August 2008 Archives

Spotted the news at rushisaband.com this morning.

There's a greatest hits package coming out soon called Rush: 1989-2009. Word is that there's be unreleased live tracks from that era. Word also is that they're looking to sign with Rounder Records.

Well, the tour's over and Neil's updated his site for August.

On the hazards of playing at a casion in Atlantic City:

The arena in Atlantic City was inside a garish casino, where the management held back (denied us and our fans) the front section of seats. Those were “comped” to the “high rollers” (by definition, big losers), and thus we looked out from the stage at the first few rows (the ones we could see most) filled with people who had no idea why they were there except that it was free.

In contrast to our real fans farther back, who would mortgage their Hemispheres picture discs, and perhaps internal organs, to get closer to the stage, we were confronted by mild curiosity at best, and at worst, rude indifference. As the show went on, we started to see empty seats where bored big losers had slipped away, a woman looking down and texting through whole songs, and a pair of slack-jawed, sulking teens (the Beavis and Butthead of the Guitar Hero generation—as Cartman from “South Park” says in the hilarious sample that Geddy uses in “The Trees,” “Real guitars are for old people”) actually yawning. Anyone would agree that yawning is not appropriate behavior at a rock concert. (Vomiting, yes, but not yawning.)

There's more about riding on the East coast and New England, riding without a helmet, looking forward to some time off, and some photos as well.