UPDATE - 6/21@10:32AM: Here's the actual Jack Black Bonnaroo performance of The Metal referred to below (thanks TMMB).

UPDATE - 6/20@11:20AM: John Arrowsmith has uploaded more tour rehearsal photos to his website.

UPDATE - 6/18@4:00PM: Eric at Power Windows pointed out to me that the Jack Black Bonnaroo performance referred to below was likely their song The Metal. Here's a live performance of the song from January 2009. The Spirit of Radio reference looks like its part of the show.

UPDATE - 6/18@2:24PM: Several folks sent me this 8 out of 10 review of the Rush documentary from Wired.com.

Rush is hunkered down somewhere in Los Angeles rehearsing for the upcoming Time Machine Tour which kicks off in Albuquerque in less than 2 weeks. Yesterday we were treated to a bunch of teaser photos from the rehearsals courtesy Rush photographer/pyrotechnician John Arrowsmith. You can check out all the pics at this link. This morning I let you know that Chilean website HumoNegro.com is reporting that Rush has been confirmed to play the National Stadium in Santiago, Chile on October 17th along with a few other South American dates in Brasil and Argentina. And on Monday we got a look at an audition script for one of the short videos (possible SPOILERS) to be shown on the tour. In addition to playing their 1981 masterpiece Moving Pictures in its entirety on the tour, Rush will be showcasing their 2 new songs Caravan and BU2B. Both songs were released digitally earlier this month and have been very well-received so far. A CD version of the single will be released at the end of this month and can be pre-ordered via the Rush Backstage Club for $4.99. The Caravan single has been getting decent airplay on rock radio stations and has broken into the top 20 on the Mediabase Rock Chart. At the time of this posting it's #16. Caravan debuted at #44 and BU2B at #50 on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 chart in its first week of release. Brad and Joe of internet radio talk show The Used Bin performed an interesting listening experiment on their show the day of the release back on June 1st. They decided to not listen to the songs until their radio broadcast that evening so they could share their first impressions and reactions to the songs on the air. You can check out the results of their experiment by listening to the podcast of the show at this link. Although most of the reviews of the songs have been very good, there are a few exceptions including this group of reviews from PopDose.com (thanks PhillyMike).

According to an interview with Rolling Stone magazine from earlier this week Geddy Lee says Rush is fired up for the tour and their upcoming album on account of all the renewed interest in the band due to the popularity of the Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage. Last week the film was released to theaters across North America and Europe. Due to high demand several theaters will continue showing the film over the next week leading up to the film's television premiere on Friday, June 26th. A list of US cities/theaters can be seen here, a list of Canadian cities/theaters are at this location, and international (UK and Brazil) release information can be found here. Earlier this week the film's official YouTube channel launched. So far they have 7 videos posted; the official trailer, the 2 preview clips that were released several weeks ago and 4 new exclusive preview clips from the movie. Reaction to the film has been overwhelmingly positive and there have been so many news stories, interviews and reviews covering the documentary that it's hard to keep up with them all. On June 10th filmmakers Sam Dunn and Scott McFadyen were guests on CBC Radio's Q with Jian Ghomeshi. You can listen to the interview at this link (thanks RushFanForever). Skip Daly wrote this very insightful review of the film for Guitar International which points out that the movie is as much about friendship as it is about the history of the band. The documentary will get its television premiere on June 26th at 9PM on VH1, VH1 Classic and Palladia. The film will be released on DVD/Blu-ray on June 29th complete with an hour of bonus materials. Reader fordman let me know that Best Buy is running a deal where they'll give you a t-shirt with purchase of the DVD/Blu-ray. You can check out the details at this link.

Last Friday I let you know that the weekend prior to the kickoff of the Rush Time Machine Tour, FMQB Productions and the Legends of Classic Rock will be presenting an hour-long radio special titled In Conversation with Rush where Q107's Jeff Woods will be interviewing Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. The interview - which has already taken place - will air on various radio stations throughout the summer. You can check out the details at the FMQB website.

Earlier this week we got to hear from Rush lawyer Bob Farmer regarding the recent Rush versus Rand Paul legal controversy. The Atlantic's Joshua Green sat down with the jovial lawyer for an in-depth interview which you can check out at this link.

MSN Canada recently posted their list of the Top 10 driving songs as chosen by their readers. Rush's Red Barchetta came in at #3. Here's what they said about it:

Anyone who's driven a convertible outside of the city knows what Geddy Lee was singing about in Rush's great driving hit, Red Barchetta: "Well-weathered leather / Hot metal and oil / The scented country air. / Sunlight on chrome / The blur of the landscape / Every nerve aware." Sounds like heaven.

Thanks to Power Windows for the heads up.

Reader Gourdy Lee let me know that in the June 24th issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Rush gets a brief mention when talking about Arcade Fire's new song The Suburbs. The article states the following:

Not since Rush's 'Subdivisions' has a Canadian band so precisely nailed the suburban ennui - and Arcade Fire manage to do it in only one time signature.

Sean let me know about a poll being run on Tallahassee's Gulf 104 asking folks who'd they'd like to see play Tallahassee. Rush is one of the options and you can vote for them at this link.

Ex-Stereophonics drummer Stuart Cable passed away June 7th at the age of 40. His former bandmate Kelly Jones wrote this touching tribute to Cable in the Times Online which makes mention of Rush and how Stuart was a big fan:

... As kids we would make mix tapes. Freebird, Highway to Hell, Deep Purple, Rush - he loved Rush and he loved AC/DC and Bon Scott. The only time I saw Stuart blushing and star-struck was meeting Rush. ...

Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.

The Bonnaroo Music Festival took place last weekend in Tennessee and one of the performers was Jack Black's band Tenacious D. Reader Jeff M reports that at one point during their set last Friday, Jack Black made a reference to Rush's The Spirit of Radio. After some machine-like sounds could be heard coming from backstage Black says the following:

What's that noise? Is it a machine? It sounds like ... like, machinery. Is that machinery? All this machinery ... [pause] ...making modern music ... [pause] ... can still be broken hearted. Uh, open hearted.

He then runs away in fear and some huge robot/machine came stomping out on stage.

In the latest installment of his music discovery podcast and blog Bands Like Rush, Ben Sommer talks to Darren (Clutch) Jacobson of Colorado-based prog rock band Red Star Revolt. Ben talks with Clutch about the history of the band and Rush of course. If you listen to the podcast you can hear full-length versions of the tracks Prove Me Wrong and Dementia from Red Star Revolt's last self-titled album. To find out more about the band check out their website at this link. You can read the entire interview or listen to the podcast at this link.

Reader Marshall B let me know that NMR Distribution will soon be releasing a 1000-piece 20"x27" Rush jigsaw puzzle! It's not listed on their website yet but I do have a picture of the product which you can see by clicking on the thumbnail.

Here's a promo video for the Time Machine Tour:

Have a great weekend!

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