R30 Tour News Archive

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In Their Own Words

"We always talked about throwing a cover or two into the encore just for fun. When we put this 30th anniversary tour together, we realized that we didn't have enough time to do a proper studio album. A friend of mine suggested, 'Well, maybe you guys should dip into your past. Play some songs you used to play when you were in your formative years. Just record them quickly for fun, not overthink it, and just put out a little EP to celebrate where you were as opposed to where you are.' We thought it might be a way to juice us before the tour, so that's what we did." - Geddy Lee, The Columbus Dispatch, June 2, 2004

"[The cover songs are] a blast to play. I love playing them. I wish we could play them all, but there's a fine line, in my view, with what Rush fans want to hear and what we want to play. To lose four songs that people have been waiting to hear from our previous albums, in favor of four cover songs, is a jump enough. To do four more would start boring them. People are digging them. I think they're kind of a breath of fresh air in the set to be honest." - Geddy Lee, fye.com, July 9, 2004

"The Camera Eye, from our Moving Pictures album, is almost always at the top of the request list. We've given it a shot, but we always go, 'Well, I just don't want to play that song. I'm not thrilled about it.'...You don't want to disappoint, but you have to be honest." - Geddy Lee, The Columbus Dispatch, June 2, 2004

"I know that people always request us to play (1981's) 'The Camera Eye,' and every tour we think about that. But we just don't dig playing that song, and if you don't dig playing it, you're not gonna play it well. It has nothing to do with whether it's a good song or not. If you're not getting off on it, you're not gonna do a good job with it on a nightly basis." - Geddy Lee, Las Vegas Sun, July 16, 2004

"We always wanted to bring back things like 'Mystic Rhythms', so we just added a wish list. And, of course, we had way too many. 'Closer To The Heart' got retired becasue we got sick of it..." - Neil Peart, Classic Rock, October 2004

"[R30 Overture] was an idea that Neil had. He suggested that maybe we could pay tribute to those songs in some way other than...obviously we can't play as many songs as we'd like to, we're already well over 3 hours. So in rehearsals, actually quite late in rehearsals, we decided to throw a bunch of them together and see if we could make some sort of overture. So we came up with this "R30 Overture" idea and worked on it. It came together quite quickly actually. I think it's a nice way to open the show. It's really easy to pull songs together if you don't have to sing them. It's like a walk in the park." - Geddy Lee, fye.com, July 9, 2004

"Medleys had always been a good tool for squeezing more songs into the time available, and I suggested we might arrange a kind of 'overture,' in which instrumental themes from many songs could be woven together into a powerful opening piece." - Neil Peart, Roadshow

"There was talk about doing 'Second Nature' as an acoustic song - I think that would be a good treatment for a song like that. Again, it's a question of time. I'd love to extend the acoustic thing to be half-an-hour long, but I don't know if we could justify that in the context of all our material." - Geddy Lee, fye.com, July 9, 2004

"Judging by the response to this tour there will always be an audience for us. Our relationship with our audience is really special. We like getting together. We come out and share this one moment together and think about all the years (performing for them). As long as we have the heart to do this to the same degree and level we've always done it, it will go on forever." - Alex Lifeson, TimesLeader.com, August 4, 2004

"I said, 'I really want to build something special for the 30th anniversary.?...I realized, I'd never had black drums in all my life. I'd had black chrome Slingerlands, but not the actual classic ?piano black.? Black and red is my favorite color combination, so I said, 'We have to have that. it's the 30th anniversary, why not have the band logos?' And also, Keith Moon's 'Pictures Of Lily' kit, the famous one that was painted in the panels around it on a piano black background, it was a tribute to that because these are my dream drums. I always try to keep in touch with my inner 16-year-old. That's the first concert I ever went to, he was playing those. So [the DW kit] became partly a homage to Keith Moon, to myself at 16. All of that became part of the thinking that evolved into the finish." - Neil Peart, Drum! Magazine, July 17, 2004

