Well, after more than a year and over 100 shows, the Snakes & Arrows tours came to an end last night in Indianapolis. I imagine they guys will take at least six months off before even considering any new studio work. Word is the Atlanta show was filmed for inclusion as bonus material for the upcoming Snakes & Arrows Live DVD, due out some time this year.
The members of Canadian rock band Rush have donated $100,000 from the sale of tickets to last weekend's Winnipeg concert to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The three band mates -- Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart -- also announced today they will be selling museum T-shirts at all of the remaining Canadian stops on their Snakes and Arrows Live concert tour, and donating all of the proceeds from those sales to the museum's $105-million private sector fund-raising campaign. "My band mates and I are proud to be associated with the creation of a Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg," Lee said in a written statement.Quite cool! Word is that the shirts are already available for sale at the shows. Not sure if they'll have them for the US dates.
Rush launched the second leg of the Snakes and Arrows tour in Puerto Rico last Friday, April 11. Setlist is similar, but not exactly the same. No big surprises, though.
The Rush Backstage Club is holding a Meet & Greet sweepstakes. Click here to enter. Contest ends at midnight, March 22, so sign up now.
According to Blabbermouth.net, Rush will be on Rockline on Wednesday, April 30 at 11:30 pm EST. I imagine it'll be Geddy and Alex and not Neil. Check Rockline's site to find a station near you.
Presales for Canadian shows (Winnipeg, Regina, Edmonton and Vancouver) will be held at the Music Today site starting on Tuesday, February 12th at 10:00 am (local venue time) until Thursday, February 14th at Noon (local venue time). Additional US presales will be held at the same time at Music Today's site.
The new two-CD live set, Snakes & Arrows Live
Track list:
Disc One:
1. Limelight
2. Digital Man
3. Entre Nous
4. Mission
5. Freewill
6. Monkey Business
7. Larger Bowl
8. Secret Touch
9. Circumstances
10. Between the Wheels
11. Dreamline
12. Far Cry
13. Workin' Them Angels
14. Armor and Sword
Disc Two
1. Spindrift
2. The Way the Wind Blows
3. Subdivisions
4. Natural Science
5. Witch Hunt
6. Malignant Narcissism - Drum Solo
7. Hope
8. Distant Early Warning
9. The Spirit of Radio
10. Tom Sawyer
11. Encore
12. One Little Victory
13. A Passage to Bangkok
14. YYZ
More presales will begin Tuesday, February 5th at 10:00 am (local time for venue) at www.rush.musictoday.com. Presales will include Saratoga, Pittsburgh, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Moline (really?), Seattle, Portland, Boise, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Hershey, and Concord.
2008 Rush tour dates are to be announced today at 8:00 am EST. Check back later this morning and we'll have the list, along with presale dates and the like.
Got this in e-mail the other day:
Are you ready? Stay tuned to RUSH.COM in the coming days for more information on the upcoming RUSH Snakes and Arrows 2008 tour.
Rumor has it that an announcement about dates and venues for Rush's 2008 Snakes and Arrows tour will happen later this week.
Stay tuned...
According to this article at Billboard (PDF), Rush's Snakes & Arrows tour made the top 25 tours of 2007, coming in at number 25. Over $29 million in gross, more than 500,000 tickets sold for 48 dates.
Just announced: Rush to dextend Snakes & Arrows tour in 2008 (warning: resized window).
More info:
"The band will begin rehearsals in March to revamp the set list before kicking off the tour with their first ever appearance in San Juan, Puerto Rico in April."
"2008 will see Rush tour in over 40 cities throughout the United States and Canada making stops in many where they haven’t performed in well over a decade including: Orlando, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Austin, Jacksonville and Winnipeg to name a few. Along the way, Rush will play new venues in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and Seattle and will revisit some familiar ones in Boston, Washington and Charlotte amongst others. Rush fans can look forward to a complete tour announcement in mid January."
New Venue in Chicago? The Sears Center? Rats, that's far away.
Malignant Narcissism has been nominated for a Grammy award. Scroll down to Category 19 to see the competition.
There are rumors that Rush will be touring next Spring: April to June. The Snakes & Arrows tour to date was the sixth highest-grossing US tour of the summer with $21 million, third among rock acts, according to sources. Not bad for a bunch of guys in their fifties who don't get much press.
Official word has it that the Rotterdam shows on October 16th and 17th were filmed for a live DVD. Haven't heard any other info about this.
Here they are, fresh from Rush.com...
