[NEWS, WEATHER, and SPORTS: July, 2013 - On Days Like These]

Neil Peart has once again updated the news page on his website with a story titled On Days Like These. Neil describes his motorcycle travels on the summer leg of the Clockwork Angels tour. In this passage Neil addresses the Quebec City show that they were forced to end early:

... During the second set, just before we began "The Garden," I started to see flurries of raindrops in the spotlight beams over the crowd. As we launched into the song, the wind gusted up, swirling rain all through the colored lightbeams flashing around the stage. Behind the vast crowd in front of me, lightning flickered in the distant darkness. Raindrops covered my cymbals enough to dampen their sound (literally and figuratively), and striking a crash cymbal sent a colorful fountain into the air. Of greatest concern were the exposed electronics-keyboards and foot pedals-and the delicate violins and cellos. (Later cellist Jacob told us, "If it had been anyone but you guys, I would have been off that stage.") Just as we finished the song, monitor engineer Brent's voice came over our ear monitors, "The show is over. A storm is right on us. Make an announcement, and get off the stage."

Hard to believe that in almost forty years, we had never had to stop a show in the middle like that. Only once, a couple of tours ago in Chicago, had an outdoor show been called just minutes before we were supposed to go onstage. (We made that one up later.) But never once in all those years had we stopped a show in the middle-so we had no policy. ...

You can read the entire story on Neil's website at this location.

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