UPDATE - 3/23@11:15AM: Not that there was any doubt, but Eyeweekly confirms that it definitely was Geddy in line at the airport.
Rush began band rehearsals for the 2011 leg of the Time Machine Tour yesterday in Toronto. It looks like Neil Peart drum tech Lorne Wheaton arrived in YYZ on Monday and will remain there until next weekend according to a post on his MySpace page. Neil Peart himself followed shortly thereafter; Pratt was spotted by a lucky fan at LAX on Wednesday en route to Toronto to join his bandmates. And Driven over at Counterparts spotted what looks to be Geddy Lee pictured in a photo (click on thumbnail above left) accompanying this Toronto Star article. The article talks about high volume issues that the Toronto Airport was experiencing on Wednesday. Assuming it is Geddy in the picture (looks like he's with his wife Nancy too), perhaps he was off taking a little R&R somewhere before rehearsals. Hopefully this didn't cause him to be late! Then there were a few postings from members of the road crew yesterday indicating that rehearsals have begun; Lorne Wheaton posted a simple Starting in YYZ message to his MySpace page yesterday afternoon, and Tony Gerianos (aka Jack Secret) posted Rehearsals about to start to his Facebook page early yesterday evening. So it sounds as if the boys will be rehearsing through next week before heading down to Florida for the tour kickoff on March 30th. Considering that the show and setlist will remain identical to the 2010 tour, I guess a week and a half of rehearsals is more than enough. We know that Alex and Geddy at least will remain in Toronto through next weekend since they are presenters at the 2011 Juno Awards ceremony at the Air Canada Centre on Sunday, March 27th. I hope everyone is enjoying my green St. Patty's day theme. The Rush Starman shamrock image I'm using is courtesy Eric at the Power Windows site. Eric is much better at that kind of thing than me. :) Only 13 days until the tour!!
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