UPDATE - 3/20@1:25PM: I have a date for the SPAC show: July 23rd. I updated the list below.

UPDATE - 3/20@8:34AM: I have another date: July 1st at the KC Starlight Theatre in Kansas City, MO.

UPDATE - 3/19@6:10PM: Tickets are now available for the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame 6th Annual Gala where Rush will be honored on Sunday, March 28th at the George Weston Recital Hall, Toronto Centre for the Arts. You can purchase tickets via ticketmaster at this link. There is a special offer for Rush fans; simply enter the pass code SONGS when requesting tickets. It looks like regular tickets start from $140.50 CND, but with the special offer they are $100.50 CND.

The Rush 2010 tour came a step closer to being official when Neil Peart drum tech Lorne Wheaton posted the following to his MySpace page Wednesday:

Off to YYZ for sessions...on the road this summer. Mood: pumped :)
Posted at 11:20 AM Mar 17

One can reasonably assume that this means Rush is touring this summer and by sessions he is likely referring to tour rehearsals, although it's also possible this means studio work. Hopefully this will extinguish any doubts people might have regarding whether Rush will tour this summer. Rest assured - the tour is on and we should get an official announcement any day now. I posted a few more tour date/venue updates in my post yesterday. Here's what I have so far:

June ?? (mid-late June):
[venue unknown] - Albuquerque, NM

July 1st:
KC Starlight Theatre - Kansas City, MO

July 3rd:
Summerfest - Milwaukee, WI

July 19th:
Mohegan Sun Arena - Uncasville, CT

July 23rd:
Saratoga PAC - Saratoga Springs, NY

Jul ??:
Nikon at Jones Beach Theater - Wantagh, NY
Darien Lake PAC - Darien Center, NY

Aug 5th:
USANA Amphitheatre - Salt Lake City, UT

Aug 22nd:
Verizon Wireless Amphitheater St. Louis - Maryland Heights, MO (outside St. Louis)

Aug ?? (early August):
Shoreline Amphitheater - Mountain View, CA
Sleep Train Pavillion - Concord, CA

Sept ??:
PNC Bank Center - Holmdel, NJ

??:
Molson Amphitheatre - Toronto, ON
Blossom Music Center - Cuyahoga Falls, OH

Remember that none of the above information is confirmed or official in any way. I only post it to give fans an idea of the route the tour may be taking. If anyone has any industry connections or contacts at the various concert venues, please find out what you can and let us know.

The Tribeca Film Festival website posted its complete list of films for this year's festival this past Monday, including the world premier of the Rush documentary. The documentary's official title is Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage. It is included as one of the 14 films featured as part of the TFF '10 Encounters and has a running time of 106 minutes. The full schedule with show times won't be released until sometime next week, but from what I've heard the premier red carpet event will occur on Saturday, April 24th and all 3 members of Rush will be on hand. Reader Phil Simon has started a Facebook group for any Facebookers who plan to attend the premier.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony took place this past weekend in New York City. As it usually does, the latest batch of inductees (especially ABBA) stirred up a bit of controversy, causing writers and bloggers across the web to create their own lists of artists that are not in the Rock Hall but should be. For all the details check out this post.

RIAB reader and Brigham Young University English professor Patrick Madden (Pat) has published a book of personal essays called Quotidiana (University of Nebraska Press). It is just recently available at Amazon and other booksellers. Its chapters cover a wide variety of subjects, from laughter to fatherhood to the nearly infinite nature of nature, but one unifying theme is the influence of Rush on the author. Half the essays are peppered with Neil Peart's lyrics in conversation with the author's life. Pat used so many lyrics, in fact, that he had to get Neil's permission (it was graciously granted). The book's third essay, Remember Death (those who deciphered the skull-and-femur Morse code message in their Roll the Bones tourbook will recognize this phrase), is especially Rush-related. It chronicles the author's epiphany one summer day in 1981 when his friend placed headphones on his head and played Tom Sawyer. From there, it builds a meditation on death through the lens of Rush. One of the tropes prominent in the essay is the vocabulary Pat learned from Rush lyrics. The essay itself intentionally includes dozens of "Rush words." Pat and the University of Nebraska have produced a PDF of the Remember Death pages for RIAB readers, along with a contest. Read Remember Death, noting all the "Rush words" you find (hint: there are between 50 and 100; they're mainly from the albums through Hold Your Fire). Send your alphabetically organized list in an email to Pat at pcmadden3@yahoo.com with RIAB Vocabulary Contest in the subject line before Friday, April 12th. The person who identifies the most Rush words will win a signed copy of Quotidiana plus a vinyl New World Man single (with an otherwise unreleased live version of Vital Signs on the back; according to several sites, this is the only time, other than their 1973 self-released 45, that Rush has ever released a single that does not appear on a full-length album). Two runners up will win one vinyl 45 each, of either The Big Money (b/w Middletown Dreams) or Time Stand Still (b/w High Water). Each winner will also receive a RIAB bumper sticker.

