Rush played their 2nd of 2 shows at the Nokia in LA last night and will head to Vegas and Irvine over the weekend before taking a 9-day hiatus. If you have photos from any of the shows that you'd like to share, you can upload them in the tour section. To view fan photos, check out the tour photo gallery. The Rush.com website has also been very up-to-date with adding great quality photos from shows to their Multimedia: Rush on the Road section.

Speaking of Rush on the Road, on Thursday of last week the first episode of the long-awaited Rush road crew documentary series Backstage Secrets finally aired on the appropriately-named RUSH HD in Canada. The second episode aired last night. Reader sandman saw the first episode and reported the following:

The show focused on two main guys on the crew; that being the monitor tech and the sound engineer for the shows.

They showed how the lights and speaker cabinets were rigged up, some notable stats, one being that they have 160,000 watts of (sound) power at their disposal, of which they do not use all of. Each speaker cabinet is roughly 500 lbs and it's all rigged up in only a few hours.

Essentially they went through a typical concert day, the one on the show was at the ACC in Toronto last fall. Their day is usually about 16 hours long. They start at 9:00 am unloading all the gear and then it showed what they did from that time until show time. The guys in the documentary also said they program all of the monitors etc when the band is rehearsing prior to the tour. It looks like the crew has a great sense of humor, something that they all need due to the stress of the job.

They didn't interview the band members, but it showed them hanging out with the roadies prior to the sound check etc.

One other notable interview was with Howard Ungerleider when he showed them the tour buses. They have FIVE tour busses that are absolutely gorgeous. Much nicer than any living room I've been in. Satellite TV, all leather and of course Howard showed us the bar. In addtion to the five tour buses for the band and crew they have seven semi's to haul all the gear.

I just added a couple more Geddy Lee radio interviews from earlier last month to the radio interviews thread (thanks AnalogKidAudioVideo). If you haven't heard Rush's Rockline interview from a couple of weeks ago yet, you can listen to it at this link.

Snakes & Arrows Live has fallen to #178 on the Billboard album charts (thanks Sean) in its third week of release; down from #18 in its debut week and #110 last week. The iTunes store gave the album a great review - you'll need to have iTunes installed to check out the full review but here's a snippet:

... it is all killer. After nearly 35 years, Rush are as vital and creative as ever - not just in the recording studio either, as anybody who's seen them live in recent years will attest. If you're a fan, you gotta have this, and that's it. ...

iTunes users have also given it an average review of 4.5 out of 5 stars. Thanks to Chris B for the heads up. Also, the Workin' Them Angels live single from the album continues to hold in the mid-20s on both the Mediabase Mainstream Rock Chart (#24) and the Radio and Records Rock Chart (#23).

Long-time Rush fan, musician, musicologist and RIAB reader Chris McDonald is writing a book on Rush and he needs our help. The book will be an academic (musicological) study of the group published by a university press. He has put together a survey for Rush fans so that he can include a representative range of opinions on the band. So if you have a few minutes, take his survey and email your answers to rush_survey@hotmail.com. You can check out the questions below the fold.

Michael of NeilPeartDrumSticks.com recently made several updates to the Fan Gallery section of his site, adding many pics from the recent tour. Check them out at this link.

Wednesday marked the 15th anniversary of Harvard Lampoon's induction of Rush as Musicians of the Millennium. Here's a video of this monumental event:

Last week I reported that Rock 100.7 DJ Jeff Burrows (formerly of The Tea Party and The Big Dirty Band) hosted a 24-hour drum-a-thon for Transition to Betterness over the weekend at the Rock Head Resto Pub in Windsor. The event was a huge success, raising $12,000 for the charity. Jeff has also put together a Rush concert dream package that is being auctioned off on eBay. The package includes two first class return Via One Rail tickets to Montreal from Windsor, London, or Toronto; a two-night hotel stay at The Chateau Champlain Hotel in Montreal; premium seating at the concert; and 2 meet-and-greet passes. The charity auction runs through 8PM May 12th. You can place your bid at this link. Thanks to sandman for the heads up.

