A new docu-series on Canadian rock legends The Tragically Hip will make its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next week. The series is titled The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal and was produced/directed by Mike Downie, brother of The Hip's late frontman Gord Downie. It includes new interviews with the band, family, friends, and famous fans including Will Arnett, Dan Aykroyd, Jay Baruchel, Sarah Harmer, Justin Trudeau, and Rush's Geddy Lee. From the film's description:

The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal is a definitive four-part documentary series about a bunch of scrappy kids from Kingston, Ontario - Gord Downie, Rob Baker, Johnny Fay, Paul Langlois and Gord Sinclair - who went on to make music that defined Canada to the world and, more importantly, Canada to Canadians.

Throughout the series, producer-director Mike Downie - brother of the band's singular frontperson - interweaves never-before-seen archival footage with new interviews with the band, family, friends, and famous fans including Will Arnett, Dan Aykroyd, Jay Baruchel, Sarah Harmer, Geddy Lee, and Justin Trudeau.

Downie pushes past the usual platitudes of the rock doc by exposing sentiments other, more detached directors might omit. The audience is with The Tragically Hip playing those early bars, in the studio as they hone their material, and in the stands as they graduate to stadiums across Canada while struggling to break through in the US. We're also with them as they experience personal tragedies that influence their music, bonding them as a found family. ...

The documentary will premiere next Thursday, September 5th at the Toronto International Film Festival with all the details available at tiff.net. You can check out the film's trailer on YouTube.

Metallica brought their M72 tour to Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton this past week and guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo paid tribute to Rush during their nightly doodle session, where they designate a few minutes in each set to lead a singalong of a popular song by an artist local to whichever city/country the band is in. For their Rush tribute the pair tackled Rush's Working Man as seen in this fan-shot video, even throwing in a snippet of The Spirit of Radio towards the end as the icing on the cake.

Henderson Brewing Company in Toronto hosted their 2nd annual Rush Day event this past Sunday at the brewery's Toronto location, and from all reports the event was a huge success. As part of the celebration, the Brewery partnered with Anansi Press to sponsor the release of a new book titled Toronto In 100 Beers featuring a foreword from Rush's Alex Lifeson. The book is now available to purchase via the Indigo website or at Amazon.com and other retailers. They also used the event to debut a new light and crushable version of their Golden Ale called Rush Canadian Light Lager, now available at their Toronto Taproom & Bottle Shop. As mentioned above, Toronto in 100 Beers features a foreword from Alex Lifeson. A photo of Alex with author (and Henderson co-owner) Steve Himel along with Alex's foreword is available for viewing on the Indigo website (go to the eBook preview). You can also check out this screenshot and read the foreword below (thanks RushFanForever):

Beer and Toronto share a long history. During the age of rapid beer growth in the early nineteenth century, Toronto became a magnet for the beeren-barron wave of brewers who sought the cool, clear lamprey-infested waters of our Great Lake. It was around this time that Henderson Brewery founder, Paul Henderson, was inspired to craft a delicious beverage that made you think you are far more interesting to other people than you actually are. After his unbelievable goal against the Romanov team and winning a brand new czar, he felt unfulfilled and really thirsty. Beer was the answer and it hit him on the head like a cold case of two-four. Unfortunately, it was around this time that he also thought donuts were pretty cool and delicious. Paul Henderson Donuts never took off, especially the Paulbits, and the ride-thru lane was a disaster after all those horses. It led to years of woulda-coulda-shoulda, leaving him depressed and spent. Sadly, during a walk back from Niagara Falls one night, he was attacked and mauled by a panther. What a weird coincidence that was!

Anyhoo, current partners/owners, Steve Himel and Adin Wener, come from a long line of brewers, and their passion for their craft is all over their jeans. Beer can be messy, but if it wasn't for Gustav Amadeus von Himel and his partner, Ronaldo "Crazy Joe" Wener, we wouldn't be drinking the delicious Henderson beers of today and instead we'd be eating stale donuts-like there's not enough of that!

So anyway, that took, like, a hundred years, and is a true story.

YES guitarist Steve Howe was recently interviewed for Rolling Stone magazine and spoke a bit about YES' influence on Rush and his admiration for the band (thanks RushFanForever):

... Yes was a huge influence on Rush - and Howe is, in turn, a fan of that band. "We much admired them," Howe says. "This was a very powerful trio. Trios are very rare, that you can do that. ELP, Cream, there's a handful. So they had a incredible power to do that. And when your drummer is admired as much as he was, and the other guys build up their reputation, Alex [Lifeson] and Geddy [Lee] ... and I love the guys very much, particularly Geddy, who I had a chance to spend some time with a little while back. So basically, this is a great band with its own story, but they came from the embryo, if you like, of what ELP and Genesis and Yes started doing in the Seventies. And I say bravo. [Just as] I love Dream Theater's adventurousness. They took on some of our ideas, and I think it's quite flattering, more than in any way It could ever be annoying." ...

Brooklyn-based rockers Geese recently played a show in Toronto and paid tribute to the Holy Trinity by inserting a snippet of Rush's YYZ towards the end of their song 2212 (another veiled nod to Rush?). You can check out some video of the tribute on YouTube here.

On the latest episode of Rush Roundtable (#242) on the Rushfans YouTube channel, the panel takes a break from their Vapor Trails deep dive to discuss songs that could have fit on the next chronological Rush album.

Alex Lifeson celebrated his 71st birthday earlier this week. Happy belated birthday Lerxst!!! That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!