UPDATE - 7/18@12:51PM: You can watch the intro to last night's show where Stephen wakes up to Rush still playing at this link.

UPDATE - 7/17@10:07PM: Word has it that Rush will also be on at the beginning of tonight's Colbert Report too. For those of you who watched it last night (who didn't?!) you'll know that the show ended with Stephen putting on his nightcap and bedding down on his desk with a pillow and blanket while Rush played on. Reader brmperc was at the taping at tells me that tonight's show will begin with the band finishing up the song as Stephen wakes up. :)

UPDATE - 7/17@5:16PM: Several great pics from the Colbert Show appearance were taken by Rush roadie Jack Secret and posted up on Rush.com in the Multimedia: Rush on the Road section. The gallery is titled Jack Secret Presents... . Thanks to Nicecoldbeer for the heads up.

UPDATE - 7/17@2:22PM: Apparently The Colbert Bump is for real; the #7 top search term on Yahoo today is Rush (thanks vitalsigns). Reader Dusk86 also tells me that the episode is now available to purchase at iTunes.

UPDATE - 7/17@10:43AM: The show is now posted up on the Comedy Central website - with better quality than the YouTube vids. Reader brmperc was lucky enough to attend the taping of the show and tells me that Rush will also be on tonight's show for a few seconds; not sure in what capacity as of yet, but I assume it'll be some taped clip that they'll incorporate into one of their comedy bits. And The Diesel sent me some great pics from the taping including some closeups of Stephen's autographed hand. Just click on the thumbnails above to see the full-size images.

UPDATE - 7/17@8:49AM: Looks like we maxed out the comments on this thread! Here's the interview and performance thanks to the wonders of YouTube the internet:

And here's the first segment of the show:

[VIDEO REMOVED FROM YOUTUBE]

----- snip -----

UPDATE - 7/17@12:08AM: So not only was this their first live TV performance in ages... it also was the first video interview with all three members since ... I have no idea offhand - but it's been a long time. The interview questions and answers were hilarious too, and Neil was really into it. My favorite question from Stephen: Have you ever written a song so epic that by the end of the song you were actually being influenced by yourself in the beginning of the song? Jimmy asked if they could sign his host, so all three guys signed Stephen's hand. Then Neil quips I better not see that on eBay. Good stuff. Then they played Tom Sawyer. It was very strange seeing them play on a TV stage, but I think they pulled it off well. They didn't have time to finish the whole song. After the final break they were still playing and Stephen closes out the show, puts on his nightcap, gets a blanket and pillow and feigns sleeping.

UPDATE - 7/16@11:50PM: Oh my God. He's interviewing all three of them!!

UPDATE - 7/16@11:48PM: I'm watching the show right now and it's the second commercial break. When the show opened they replaced Stephen's theme song (his Anthem as he called it) with Limelight. Stephen then complained to his director Jimmy (the huge Rush fan) about it and told him to play his Anthem. So Jimmy plays a snippet of the Anthem video. Then there's a lot of back-and-forth between Stephen and Jimmy - who keeps breaking into the show with Rush-related graphics and video; like a shot of Neil's drumkit backstage, or covering up Stephen with a picture of Rush. Stephen also makes a couple of jokes regarding Rush not appearing on TV in 30 years and how they'll sell more records because of The Colbert Bump. After coming back from the break, Stephen begins to recite the lyrics to By-tor and the Snow Dog because Jimmy put them in the teleprompter. This is awesome...

As I'd mentioned yesterday, tonight Rush will be performing on television for the first time in over 30 years with a one-song live performance on Comedy Central's Colbert Report! This is big deal folks so I thought I'd create a thread especially to celebrate this occasion. Make sure to set your VCRs and DVRs. The show airs tonight at 11:30 PM EST and will replay tomorrow at 1:30 AM, 10:30 AM, 2:30 PM and 8:30PM. It should also be up on the Comedy Central website a day or so after airing. All that's known at this point is that the band will be performing Tom Sawyer. It's not clear whether they'll be taking part in any other aspect of the show like an interview or skit. It should be a good time. You can read the official AP press release at this location.

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