On Monday I let you know about reader ReGorLaTroy's challenge to all Rush fans to help out the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity. He was inspired by Rush's recent donation of $100,000 to the Katrina relief effort. There's been a great response to his challenge and he's working on getting some kind of official link for donations set up. I'll keep you posted.

Steve Robles of webzine 10 Zen Monkeys posted a humorous article last week titled Rush: The Last Taboo where he admits to his love of Rush and gives an explanation. Thanks to Sean for the link.

On a recent edition of the Dennis Miller radio show Dennis mentioned that he was going to see Rush in LA and chatted a bit with a listener about Neil Peart. Dennis also has some Rush in his Bumper Music section of his website and the current poll on his home page asks readers what their favorite Rush song is. Thanks to Bryan S for the heads up.

Geddy Lee got a mention in this recent article about Toronto's annual Pug Awards. The awards gives Torontonians an opportunity to vote on the most contemptible new works of architecture greater than 50,000 square feet in the city. Geddy is a member of the Pug advisory board. From the article:

... "He cares so much about the buildings that are being erected around here, even as he’s touring around the world," says Simone. "That itself speaks volumes about the impact of Toronto architecture. His level of knowledge blows my mind."

Reader Vince R let me know that during a recent telecast on WGN of a baseball game in Toronto between the Blue Jays and White Sox they had a poll asking folks what their favorite Ontario-based band was. Rush won with 65% of the vote with Neil Young in 2nd at 15%

Apparently NASCAR racer Carl Edwards is a Rush fan. During coverage of the Richmond race last week several of the drivers were asked their opinion on the greatest rock bands ever. Carl said Tom Petty, Rush and The Eagles. Thanks to 2112-YYZ for the heads up.

The Greatest of All Time blog is currently running a poll pitting Rush's 2112 up against Iron Maiden's Powerslave; both great albums in my opinion, but you know who to vote for. So go vote for Rush!!

That's all for now. Have a great weekend!

---------- THE FOLD ----------

***** below the fold *****

Here are the questions on Chris McDonald's Rush fan questionnaire. Once you've answered the questions you can email them to Chris at rush_survey@hotmail.com.

QUESTIONS:

(1) How old were you when you first became interested in Rush?

(2) How did you first encounter their music?

(3) How important are Neil Peart's lyrics to you as a Rush fan? How closely do you pay attention to them?

(4) How important is Rush's musicianship to you as a fan?

(5) What, in your opinion, distinguishes Rush from other artists in rock and popular music?

(6) How do you feel about the way Rush has changed its musical style over the years? Are you glad that they added influences from prog rock, techno, reggae, etc., or do you wish they had sustained a particular style?

(7) How do you feel about the fact that Rush has never been inducted into the "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?" Has Rush been unfairly judged by the critics? Does any of this matter?

(8) In your opinion, what are the most important statements Rush has made in their music and lyrics? Is there a "Rush philosophy" or set of issues that stand out for you?

(9) In your opinion, who are Rush's audience? Are there things, in terms of background, outlook or cultural preferences, that many or most Rush fans share in common?

(10) When talking about the song, "Subdivisions," Neil Peart once said, "I grew up in the suburbs and it was all pretty prosaic and dull....In our song 'Subdivisions', the background that all three of us grew up in is the common denominator...and I see our audiences being congruent with us through many of these phases. There's certainly that commonality - it's a question of background, and of needing certain things to alleviate that background." Does this speak to your own experience? Is Rush's music a response to life in the suburbs?

(11) Do you think Rush's origins in Canada in any way affect the kind of music they make, the point-of-view in their lyrics, or the appeal they have to their fans? Why or why not?

(12) What is your age?

(13) Are you male or female?

(14) What is your occupation (or if you are a student, what occupation do you plan to enter)?

(15) What country and region do you reside in? (And does Rush perform at a venue near you when they tour?)

(16) Would you be willing to be interviewed about Rush by telephone?

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