Rush's 2011 Time Machine Tour is now in full swing. Over the past week they've played shows in Greensboro, Nashville and Louisville and will be hitting the Giant Center in Hershey, PA tonight. After that it's on to the Big Apple to play Madison Square Garden on Sunday, and on Tuesday and Wednesday they'll play in Chicago and Toledo respectively. The Madison Square Garden show looks to be a sell out or close to it. It even garnered enough attention to get a mention on the Late Show with David Letterman earlier this week. Dave made some joke about nobody ever thinking the New York Knicks would make the playoffs so they booked Rush to play the Garden all week (thanks Rushguy). Then next Friday it's the big show in Cleveland which they'll be filming for an upcoming live DVD. Today's Wall Street Journal has an article (subscription required) on the summer concert scene which mentions Rush's tour as being one of the successful standouts (thanks PhillyMike):
... Demand appears to be strong for acts including Rihanna (touring with singer Cee-Lo Green), Sade (with John Legend) and Rush (performing its “Moving Pictures” album song-by-song), according to Seatgeek.com, a ticket search engine that monitors inventory and prices across the secondary market. ...
The guys also seem to be taking out some time to enjoy themselves while on tour. From The Miami Herald (thanks RushFanForever):
Following their Wednesday night show at BankAtlantic Center, members of Rush had dinner Thursday night at Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink. Vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart were seen sitting outdoors enjoying the food and scenery.
And here's a humorous video (thanks Brian D) depicting an I Love You Man-esque scene of a male Rush fan rocking out at the Nashville show while his reluctant significant other rolls her eyes. :)
As I'd mentioned last week, folks have begun receiving their 2011 Time Machine Tour VIP ticket package swag. Here's a great photo of the package contents courtesy RestlessOldRomantic. Reader DaveTinNY compared the new tour shirt contained in the package with his original Moving Pictures tour shirt and took this photo.
In addition to the weekly meet-n-greet contest that I told you about a couple weeks ago, the Rush Backstage Club is now running a contest to win a trip to Austin, TX to see Rush along with tickets, a meet-n-greet, hotel, airfare and spending money! It's open to residents of the US and Canada and you can enter here. There's also a contest specifically for our fellow European Rush fans. European residents can win a trip to Frankfurt, Germany to see Rush along with tickets, a meet-n-greet, hotel, airfare and a package of swag! Just go to this link to enter.
The Moving Pictures 5.1 surround sound 30th anniversary deluxe edition hit stores this past Tuesday. The CD+DVD version is available via multiple retailers but the CD+Blu-ray is only being sold exclusively through Best Buy for the first 30 days; other retailers will have the Blu-ray version on May 3rd. In celebration of the release, Sound & Vision editor-in-chief Mike Mettler (who has already had great things to say about the remix) put together a 2-part series on Rush and their journey towards embracing the 5.1 format titled Rush: The Fountain of Surround (part 1, part 2). Pre-orders of the Moving Pictures deluxe edition pushed Moving Pictures back into the Billboard 200 after 30 years; it made a fleeting appearance at #137 for the week of April 9th but is now off the charts once again. Reader Jaybird also let me know that Billboard recently ran a piece on the 30th anniversary of Chart Beat which mentions Rush. In addition to the 5.1 remix, the deluxe edition contains an extensive gallery with previously unreleased photos from the original recording sessions, new liner notes by music journalist David Fricke and 30th anniversary artwork by original album designer Hugh Syme. John at Cygnus-X1.net has scanned these images and liner notes and put them online. You can check out the liner notes at this link and all the images here. John is also holding a contest to give away five copies of the CD/DVD version in celebration of the release. The first winner was selected last Friday, April 1st (congrats Mike Markiewicz of Riverview, Michigan!). John will be giving 4 more away; one each Friday for the next 4 weeks beginning today. To enter just go to this link. FYE.com is also giving away 5 autographed Rush Moving Pictures posters in celebration of the release. You can get more details regarding the Moving Pictures deluxe edition in this post and order your copy at Amazon (CD+DVD, CD+Blu-ray).
