Snakes & Arrows Tour 2008 News Archive
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"The tour will kick off with their first ever appearance in San Juan, Puerto Rico April 11 and hit over 45 cities throughout the United States and Canada. For Rush fans this will be the first time in over a decade the band will make stops in Orlando, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Reno, Moline, Boise, Austin, Jacksonville and Winnipeg to name a few. Also for the first time in years the band will play Albuquerque, Edmonton, Vancouver, Hershey and Manchester..." - Rush.com, Jan. 18, 2008"Early in March I will have to start preparing for another series of concerts, a 'continuation' of the Snakes and Arrows tour. (The Snakes and Arrows 'surge,' I call it.) We had planned to end the tour in Europe last fall, but apparently more people want to see us, or see us again, so we were asked to do more shows. Some of them will be in places we haven’t got to for a while, like New Orleans, Oklahoma City, and Winnipeg, and that is nice, plus we plan to make a few changes to the setlist and presentation to freshen it up a little. Although the world knows by now that I’m not crazy about touring, I sure don’t discount the good fortune that we can still do it, personally and professionally — that we can play better than ever, and that people will come and see us. That’s not something I have ever taken for granted. As I have said to friends who might be having their own work difficulties, 'At least if I have to work, I’m glad I can.' And not just any old job, of course — pretty much the best job there is — but none-the-less a hard one." - NeilPeart.net, March 2008
"Rush fans can expect some different songs and 'surprises' when the Canadian trio hits the road on April 11 - but guitarist Alex Lifeson says, 'I'm gonna keep those a secret until then, I think.' Lifeson tells Billboard.com that since the next segment of Rush's Snakes & Arrows World Tour - which kicks off in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and runs through July 20 - visits a number of cities the group hasn't played in quite some time, 'we thought we should maybe revisit some older songs we're not playing currently or haven't been in the last little while. So we changed out a few songs in the set. We're gonna keep it loose and maybe kind of bounce back and forth.'" - Billboard.com, April 1, 2008
"Lee says this current leg sees four or five changes in the set list, with some rarities played last year replaced by more signature material. 'We're playing more cities on this tour that we haven't played in quite some time, and I think those fans kind of want to hear more of the classic tracks.'" - Geddy Lee, Jam!Showbiz, April 14, 2008
"Those are part of the secret to my bass sound. Those roasters give me a hotter and tastier sound." - Geddy Lee, National Post, April 15th, 2008
"Normally at the start of a tour, we're coming off a fairly long break. We'll spend two months in rehearsals, between the individual stuff we do, then as a band for three or four weeks, then full production rehearsals for 10 or 12 days. This time around, because we're really just picking up the tour, we only blocked in a week and a half (in Toronto) and managed to get up to speed very quickly." - Alex Lifeson, New Orleans Times Picayune, April 19, 2008
Show Notes (2008 Leg)
- There have been no changes in the setlist since the beginning of the second leg. The setlist (so far) is similar to that of the first leg, with four changes: 1) "Ghost Of A Chance" replaced "Entre Nous"; "Red Barchetta" replaced "Secret Touch"; "The Trees" replaced "Circumstances"; and "2112 Overture/Temples Of Syrinx" replaced the first leg alternating songs, "Summertime Blues"/"Distant Early Warning", although the "2112 medley" follows "The Spirit Of Radio" rather than preceding it.
- The second set of the show begins with an all new video titled "What's That Smell", which includes all the band members, as well as Barbie Dolls, chickens, and the return of both Harry Satchel (aka Geddy Lee in Scotsman garb) and Jerry Stiller; unfortunately, this video replaces Alex Lifeson's "Plane of Dharma" video. After the first two nights of the tour, a new outro video was introduced featuring Harry Satchel and Jerry Stiller, as well as a short appearance by Alex's "swami head in a box" from the first leg's "Plane of Dharma" video, with lots of inside jokes for Rush fans; all other videos from the first leg remain.
- For the second leg of the tour, the band tosses "Henhouse" tshirts to the crowd before the encore. The tshirt says "Henhouse" on the front, and the back has a detailed display of a Henhouse roaster demonstrating how to get that "hot tasty sound", etc.