A new Rush greatest hits compilation titled Time Stand Still: The Collection is being released by Spectrum/Universal in Europe on March 23rd. It contains 13 tracks from Rush's Universal Records era (through Hold Your Fire). Thanks to Neil H for the heads up.

Reader RushFanForever alerted me to a recent National Post article titled Vinyl Treasures which discusses LP rarities and uses the Moon Records first pressing of Rush's first album as an example:

In 1974, a local rock band called Rush played our high school cafeteria and after the concert was over I bought a copy of the group's debut album from the singer, a genial, hawk-nosed fellow named Geddy Lee. He smiled, pointed to the pile of records and spoke, but since my eardrums were still ringing from the 120-decibel music, I had no idea what he was saying. But now I know: "Buy all the records in this pile and don't open any of them because they'll be worth a fortune in 35 years."

The pile of LPs Mr. Lee was selling next to the stage were some of the 3,500 pressings of Rush's first album, produced by Moon Records. A sealed version of the album sold for US$831 on eBay in November, according to popsike.com,a site that tracks record prices. ...

It's that time of year again, time for classic rock stations across the nation to conduct their annual March Madness (often dubbed March Bandness) battle of the bands competitions. Several folks alerted me to Philadelphia's WMMR March Madness competition last week. Rush made it to the final 4 but ultimately lost to Tool. There are several contests that just started or are about to start. Some that I know about are Buffalo's 97 Rock, St. Louis's KSHE 95, 92.3 in Fort Wayne, and 96 Rock in Raleigh. You know what to do. If you know of any more of these contests, let me know about them so we can use the power of RIAB readers to bring victory for Rush.

Jocelyn P let me know about a Rush reference in a recent episode of the French Canadian TV show C.A.. In the latest episode (Season 4, Episode 10), one of the characters decides to split from his wife and move back in with his parents. In his old bedroom there's a Rush Permanent Waves poster on the wall. You can check out a screenshot here and if you live in Canada you can watch the show at this link (around the 18-minute mark).

Rush gets referenced in a recent review of the new 2010 2010 Aston Martin Rapide at AutoBlog.com:

... With our iPhone plugged into the system, we had Rush's Tom Sawyer blaring so loudly that you would have sworn Geddy Lee was wailing at us inches away, Alex Lifeson was strumming in the passenger seat and Neil Peart was hanging out in the rear hatch smashing a full complement of drums. Our ears rang for hours that night. ...

ChicagoNow.com blogger JVO recently put up a post titled Permanent Waves: Making the case for RUSH where he defends his love of Rush:

... One year ago this month, it became okay-ish to listen to Rush when the hit film "I Love You, Man" brought Paul Rudd and Jason Segel to the party. Even so, my snarkier, more musically sanctimonious, friends still wouldn't hear any of it. I tried my best to first reel them in with the band's hits, like "Closer to the Heart" and "Tom Sawyer" ("Xanadu" and "Digital Man" are songs that are earned, not given). I pointed out how tight the band is throughout "Spirit of the Radio"...How "Limelight" may in fact have the greatest guitar riff ever....How "Subdivisions" speaks to the alienated child in us all. I'm convinced that they wouldn't be swayed because they chose not to be swayed.

I'm unapologetically a Rush fan. I've got their library "on shuffle" as I'm typing this (currently playing the bombastic "Cygnus X-1 Book II" from "Hemispheres"). Magnificent. If liking Rush isn't cool, well...I'm happy to be lame.

Speaking of I Love You Man, the movie - laced with Rush references and a Rush cameo as well - was released one year ago tomorrow. Here's the extended Rush concert scene from the film where they play Limelight:

That's it for this week everybody. Have a great weekend!

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