June
June 13: Atlanta, GA - HiFi Buys Amphitheater
June 15: West Palm Beach, FL - Sound Advice Amphitheater
June 16: Tampa, FL - Ford Amphitheater - Florida State Fairgrounds
June 18: Raleigh, NC - Walnut Creek
June 19: Charlotte, NC - Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
June 22: Virginia Beach - Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
June 23: Bristow, VA - Nissan Pavillion
June 25: Pittsburgh, PA - Post Gazette Pavillion
June 27: Mansfield, MA - Tweeter Center
June 29: Scranton PA - Montage Mountain
June 30: Saratoga Springs, NY - Saratoga Performing Arts Center
July
July 2: Wantagh, NY - Jones Beach Amphitheater
July 4: Darien Lake, NY - Six Flags
July 6: Camden, NJ - Tweeter Center
July 8: Homdel, NJ - PNC Arts Center
July 9: Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena
July 18: Calgary, AB - Pengrowth Saddledome
July 20: Seattle, WA - White River Amphitheater
July 21: Portland, OR - The Amphitheater at Clark County
July 23: Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl
July 25: Irvine, CA - Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
July 27: Phoenix, AZ - Cricket Pavillion
July 28: Las Vegas, NV - MGM Grand Garden Arena
July 30: San Diego, CA - Coors Amphitheatre
August
August 1: Mountain View, CA - Shoreline Amphitheater
August 3: Concord, CA - Sleep Train Pavillion
August 4: Marysville, CA - Sleep Train Amphitheater
August 6: Salt Lake City - USANA Amphitheater
August 8: Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
August 11: Dallas, TX - Smirnoff Music Center
August 12: Selma, TX - Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
August 14: Houston, TX - Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion
August 23: Kansas City, MO - Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
August 24: St. Louis, MO - Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
August 26: Noblesville, IN - Verizon Wireless Music Center
August 28: Detroit, MI - DTE Energy Music Theater
August 30: Cuyahoga Falls, OH - Blossom Music Center
September
September 1: Cincinnati, OH - Riverbend Music Center
September 2: Columbus, OH - Germain Amphitheater
September 6: Milwaukee, WI - Marcus Amphitheater
September 8: Chicago, IL - Midwest Bank Amphitheater
September 9: St. Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center
September 12: London, ON - John Labatt Centre
September 14: Quebec City, QC - Colisee de Quebec
September 15: Montreal, QC - Bell Centre
September 19: Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre
September 21: Ottawa, ON - Scotiabank Place
October
October 3: Glasgow, UK - SECC Arena
October 5: Newcastle, UK - Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
October 6: Sheffield, UK - Hallam FM Arena
October 9: London, UK - Wembley Arena
October 10: London, UK - Wembley Arena
October 11: Birmingham, UK - NEC Arena
October 14: Manchester, UK - MEN Arena
October 16: Rotterdam, Netherlands - Ahoy' Rotterdam
October 17: Rotterdam, Netherlands - Ahoy' Rotterdam
October 19: Oberhausen, Germany - Oberhausen, Germany
October 21: Mannheim, Germany - SAP-Arena
October 23: Milan, Italy - Forum Arena
October 26: Oslo, Norway - Spektrum
October 27: Stockholm, Sweden Globe Arena
October 29: Helsinki, Finland - Hartwell Arena
Well, nothing is official yet, you'll have to wait until March 26. There are lists of unofficial dates out there on several web sites and some data's show up now and then at ticketmaster.com.
I'll post the list of dates as soon as I can get a hold of them.
Neil's posted a huge update at his site: The Count of Words
Some tidbits:
The essay for Sankes and Arrows is too big for the booklet, so it'll end up online--3300 words or so.
He's working on a Modern Drummer article and another article will be published in an upcoming issue of Motorcyclist.
Oh, and he's having a new drum set made: "As for the finish and hardware, that’s going to be a surprise. I’ll only say, “Black is the new gold,” and “Red is the new black.”"
Worth a read, as usual.
There are excerpts from a brief interview with Neil at Billboard.com today. Eight songs have been written. Tracks have been described as "remarkably organic". They'll be back in the studio next month and will begin recording in November.
One excerpt:
"You try to put your own way of seeing the world into some kind of congruence with other peoples, and that's difficult for me," he admits. "I mean, I see the world in what I think to be a perfectly obvious and rational way, but when you go out into it and see the way other people think and behave, and express themselves on church signs, you realize, 'Well, I'm not really part of this club.'"
Yet another new contest at the Rush Backstage Club site: Win a Replay X 3 Poster Pack. The winner will be announced July 1, 2006.
I've mentioned this section of the site before, and since then, they've improved it. Now when you click on the radio shows banner near the bottom of the page, it'll open up and you can chose to listen to three old radio shows: the 1982 Exit...Stage Left show, the 1984 Grace Under Pressure show, and the 1988 Off the Record for A Show of Hands.
Spotted two new Rush contests today:
Rush Backstage Club: Win an Autographed T4E 8x10
and
Rush Replay x 3: Portable DVD Player, misc Rush shirts and stuff.
Of course, I've entered both.