This past Wednesday Geddy and Alex kicked off the band's first interview as part of a Rush PR blitz for the Snakes & Arrows DVD, taping their appearance with Eddie Trunk for VH1 Classic's new That Metal Show. This Sunday Geddy and Neil will be on Off the Record with Joe Benson and we should see the boys giving several more interviews over the next couple of weeks. From a secondhand report on the Eddie Trunk interview, it sounded like Geddy hinted that the band would be touring next year, adding credence to the rumor I first posted last week. Hopefully we'll get some confirmation on this front soon.
Tomorrow night the Buddy Rich Memorial Concert will take place at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. It will be streamed live at the DRUM Channel website beginning at 7:30PM. Tickets are still available for purchase if you are in the NYC area. Reader rosmakloma pointed me to a link where you can view the program for tonight's concert. Here's the schedule/itinerary:
Introduction with Cathy Rich
Tommy Igoe
“Little Train,” “Preach And Teach,” “La Fiesta”John Blackwell
“No Jive,” “Nutville,” “Mind Of Jay”Donnie Marple
Solo performanceTerry Bozzio featuring Efrain Toro
“Some Skunk Funk,” Venture Brothers Medley w/Cowboy BeBop, “Machine”Intermission (15 min)
Tommy Igoe featuring Will Lee
“The Chicken”Nick Rich
“Beulah Witch,” “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”Chad Smith
“Dani California,” “Hocus Pocus,” “Birdland”Neil Peart
“Love For Sale,” “Time Will Tell,” “Cottontail/One O’Clock Jump,” “YYZ”
So Neil will be capping off the evening's festivities with the Rush classic YYZ. It should be fantastic. I've also learned that Neil's kit from the concert will be on display and for sale at Dale's Drum Shop in Harrisburg, PA early next week. Reader Dave S forwarded me this email he'd received from their mailing list:
***SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FOR NEIL PEART FANS:***
This Saturday after Neil is finished playing his custom DW set for the Buddy Rich Memorial Concert at Hammerstein Ballroom NY, his one-of-a-kind set will be carefully packed up and delivered in it's entirety - just as Neil left it - straight to Dale's to be seen, and heard, close-up. It's due very early next week. This set will be featured in the next Buddy Rich Memorial Concert DVD w/ Neil Peart playing it. We'll also have some stills from the show with him playing the kit and a Certificate of Authenticity From Drum Workshop for the future owner of this great litttle piece of history.It'll be one of the best-documented collectables in a LONG time.
And, how often can you say you own a custom kit that was played by a living legend at a Buddy Rich Memorial concert, hand-picked and crafted by John Good, and purchased from Buddy's former drum tech's drum shop?
The Set features DW Collectors drums in Neil Peart specs, custom Classic Marine Pearl finish, Audix D6 internal bass mic w/ May no-drill adapter, and 24kt gold-plated stands.
Stop in and see it!
The release date for Rush's upcoming Atlantic-era greatest hits package, Rush: Retrospective 3, has been pushed back from December 5th to January 27th according to Amazon.com. Last week I asked everyone what their favorite song from the Retrospective 3 tracklist was. It was a close race. Less than 1% separated the top 3 songs; The Pass, Earthshine, and Ghost of a Chance. Rounding out the top 5 were Bravado and Far Cry. You can check out the complete results here.
There are a couple of Rush album anniversaries occurring this upcoming week; on Sunday Counterparts celebrates 15 years since its release on October 19, 1993 and Rush in Rio was released 5 years ago this coming Tuesday October 21st. In light of this my next poll asks everyone what their favorite song off of Counterparts is. Take the poll and let us know.
Earlier this week I told you how Episode 5 of Season 2 of the Emmy Award Winning NBC series Chuck - which airs 2 weeks from tonight - is titled Chuck vs. Tom Sawyer and contains a big Rush reference. Also as a reminder, all three members of Rush will be making a cameo in the upcoming Paul Rudd film I Love You Man as I'd reported back in June. The movie will be released on January 16th. Rudd talked about the cameo in this IESB.net interview. The Power Windows site also mentioned a few more minor Rush references in this post earlier this week:
... Comedy Central's "Adult Swim", which has offered up many hilarious Rush references in the page, has included yet another one during an episode of Frisky Dingo (episode "The Middle", original air date Sep. 30th of last year - note, "parental guidance suggested"!). On the new Chaos In Motion video by progressive metal band Dream Theater released Sep. 23rd, guitarist John Petrucci pays homage to his heroes during the introduction to the closing medley by performing the opening to "Xanadu". Meanwhile, Zeitgeist: Addendum, the second installment to the conspiracy theory documentary movie series, was released free online on October 3rd; during the introduction to the third chapter (around the 54:20 mark), the opening bass notes from "Cygnus X-1" are played. In addition, on the DVD release for Be Kind Rewind released back on June 17th, Jack Black is filmed giving an autograph to a man wearing a Rush t-shirt during the "Passaic Mosaic" special feature. ...
A few weeks ago I alerted you to the fact that Neil Peart's bus driver Dave (made famous through Neil's Roadshow book) had been hired by ABC News to hit the campaign trail with the bus - affectionately known as Camp Brutus. He promised to post more details to his MySpace page and that's exactly what he did. He had quite an adventure which you can read all about in his MySpace blog. There are also a bunch of great pictures posted. Thanks to Asif K for the heads up.
Reader Mark R let me know that Amazon is selling Permanent Waves for download for just $0.99! It's a one-day sale so get them while their hot!
Last month I let you know that photographer and Rush fan John Kane will be exhibiting a collection of his Rush concert photographs at the Front Street Coffee House in Salem, MA on Saturday, November 8th. For all the details check out this post. John just sent me a poster advertisement for the event which includes a very cool image of the band. You you can check it out here.
Reader rushman10 let me know that Cleveland's classic rock station WNCX recently inducted Rush into their Classic Rock Hall of Fame.
Here's a neat little article on Rush tribute band Limelight titled Music is a RUSH for these guys.
411mania.com posted a list of the top 4 innovative drummers earlier this week. Neil Peart came in at #4 behind Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and Keith Moon. Here's what was said:
The Canadian is one of the best at blending harder rock styles with smoother Jazz beats, giving him a hugely versatile arsenal. Widely considered one of the best Rock drummers of all time, Peart was the first to reverse his sticks and use the thicker end. This style gave him a much harder attack, a technique which has been replicated many times since.
Thanks to robertkincaid96 for the heads up.
Reader Bryan S sent me a separated at birth reference involving Geddy Lee from Rocky Mountain News. :)
And I'll leave you this week with this video of Neil Peart from the first Buddy Rich Memorial Concert way back in 1989:
Have a great weekend everyone!
NOTE: Posts over 10 years old are partially archived. All comments, images and other embedded media have been removed.
