Concert Dates, Concert Tour News, Artist Information

A big, fat Rush update

The great thing about Rush is a Band.com is their extensive newsgathering, which usually results in some informative posts each day. But the really great thing is on Fridays, when they do a news recap. This means that if you haven’t checked in with them throughout the week, you can always count on getting all your Rush news in one big, long…well, rush. There’s always plenty of interesting items in there, from news about the band members individual projects to their personal lives. Sometimes, there are even hints that they will be going back on tour (we can only wish for now).

Anyways, check out the Friday post today and you’ll see plenty of great stuff, from contests you can enter to win great Rush memorabilia to a detailed brief about Working Men, the Rush live compilation that is going to be a popular stocking stuffer in the coming year. If you haven’t picked it up yet, then look it up, because it’s definitely a good one.

Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that in the near future, Rush tickets will again become available on StubHub.

Neil Peart talks drums

Rush is a Band.com has a really interesting post up about The Edge magazine, which features an interview with Neil Peart talking about how to create a drum shell. It’s pretty neat reading for any serious skin-bangers out there who want to learn how this pro operates when he’s working with the band.

It’s pretty cool that these musicians are down to earth enough to be willing to share their musical secrets with their fans. At heart, Rush seems like a band made up of rock fans, and they’re not above helping out their admirers and encouraging them to learn how to play music properly and maybe even attain some fame. They’re all about the power of rock and roll.

That seems to be a major reason why the band has maintained it’s following over the years. People see Rush as being filled with ordinary joes who love rock and roll and want to push it as far as it can go. It’s hard not to be supportive of that. In any case, let’s hope they go back on tour and that we’ll see Rush tickets at StubHub.

Win a Rush poster!

While prog-rock has always had a very distinctive sound, another defining characteristic of the genre has been it’s artwork. It’s always been a slightly nerdier form of rock than others, with wizards and elves, space figures, and surreal dreamscapes appearing on a lot of albums. Rush isn’t immune to this, though they’ve had generally better artwork than, say, Dream Theater.

Rush is a Band.com has a posting up today that links to another site, where a contest is being held that could result in you winning a Rush Feedback poster. It’s a pretty cool poster, and one that doesn’t really indulge in that classic prog geekiness, but reaches even farther back and tips its hat to the great rock art of the ‘60s. It looks like the kind of multi-colored poster you would expect to see around Haight/Ashbury back in ‘68 rather than Toronto in ‘78. But in any case, check it out and see if you can win it.

The next time they head out on tour, make sure you check for Rush tickets on StubHub.

Rush’s live CD/DVD finally comes out

For the past year or so, Rush fans have been looking forward to the release of Working Men, a compilation of live tracks from a series of major Rush shows. It compiles the best performances from Rush in Rio, R30 and Snakes and Arrows Live into one high-powered disc (or discs, when you consider that there’s both a CD to listen to and DVD to watch).

Rush is a Band.com has a brief update about the release, noting that the compilation already came out in Europe the other day, and comes out in America today. You can bet that it will be selling pretty quickly, since it’s the latest new item to come from the band in a long while. People still have their fingers crossed that the band will put some new material together and eventually record a new album, but things aren’t looking positive as far as how that goes right now.

In any case, what everyone is hoping is that the band does some promotion of Working Men and goes on tour. If they do, you can bet Rush tickets will be found at StubHub.

News on the Rush documentary!

Rush is a Band.com has some exciting news regarding the upcoming Rush documentary. The team in charge of creating the film apparently was at a convention of some sort recently, speaking largely about other projects they had worked on. Anyone who reads Rush is a Band.com regularly knows that their much beleaguered Rush doc has been the subject of much blogging since it was first announced, though the project has hit innumerable road bumps on the way.

But there has been some progress, which they showed off recently, and a Rush is a Band reader was tuned in. He watched a few minutes of footage from the doc, and had some great things to say about it. “There was also footage from a show Rush did at a high school, with John Rustey on drums. Pretty neat. I asked them when they expect to be finished and when it will be released and I didn’t get a firm answer, but they said they are still working on it and The Toronto Film festival was mentioned, for a premiere of the documentary. They said possibly January, but it sounded like next year sometime, is when it will be out on DVD.”

Sounds good. Look for that in the future, and keep your eyes peeled for Rush tickets at StubHub, as well.