"I traveled here on my motorcycle because I want to write a book about this tour and I thought there's no better way to start the book than with a road trip, so I rode the bike from LA to here, to Nashville. It took three days, two thousand miles, it was a slog, but I wanted that immersion in America and the American road, especially to begin the tour, because to me there couldn't be a better set up to build the tour from." - Neil Peart, Classic Rock, October 2004

"Shaking his hand, I...told [Jack Black] how pleased I had been by the reference in School Of Rock. Jack said, 'That was my idea!' I also mentioned how we had originally wanted him to play the part of the 'awakening dreamer' in our opening film, the part Jerry Stiller had ended up doing ('What did they put in my tea?'). At the time, we had been told by Jack's people that he wasn't available, but typically, he had never even heard about it." - Neil Peart, Roadshow

"We had a few people in mind, and Jerry was very interested in doing it, and he's a real pro. And it was just such a cool idea to have George Costanza's father introducing the band (chuckles), you know? So he was a really, really good sport, and I think he did a great job. (We) get a lot of laughs out of that." - Alex Lifeson, therockradio.com, December 13, 2005

"We opened our show through the last tour with a film, it was a dream sequence, and at the end, Jerry Stiller wakes up, and says, 'Whoa! Did I miss the show?' And then he calls us to the stage. We originally wanted Jack Black to do that. We called his people, and they said he wasn't available. When I met Jack he said, 'I never heard about that! I would have done it, I'm at your service!' So when we played in Irvine Meadows in Southern California, he came to the show. I told him, well, we keep these dryers on stage, we have t-shirts in them, and at the end of the show, Geddy and Alex pass the shirts out to the audience. So we asked him to come out and do that, and he said, 'Oh, yeah!' Well, it turned into performance art. While we're playing '2112,' he somersaults onto the stage, striking rock poses in front of Geddy on stage, he climbs up on the dryer, he starts stripping, he's down to his boxers with the 'plumber's crack,' he immerses himself in posing, then he sommersaults off stage, and we're looking at each other going 'What just happened?'" - Neil Peart, Sirius.com, September 20, 2006

"On Vapor Trails, Geddy had been inspired to have a row of three old Maytag dryers up there spinning throughout the show with T-shirts he and Alex handed out later to the crowd before the encore - 'I Got This T-Shirt From Dryer Number 3.' Those dryers had caused considerable wonder from stagehands and fans, and the crew had fun inventing reasons for their use, 'This one's for a "warm" sound, this one's for a "dry" sound,' and the sound crew even set up dummy microphones in front of them. For this tour, Geddy didn't want to give up those dryers, but at the same time, he wanted something new. Eventually he settled on having only two Maytags, but added an old-fashioned Automat dispenser (another part of Liam's job was locating this relics) with rotating shelves that eventually collected all kinds of interesting items, from presidential bobble-heads to superhero dolls. Some days, soundcheck was held up while he found places to display his latest treasures." - Neil Peart, Roadshow

"...That Darn Dragon, would open the second set, with puppet animation of three bobble-head dolls of us (in '70s regalia of long hair and kimonos) doing battle against a puppet version of the dragon from Vapor Trails. It was a little like an old Japanese monster movie, but with puppets - Godzilla meets 'Fireball XL-5' (which Geddy and Alex and I used to watch every morning in the rented house we shared in Chelsea during an '80s recording project)." - Neil Peart, Roadshow

"'Bravado' also gave us breathing space, as it began with a mid-tempo instrumental groove, more textural and gentle than what had gone before. While we played that introduction, I had a good chance to let my gaze wander around the audience, and I couldn't help noticing a scattered few-dozen silhouettes rising and walking away, choosing that song as a good opportunity to get up an wander around-head off to get some more beer, or to 'offload' some. That bothered me more than it should have." - Neil Peart, Roadshow

Show Notes

Instead of three dryers as seen on the Vapor Trails tour, there were two dryers and one vending machine (containing some very interesting items...). As was done during the Vapor Trails tour, during the short break before the encore, Geddy and Alex reached into the dryers to remove tye-dyed dryer shirts which they tossed to fans in the crowd (the front has RUSH at the top and FEEDBACK at the bottom, with the starman in the middle with a Peace sign in place of the star, with the back reading HEY MAN on the top "This shirt came from one of Geddy's dryers" below it).
The intro computer animation which is included on the R30 DVD was produced by Spin Productions in Toronto.
The R30 tour grossed $21 million in earnings, exceeding other rock tours such as Kiss and Ozzfest. - Rollingstone.com, February 17, 2005
In October 2006, DW Drums produced thirty limited edition replicas of the drumkit Neil Peart used during the R30 tour, which GuitarCenter.com sold for $30,000 each.

