Stuff keeps happening, so I threw together another updates post. The first thing I will address is that little extra box you see at the top of this page. I've been threatening to do something special for the tour and I've finally followed through with the threat. I've loaded all the North American dates (European dates to follow soon) into a database along with all the pertinent ticket sale and venue information. You can view the entire list of dates here. With each date I list the pre-sale information where appropriate, the ticket sale information and then a few links to tourdate-specific comment threads. This information is all dynamic; which means that once the pre-sale ends for a given date, the pre-sale info goes away - stuff like that. So all the information is up-to-date. The home page tour feature basically allows you to select one particular date from the drop down and just see info for that date. It will default to the next upcoming date - which up until June 13th will be the Atlanta date. But you can also choose to set a date as your default. Just click the set as tourdate default link when viewing a particular date. Then each time you come back to the site that default date will appear. If you don't like having the tour date stuff cluttering up the home page you also have the option of turning it off. Just click the Turn special Rush Tour section off link (just under the Blogospheres heading). I rolled this out fairly quickly so it'd be ready in time for next week's presales, so if you notice any bugs or informational errors (wrong ticket link, wrong presale info, etc.) with it let me know. I hope you all like it!

In yesterday's update post I pointed you to this link at Bill Young Productions; the company that produces most of the radio and tv spots for major acts in North America. It had a few tv/radio spots advertising Rush shows and reader adamrush noticed something very interesting about the 30-second spot. It's a commercial advertising a June 9th show at Madison Square Garden on the S&A tour?!? This thoroughly confused me so I put up a thread at Counterparts about it and got a very lively discussion going. From what I could glean from that thread, a couple emails I received and a very interesting comment from Sean in the Eddie Trunk post from yesterday this is the conclusion I've come to for now. The spots shown are just test or approval spots. The date and venue used were just generic. The spot has been approved and used in several different cities - you may have even seen one. It'd basically be the same spot but with a specific real date and venue filled in. However the news is not all bad ... from what I can gather, Rush will very likely be playing Madison Square Garden and a few other dates either as add-ons in late 2007 or in 2008. Apparently Eddie Trunk even said in his radio show last night that when he'd interviewed them, Geddy and Alex had hinted that they'd probably be returning to play Madison Square Garden at the tail end of the tour (thanks Sean and Ellen for relaying this). This is good news for fans in some of the "missed" cities; there is still hope!

Speaking of the Eddie Trunk video interview with Geddy and Alex, in his radio show last night Eddie revealed a few tidbits from the interview. In addition to the Madison Square Garden business, Eddie said that The Main Monkey Business instrumental was a track we are all going to love .. and he said it with a chuckle (thanks Sean). Eddie also had suggested to Alex and Geddy that they play In the End on the upcoming tour and they just looked at him like he was crazy (thanks Electric Brain Elderly).

Reader Mark H let me know that 96.9 The Eagle out of Sacramento had posted their recent Geddy Lee interview from last week. You can listen to the interview here. I also added it to the player in this post too. Geddy talks mostly about baseball and his recent ESPN commercial in this interview.

Speaking of Geddy and baseball, here's the video of Geddy Lee on ESPNEWS Fantasy from yesterday. Reader Mark alerted us that this would be on and then Showdonttell25 over at Counterparts recorded it and stuck it on YouTube for us. Thanks guys!

The fan-organized, Rush tour-related charity Rush to Fight AIDs that I posted about earlier this week is really taking off! Jessica is getting the official backing of S-CAP and other fans from across the country are also reaching out to help. Reader leezgirl (Lisa O), who is connected with the AIDS Project Worcester is teaming up with Jessica and will be running a similar project in the metro Boston area. Jessica is also trying to get the word out to local radio stations that are sponsoring the various Rush shows and also to other Rush fan sites. So help spread the word if you can! For details on the project visit the Rush to Fight AIDs MySpace page (check out the blog entries for information on the metro Boston area project).

I'm sure you are all aware that last June Rush released their 3 concert videos in one DVD set titled Rush Replay x3. At the time it was also claimed that they'd eventually also be released individually.
Indeed, a few weeks ago Mercury revealed that the 3 individual DVDs would be released on May 1st to coincide with the release of Snakes & Arrows. Now Sean tells me that as incentive for purchasing the individual DVDs, each may include two bonus videos (i.e. Vital Signs, Countdown, extended version of Big Money, video for marathon etc.). Now I know why none of these were on Replay in the first place...

Rush is one of the bands highlighted in Saturday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a feature about veteran bands that are reuniting for tours and/or albums this year. I take issue with the fact that they're included in an article about bands that are reuniting but they do say some nice things about the band. The article is titled Back where they belong: Together and here's what they say about Rush:

You might remember: Geddy Lee's stratospheric voice, "Tom Sawyer" and the monumental drum solos of Neil Peart.
Reuniting because: They've never been apart, but they seem to take longer and longer between tours and albums.
You should care because: There's a new album — their first new material since 2002 — and it might be a while before they come back around.
Will it last? After more than 30 years, it's hard to imagine the world without Rush.
Where you can see them: Their five-month world tour begins at HiFi Buys Amphitheatre on June 13.

Thanks to jittles for the link.

And this is a little reminder about the Rush is a Band presale and preorder promotion put on by MusicToday. To sign-up for the promotion simply send an email containing your Age, Full Name and Address to riabbiggestfanzz@aol.com. You can sign up anytime from now through April 30th. Three winners will be chosen and each winner will receive a prize pack containing a Limited-Edition Rush T Shirt (ONLY available for purchase through the Musictoday Rush Online Advance Ticket Presale) and a copy of Snakes & Arrows on CD.

That's all for now. I'll be busy with holiday stuff tomorrow so I'll be fairly silent until tomorrow evening. For those of you who celebrate it, Happy Easter! Ed out.

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