The 30th anniversary of Moving Pictures has been getting a lot of attention of late due to the release of the deluxe edition, but another classic Rush album also recently celebrated an impressive milestone. About 35 years ago back sometime in late March or April of 1976 (the exact date seems to have been lost to history), Rush released their breakthrough 2112 album. This album was Rush's first commercial success and their first album to reach Gold status. Its success ultimately gave them the artistic freedom they needed to create a string of innovative albums in the late 70's, culminating with their most commercially successful album - 1981's Moving Pictures. Happy anniversary 2112! It's very likely that if Rush continues down the 5.1 road this album will be the next to get the 5.1 treatment. Although according to my current poll most folks would prefer Hemispheres be the next Rush album with a 5.1 mix. 2112 is a close second though.
Neil Peart's recent interview with Jim Ladd aired last night on Ladd's KLOS radio show. I was not able to listen to the interview and it's not clear whether it will be available online at some point. If you were able to listen to the interview and have anything to report, please let us know. Neil also recently conducted an extensive 55-minute video interview for the launch of the new interactive online drumming magazine iDrum where he is featured on the cover. You can check out iDrum and Neil's complete interview at this link. And we are still awaiting word on when Neil's recent interview for the CBC's Strombo (formerly The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos) will air.
Neil Peart's 5th full-length book Far and Away: A Prize Every Time was released this past weekend. The original release date had been given as May 1st but the Rush Backstage Club, Amazon and other retailers began shipping it last Friday. Neil spoke at length about the book in the most recent update at NeilPeart.net as well as in the recent interviews mentioned above. According to the official sellsheet (PDF 180KB) the regular hardcover edition is 8x10", 260 pages, with 4-color throughout and 150 photos. You can purchase your copy at this link. Back in early February the Rush Backstage Club began taking orders for a limited edition hardcover edition of the book priced at $74.99 and immediately sold out all 500 copies within just 1 day. Reader Andrew W purchased one of the limited edition copies and was kind enough to take some photos of it which you can check out by clicking on the thumbnails above. Neil's book gets a mention in the April edition of Spin magazine in the Spin 20 pop culture rankings at #2 (thanks vapor trailer):
Rush drummer Neil Peart's book Far and Away, a compilation of four years' worth of blog entries: Sounds lazy at first, until you realize it was written in 11/8 time.
Geddy Lee appears on the cover of the April, 2011 issue of Bass Guitar magazine for a feature titled The 65 Basses You Must Play where Geddy reveals the No. 1 bass You Must Play.
The Rush Fan Film Project website recently posted a 20-minute video interview with radio historian/consultant and Rush discoverer Donna Halper. You can watch the interview at this link.
A few weeks ago the folks at RushCon announced the location and dates for this year's convention which has been cleverly dubbed RushCon X1. RushCon 2011 will take place the weekend of June 24-25th at the MGM Grand/Hooters Hotel in Las Vegas and coincide with the Rush concert on June 24th. More details were revealed a few days ago and registration is now open. For all the event details check out this link, and go here to register.
Ranger J at The Rush Forum recently purchased a copy of the book Neu Sex by famous adult film star Sasha Grey. Each of the pictured sections of the book are introduced by a line of lyrics, followed by her thoughts on a particular topic. Interestingly enough, one section is introduced by the lyrics to the chorus of Rush's Freewill: I will choose a path that's clear, I will choose freewill.
John at Cygnus-X1.net let me know about this ESPN article on Cubs manager Mike Quade talking about how he takes the train into work:
"I had a coat on and a hat that was given to me, says 'Rush' -- the rock band," Quade said. "Everybody knows that I'm a huge Led Zeppelin and Rush fan."
Reader RushFanForever let me know that last month JustPressPlay.com compiled their list of the Top 100 Artists of the Last 50 Years and Rush came in at #94.
Reader Dr. Tae just developed a fun Rush-related iPhone app called Not-YYZ. It'll play musical morse code like the opening of YYZ for any other 3-letter combination. You can check it out at this link.
Here's a small gallery of some great photos of Rush taken at an outdoor Calgary concert back in 1975 (thanks Power Windows).
As many of you may know, Geddy Lee's brother Allan Weinrib has been involved with Rush's concert video productions for some time now, including the current Time Machine Tour. He specifically was involved with the video and visuals on display during Rush's performance of Caravan. Excerpts of this video along with a wide-angle concert performance video of Rush playing Caravan are now available online at this link (thanks MickAv8r):
That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!
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