complete tour coverage be sure to visit the tour page.

The Clockwork Angels album barely held on in the top 100 on the Billboard 200 album charts in its 14th week of release, falling to #99 from its #93 showing last week. JamBands.com posted their review of the album here saying the following:

... Despite its veneer as a concept record, Clockwork Angels is-at it's root-a good old fashioned hard rock throwdown that catches fire in ways the last half-dozen Rush LPs never quite achieved. And that in and of itself was well worth the near 25-year wait.

On a related note, Rush's The Wreckers single has moved into the top 10 on the Mainstream Rock Charts where it currently sits at #9.

Kevin J. Anderson and Neil Peart's Clockwork Angels: The Novel debuted at #18 on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction Best Sellers list earlier this week. The book was officially released in the first week of September and has been generally well-received by Rush fans and book reviewers alike. Author Kevin J. Anderson penned an article for the Huffington Post yesterday where he discusses the novel and his collaboration with Neil Peart. You can order the audiobook version of Clockwork Angels (narrated by Neil Peart) at this location, and the hardcover edition here.

I'd mentioned in a Friday updates post a few weeks back that several Chicago area Rush fans held a big pre-show party and raffle at The Beer Bistro before the Chicago show, and just wanted to give a report on how things went courtesy reader/organizer Dan B. They ended up raising a whopping total of $3173.46 with all proceeds going towards a donation to the American Cancer Society in the memory of Neil Peart's first wife Jackie Taylor, who passed away from cancer back in 1998. A big thanks goes out from the organizers to everyone who participated/donated.

Alfred Music Publishing recently released both the authentic guitar tablature book and bass tablature book for Rush's Clockwork Angels album. In celebration of the release, TMR Zoo is running a contest where they are giving away a copy of both the guitar and bass books. The contest is open to US residents and will run through October 17th. For all the details and to enter go to this location. Alfred Music Publishing also has several other Rush guitar, bass and drum transcription books available which you can check out here.

Heart's Ann Wilson was recently interviewed for examiner.com and was asked whether she wanted to give a shout-out to any groups that aren't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that she thinks should be. Here's her answer:

Ooh, Rush. How about Rush? (Laughs) That's sort of a strange situation. God, who else? I don't know; I don't have a list in front of me, but that would be the one that would be a big standout for me.

On that subject, the Rock Hall should be announcing the 2013 crop of nominees for induction in the next couple of weeks.

Neil Peart is featured on the October, 2012 issue of DRUM! magazine with the cover tagline reading, Neil Peart: Rush Master Class - Clockwork Angels By The Numbers. John over at Cygnus-X1.net scanned and transcribed the article and made it available online earlier this week at this location. Peart talks about his rehearsal and warmup regimens, learning from drumming legends Freddie Gruber and Peter Erskine, and his improvisational approach to recording the Clockwork Angels album:

... "The determination to become more improvisational, to become more groove-orientated - the dirty-greasy groove I call it - it's a combination I wanted to have." Thus, for this latest recording, Peart says he would "play a song a few times myself and see what would work and then I'd call Nick in and we'd start recording." Of Raskulinecz, Peart says, "He's so enthusiastic that we had a ball, you know, just working. Nick's full of suggestions and crazy ideas - some of which I would never dream of putting into a song." ...

Canadian broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi released his first book earlier this week. It's titled 1982 and is a collection of biographical stories from the year when Ghomeshi was 14 years old. Each chapter of the book is named after a rock song from 1982, and in Chapter 7 - named after Rush's Subdivisions - Ghomeshi describes the summer when he and his buddy Toke spent weeks stalking Rush outside their Thornhill studio. Ghomeshi is the host of Q with Jian Ghomeshi and has interviewed Rush a number of times on the show. He even spoke with Alex and Geddy about the stakeout mentioned above in the uncut version of their interview from a 2009 appearance on Q. Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.

As they've done for the past few years, VH1 Classic once again rang in the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah with a 24-hour Rush Hashanah marathon this past Sunday-Monday. They aired a combination of Rush programming including Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, Rush: Time Machine, and the Rush Retrospective 3 Box Set special. VH1 Classic first celebrated Rush Hashanah back in 2008, then again in 2010 where they premiered the Rush Classic Albums special, and also last year when they premiered the Rush: Time Machine concert video. Comedian Patton Oswalt got caught up in Rush Hashanah celebration and tweeted the following Sunday evening (thanks Gabby):

"Today's Tom Sawyer/ Is a righteous Jew/ And the shofar he blows/ Starts the year anew" -- RUSH Hashanah

A couple of weeks ago I'd mentioned that Guitar World has been conducting a bracket poll to determine The Greatest Guitarist of All Time, and Alex Lifeson made it into the Sweet 16 where he was matched up against Dimebag Darrell. Voting took place over the past week and closed this morning with Alex pulling out the victory! He'll be facing off against Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi in the next round.

Rush and the other recipients of the Governor General's Performing Arts Award are featured on the cover of the latest issue of Canadian magazine Zoomer. Rush was presented with the esteemed award this past May at a ceremony in Ottawa. Thanks to Patrick W for the heads up.

Reader Bill P found a few photos of Rob Zombie online sporting a Rush Fly By Night t-shirt at the Toronto Film festival a couple of weeks ago. Zombie wore this same shirt a few years ago when he was making the rounds promoting his Halloween 2 film. You may recall that Zombie's remake of the original Halloween movie included Rush's Tom Sawyer on the soundtrack, and his 2010 album Hellbilly Deluxe 2 contains a track titled Werewolf, Baby which contains an obvious nod to Rush's La Villa Strangiato towards the beginning of the song.

VH1 Classic has been running a series of polls on their website over the past week to determine their list of the 100 greatest hard rock songs of all time. In yesterday's poll, Rush's Limelight was one of songs up for voting. To cast your vote go to this location (thanks Sean).

Reader drmike let me know that Music Radar recently posted an interview with Alice Cooper drummer Glen Sobel where he discusses his 10 essential drum albums:

Like many sticksman of his generation, Sobel's first drum heroes were John Bonham and Neil Peart. But while most budding players were wearing out copies of Led Zeppelin II and Moving Pictures, Sobel gravitated towards the live recordings. "Bonham's Moby Dick drum solo on The Song Remains The Same was a pivotal moment in my life," he says. "And Peart's solo on Exit... Stage Left just left me speechless, it was so phenomenal. More than anything else, it was those two records that made me want to be a drummer." However, when compiling his list of essential drum albums, those records he strongly recommends to players of all levels, Sobel omitted his early faves. "Me telling people to listen to Bonham and Neil Peart is almost a cliché," he says. "Of course, you should study those guys." ...

On this date back in 1984 Rush recorded a show at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens that would later be released as the Grace Under Pressure Tour video. Here's The Weapon from that video:

That's all for this week. Next stop for the Rush tour machine is St. Louis. Have a great weekend everyone!

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