Tour News Transcripts and Concert Reviews

Click here for News Transcripts and Concert Reviews from the tour

Lerxst's R30 Rants

Continuing the practice begun on the Vapor Trails tour, each night Alex performed a unique "rant" during "La Villa Strangiato".

Opening night in Antioch (Nashville) (5/27): Lerxst told a story using different voices for a grandfather and his grandson, about flying model airplanes and repeatedly crashing them. "Grandpa! Grandpa! Tell us the story about the airplane!" he would say in a nasally, childish voice, and then tell about flying an airplane, and then making airplane crashing sounds.
Charlotte (5/28): Lerxst talked about being old, wondering where he got "this" as he grabbed his belly, and complained of losing his hearing and things of that nature.
Virginia Beach (5/29): Lerxst said one of his kids asked him to tell a story, and his reply was, "There are two types of stories, happy and sad." Since his kid wanted a happy story, he told the story of "One day, at a zoo, there was a lion, and he got outta his cage to visit his friend, the tiger"..."Lions and tigers and bears" then the audience replied "OH MY!" This went on two or three times. Then he said something about monkeys. Something like the monkeys were watching, and waiting for something to happen. At that Neil started a drum roll. (Double stroke.) Alex continued: "and then one monkey started a drum roll", Alex said. "A drum roll! How apropos said the other monkey to the first." At that point Neil and Geddy were split screen on the board. Neil whipped a look to Geddy, and you could tell Neil was trying to hold it in. Most of the crowd laughed at this...then Neil picked up the drum roll and they finished the song. Later, during "By-Tor & The Snowdog", when Geddy sang "By-tor...{pause}...and the Snowdog {second pause}, square for battle..." during the first pause Alex let out a primal war cry, and during the second pause made a bunch of barking sounds. Geddy was laughing too hard to sing "Square for Battle, let the fray begin!"
Burgettstown (5/31): Lerxst talked about how it was Monday night (Memorial Day), "the end of a long holiday weekend...maybe a little drink" (tipping a shotglass), "maybe a little smoke" (puffing a joint)...and how much "it SUCKED to have to go back to work on Tuesday...Work SUCKS! Back to a stinky, smelly boss...get me this ASAP...get it ASAP your ass!..."
Columbus (6/2) Lerxst started singing with the notes from his guitar. "Bah - bah - bah - bah....", a few times, then ended with: "Bah bah bah black sheep." After which he started to tell a story about how a sheep was driving a bus, which he thought was odd, because the goat was supposed to be driving the bus! Then, he asked how goats can drive a bus, and then was trying to figure out how a goat keeps receipts. He didn't know where a goat would keep them, and asked the audience, "DO YOU??" The band went back into the song, and Alex pointed out a stuffed-animal goat sitting on top of his amp, with the tag hanging off it's ear.
Noblesville (6/4): Lerxst ranted a bunch of random, incoherent noises mumbled into the microphone and then started off singing what he was playing on guitar, interspersed with the occasional "Jumpin' Jimminy(?)."
Tinley Park (Chicago) (6/5): Lerxst began playing odd chords on his guitar, and said "Geddy thinks he's sick..." and paused in response to Geddy's mention that the audience should excuse him because he is coming down with a slight cold, then continued by rambling about "The Day After Tomorrow...I went to see that movie. There were all these waves and all these storms and people were drowning in the city and it was SO STUPID! ..a REEEALLY dumb story." He went on about "having to sit through this crappy movie for 2 1/2 hours after running out of popcorn in the first 35 minutes. It reminded me of 'Titanic' where the ship hit an iceberg and SANK and a lot of people DIED..." and he said "why weren't there any ninjas on the ship, because that would have been more interesting", and concluded in a whiny voice - "WHY CAN'T THEY MAKE INTERESTING MOVIES ANYMORE?"
