Two weeks and counting down until the 2008 leg of Rush's Snakes & Arrows tour kicks off at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico. Reader shockobabble let me know that the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día is sponsoring a Rush Pre-party for this show at the Coliseo for select subscribers. Rush is presumably still rehearsing in Toronto but - if what I'm hearing is correct - will be heading down to Puerto Rico later next week to start rehearsals there.
It's been rumored for some time now that Rush would be playing at the Quebec City 400th anniversary celebration concert this summer. The concert will take place on the Plains of Abraham on August 22nd with Celine Dion headlining. I'd been hearing for a while now that Rush was penciled in as one of the performers, but now it looks like in lieu of performing at this concert they will instead be taking part in the Quebec City Summer Festival concert series at the Scène Bell des Plaines d'Abraham in early July (July 8th is the date I'm hearing). I'm told that the reasoning behind this switch is the band's desire to play an entire show with their complete stage setup as opposed to a shortened set/production at the August 22nd concert (since they aren't the headliner). Details are still being ironed out so there's no official word on this yet. More news as I get it.
In last week's poll I asked you which of Rush's never-played-live 2000-era songs would you most like to hear on the 2008 leg. This was a very tight race with Freeze barely eking out a victory with 15.5% of the vote. The next 4 spots went to Faithless (15.1%), We Hold On (13.4%), Vapor Trail (13.4%) and Bravest Face (10%). You can see the complete results here. This week I thought I'd ask you which of the non-Snakes & Arrows songs from the 2007 setlist you'd like to see dropped for the 2008 leg. Take the poll and let us know what you think.
Rush is running another contest to win either a Meet & Greet or front row tickets. Go to this link at Rush.net to enter.
The Rush.com newsletter mailed out the official announcement of what we already knew; that the Snakes & Arrows Live release has been delayed one week to April 15th (although they mistakenly called it the live DVD). The Rush Backstage Club is offering a free sticker if you pre-order the CD. Reader PhillyMike also let me know that the Atlantic Records store is offering an exclusive pre-order bundle for $40 which includes the CD, a Star-man t-shirt and a Snakes & Arrows poster (poster only good for the first 175 orders). The Workin' Them Angels live single off of the CD continues to climb up the charts and is now at #26 on the MediaBase Mainstream Rock Chart and #28 on the Radio and Records Rock Chart.
The big news for the week was Rush's surprise guest appearance at last Saturday's Foo Fighters show in Toronto. Geddy and Alex came out and played YYZ with drummer Taylor Hawkins. The Foos recently posted a bunch of pics from the event which you can check out here. And be sure to check out this bootleg video if you haven't already.
Earlier this week I started accepting questions from readers for a Q&A session with Snakes & Arrows producer and major Rush fan Nick Raskulinecz and I've received nearly 100 submissions already! Thanks for the questions everybody. If you haven't submitted your question yet you can do so at this link. I'll be accepting submissions up until opening night on April 11th.
Many thanks to everybody who's bought stuff at the Zazzle.com Rush Is A Band Store. Reader entrenous sent in this picture of himself wearing one of the RIAB white t-shirts.
There's finally a little bit of news to report about the upcoming Sam Dunn/Scott McFadyen Rush documentary. The last we heard was that the filmmakers were looking for old footage from fans and expected to release the documentary later this year. However, DJ Eddie Trunk recently posted an entry in his blog a couple of weeks ago giving his report from Iron Maiden's recent show at the Meadowlands. Here's an excerpt which mentions the documentary:
... After my Maiden interviews were done, it was my turn to be interviewed. Sam Dunn who did the Headbangers Journey film is on the road doing a new doc on Maiden. Look for it end of the year and I did a long interview for the movie about Maiden and my 25 years of playing them on the radio. Should be a cool film as Sam and his crew do great work and they have full access with the band and tour. By the way, after Maiden they told me the next film subject they will do is Rush! ...
So it sounds like this new Iron Maiden documentary will trump the release of the Rush documentary. Indeed, reader Here and now was recently at a live Q&A session with Scott McFadyen following the premier of Global Metal. McFadyen verified that the Iron Maiden documentary will be released first this fall which means the Rush documentary probably won't see a release until next year. He also mentioned that they have over 450 hours of Rush footage to work with!
Reader Pat had given a bottle of The Macallan (indirectly - through Howard Ungerleider) to Neil Peart as a gift at last year's Rush show at Madison Square Garden. After 6 months he was really excited to receive a thank you postcard from the man himself which he's been kind enough to share with us here. Very cool!
Reader plunge alerted me to this new t-shirt from shirt.woot!. It depicts the Canadian periodic table. Rush is element #66 with letter code Ru. Awesome.
Reader Mike from Texas let me know that in the April issue of Classic Rock magazine there is a interview on page 38 with Joe Elliot of Def Leppard. One of the questions is about the influence of Led Zeppelin on Def Lepard's music. Joe says that it was mostly the late Steve Clark who was influenced by Led Zeppelin and Jimmy Page's guitar playing. But then he also adds about Steve Clark's influences what is hardly ever mentioned is Rush's Alex Lifeson. Cool - I never knew.
Now for the latest on the vote for Rush front. PwrWndws let me know that WMMR out of Philadelphia is running their annual MM-arch Madness competition. Their voting is by text or phone only. See this link to view the bracket and for contest details. Rush is up against The Hooters in the next round - should be an easy victory.
Chicago's WLUP is also in on the action. Rush has made it to the 3rd round in their March Bandness contest. They're up against Def Lepard next. Their voting is by text or email and you can view the bracket here. Thanks to malterb for the heads up.
George let me know that Mancow.com is running a bracket for The Most Deserving Band Not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rush has made it to the final four.
The UK's premier digital radio station Planet Rock is on the verge of being shut down and it needs your help. Planet Rock plays a lot of Rush and is one of the few British radio outlets to do so. They even dedicated the entire month of September last year to Rush, and have conducted several great interviews with the band. For more information go visit the Save Planet Rock website. Thanks to Nutty Almond for the information.
That's all for now. Have a great weekend!
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