- Located on a pedestal near Geddy is a minature model of Neil Peart at his Snakes & Arrows drum kit.
Click here for the complete second leg setlist.
Show Notes (2007 & 2008 Tours)
- The dryers from the previous tours have been replaced by three rotisserie chicken roasters which are as tall as Alex's stacks of H&K amplifiers and say "Henhouse" across the front of them. Like the previous two tours, before the encore the band throw t-shirts to fans in the crowd. The t-shirt is black and does not say Rush anywhere; the front has an image of a waitress holding up a roast chicken while saying 'Feel like chicken?', while the back has the same phrase in six other languages: Dutch, German, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish; listed in the same order as they tour the respective countries.
- There are multiple "Barbie Doll" groupies known as "Big Al's Babes" standing on stage in front of Alex Lifeson, holding "Post-It" signs with various sayings on them, apparently created by the roadies. Sayings have included: "I Like The Drummer", "My Grampa Says Your Cool", "Can I Roll Your Bones?", "I'm A Dino-Whore AKA Suckasaurass", "I Was Conceived While My Dad Was At A Rush Concert", "I'm Not Wearing Any Panties", "My Mom Thinks Your Hot!", "I'm Only Doing This To Pay For College", "Freebird!", "I Thought ZZ Top Had Beards", "Bass Player's Cute! Is That His Real Nose?", "I Golf Naked", "Nice Dinosaurs-You Must Be A Caveman", "If It's Too Loud You're Too Old".
- The opening video begins with a dream sequence of Snakes and Arrows images, then Alex sits up in bed, saying, "Snakes? Who would dream about snakes, that's so creepy. Honey? Honey - wake up. I had this weirdest dream, it was a snake..." then the person lying next to him sits up and its Neil. They look at each other and yell in surpise...then after another sequence, Geddy wakes up in a chair and says "What did they do to my food?" and then in walks a man in a Scottish costume who speaks with a Scottish accent who tells Geddy he doesn't care how he is feeling, to "...wipe that chicken off your face and get out there!" after which they all ran out. The guy in the Scottish costume is actually Geddy, dressed in make up and wig. At the end of the show, another video of Scottish Geddy, aka "Harry Satchel" plays, where he tells people to go home because he wants to get back to eating his chicken, and we hear "Limelight" played on the bagpipes!
- There is a video of Bob & Doug McKenzie to introduce "The Larger Bowl"; "The Larger Bowl" has video snippets showing alternating images between the rich and the poor, etc.
- Alex plays a mandola mounted on an Omega stand during "Workin' Them Angels"; "Workin' Them Angels" had a video accompaniment similar to the album art of various types of workers and soldiers with angel wings.
- There is a South Park video intro to Tom Sawyer; during the video, the South Park characters begin playing Tom Sawyer but Cartman sings the wrong lyrics, "...floated down the river on a raft with a black guy", which leads to an argument with Cartman saying he's read the book and that's how the story goes, but the other quickly corrects him saying "that's Huckleberry Finn, stupid!". Cartman then says "I am Geddy Lee! And I will sing whatever lyrics I want!". They then start again to count off the beginning where Rush takes over and plays.
- During "A Passage To Bangkok", a video plays showing footage of far east trains, poppy fields, marijuana plants and many other scenes related to the lyrics.
- Geddy Lee is playing his 4001 Rickenbacker bass on stage for the first time in 25 years (last seen on the Signals tour).
- Geddy Lee is using a minature Snakes & Arrows drum as a cup holder!
- "Digital Man", last played on the Grace Under Pressure warm-up tour, has a new arrangement and is missing the first "He's got a force field" lyric.
- The drum solo has been completely revamped: the "Scars" and "Pieces of Eight" sections have been dropped; there are a slew of new marimba samples which gives the middle section including the "Momo's Dance Party" bit an Oriental percussion feel; instead of "One O'clock Jump", the solo includes a complete big band triggered sample of "Cotton Tail" which Neil performed with the Buddy Rich Band on Burning for Buddy Vol. I.
- Click here for Neil's House Music List
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