Cracked takes aim at prog

Back in the day, Cracked was the publication you picked up if Mad was a little too snobbish for your tastes. But in the past decade, they’ve really reinvented themselves online as a pretty clever satirical site (even if they do preserve some of their juvenile humor at times). Most recently, Cracked has set it’s sights on progressive rock, walking fans through the iterations of prog, from the classic stuff like Rush and King Crimson to the more modern stuff, including Dream Theater and, um, Opeth. They have a pretty broad definition of what modern prog is.

But they throw some great shots at the genre: There is no clear definition of progressive rock, as it is not bounded by convention, structure, tradition or common sense. Progressive rock is like the anti-socialite of music; there are no rules or restrictions. However, progressive rock bands have typically featured:

  * Extremely skilled guitarists, drummers, bassists and keyboardists
  * Okay singers
  * Huge egos
  * Tons of drugspiration
  * No sense of when to stop a song

Check out the rest of it, then see if Rush tickets are available at StubHub.

Alex Lifeson to appear as mad scientist in new movie

Canadians have some pretty weird TV shows. The Trailer Park Boys is probably one of their most popular shows in a long time (besides Kids in the Hall and, uh, Bob and Doug Mackenzie). And with the news that a Trailer Park Boys movie is in the works, there’s a steady buzz around what the humor and plot will be.

The most interesting aspect of it, however, is that Alex Lifeson—who is becoming quite a film star, having recently appeared in the horror-comedy Suck—is going to be in it. From Rush is a Band.com: “[The movie] opens as the three boys ‘wake up’ after shooting has wrapped on their new TV series - a children’s show filmed in the sleepy town of Port Cockerton called The Happy Funtime Hour. Production on the series was going smoothly until Alex Lifeson, hired to play a German scientist who teaches children about nutrition, goes too far and assumes the personality of his character after synthesizing a powerful and addictive hallucinogen from local berries.”

Sounds…interesting. We’ll have to see the final product before drawing any conclusions. Looking for Rush tickets? Get them at StubHub.

Rush isn’t in a rush to put out an album

411mania.com has a different reading than what we picked up in the recent blog post by Rush drummer Neil Peart about the band’s future. While we thought that Peart’s discussion about the recording industry’s troubles—and the death of the album—were negative, it also seemed like the band was pointed in the direction of putting out a new record eventually.

But 411mania.com is more skeptical. “Rush mainman and drummer Neil Peart is open to suggestions when it comes to what the band should do next - but he’s not convinced it’ll be another album. He says the Canadian three-piece have taken time apart after releasing then touring 2007’s Snakes & Arrows, and the industry has changed since then. For that reason, there could be no call for another Rush LP.”

That’s certainly a way to read into Peart’s words. But will the band really quit just like that? It seems like they would still like to tour, and we would certainly like them to. There are plenty of fans that would snap up Rush tickets on StubHub if and when they do.

Geddy to appear on cooking contest show

Looks like Geddy Lee will be testing his gourmand appetite in the near future. Lee has been invited to be a guest judge on Gold Medal Plates, a highly popular Canadian cooking show. Rush is a Band.com notes that “Gold Medal Plates is the ultimate celebration of Canadian Excellence in cuisine, wine, entertainment and athletic achievement. Celebrating in six cities across Canada in 2009, Gold Medal Plates will feature superb wines and the premier chefs in each city, paired with Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes, in a competition to crown a gold, silver and bronze medal culinary team in each city, and subsequently nation-wide.”

They raise money for Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes, which is pretty awesome. Geddy won’t be appearing until Nov. 19, but you can be sure many Rush fans in Canada are going to be tuning in to watch the infamous rocker pig out on…well, we’re not sure what kind of things they cook there, but it will probably be something delicious.

Meanwhile, fans are hoping to gobble up Rush tickets in the near future, as well. When they next go on tour, look for tickets at StubHub.

Take the Rush quiz!

How well do you know your Rush trivia? The band has some pretty dedicated fans, but there’s a fairly tough quiz up on the CBC’s site that will stump even the most hardcore Rush aficionados. The quiz spans their entire career, asking them about the first Juno award they ever won and what Rolling Stone once described Geddy Lee’s voice as sounding like. No cheating! Don’t look up the answers—just take the quiz here and then check how well you did.

We’re not going to lie. We were pretty surprised by how difficult this thing was. We’re not surprised at all that the CBC would be hosting this quiz, because it’s clear that Canada as a whole really, really admires Rush for being one of it’s most successful bands. The next best thing would have to be Arcade Fire, which is a band that’s far and away in a separate genre of music. But as far as prog-rock goes, or rock bands with unique visions of the world, Rush certainly tops the list.

If the band ever heads back out on tour, get Rush tickets at StubHub.