Clarkston (Detroit) (6/8): Lerxst ranted about milk. "Drink more milk...or I'll kill you! 2% milk, 1% milk, homo, homo, homo milk that is, drink milk, drink milk, drink milk. Drink more milk or I'll kill you!" Another note about the Detroit show: Bubbles from the Trailer Park Boys came on stage during 2112 to restart the dryers, gestured to the audience a couple of times and did an air drum roll before sauntering back off stage.
Milwaukee (6/7): Lerxst started with a lot of shreeky singing, then began doing both sides of a silly-sounding conversation between a man and a woman: (in a woman's voice) "nice suit"...(in a man's voice) "thanks, I just had it pressed".
Cuyahoga Falls (Cleveland) (6/10): Early in the show, Lerxst was visibly upset at the security at the front of the stage and during "The Spirit of Radio" he went over to center stage and yelled twice at the security guard to sit down. From that point on they never stood and the crowd loved it. He started his rant by making funny noises into the mic and on his guitar, and then he started saying "Hey pool boy, hey pool boy, time to get out of the pool" (more was said but was difficult to hear).
St. Louis (6/12): Lerxst began by saying "Baby, baby, baby" then talked about a person with a rash all over his face and finished by making popping noises with his hand & mouth. He also mentioned "Pool Boy" a few times. After the rant Geddy said "He's so fucked up" (talking about Alex) with a big smile for those in the front rows.
Bonner Springs (6/13): Following the usual odd noises in to the microphone, Lerxst discussed surfing and the ocean and waves and sighting a fin coming out of the water and swimming out to take on the shark and singing "Pool Boy, Pool Boy". This led to all three playing a "Gangster" tune, where Lerxst confessed to killing someone! Just when it seemed the rant was done, he went into another verse, then held out his arms as if keeping his balance and yelled "Surfs Up!"
Dallas (6/23): Neil's new book Travelling Music was first on sale at the Dallas show. Lerxst's rant began with his playing "take me to the ballgame" on the guitar, then talked about baseball, "Baseball, everybody loves baseball...how 'bout these Rangers". He then emulated a baseball announcer introducing "player 47" and related the pitches all the way to a homerun.
The Woodlands (Houston) (6/26): This is reportedly the first show where Geddy sang in an old pirate voice "We are the pirates of the Temple of Syrinx, Arrrrr" during the "2112 medley". During the short rant of only half a minute, Lerxst discussed the weather which was was poor, and he may have said something about "wet socks...gray everywhere" and "he's gonna get on that plane and get out...you gotta go, gotta go, gotta go, go go!" and then said another sentence toward Ged's direction and Neil just went right back into the song.
Denver (6/29): A short rant, where Lerxst basically expanded on the old saying "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me". "You know, we have a saying where I come from! You can fool some of the people some of th... Er.. Some of the people can get fooled if.. Er.. If you are the fool who follows the.. um...I won't get fooled again! I won't get fooled again!"
West Valley City (Salt Lake City) (6/30): Lerxst pretended to be a pirate (speaking in a pirate voice) and talked about how he was a pirate captain and how he was never out of work because "When anybody needed a captain, they called me." He then explained that, "I have sailed the seven seas. I've seen a lot of good men go down .. (pause with a smile) and I've seen a lot of good women go down." He then went on to tell a story about a time "when I was sailing the eighth sea, it's a little known sea, it's not very big, I was looking for bounty and gold to plunder. I was also looking for a good bed to rest my aching back, and my aching wooden peg leg, and my aching wooden eye, and my aching wooden ear, and that's a completely different story" as to how he got a wooden ear that he would have to work on and cracked himself up in the process! Sidebar (via eyewitness reports): a couple in the first section (102) had a picture of a soldier and the girl kept raising it over her head during the first two or three songs of the show. An usher came over and asked her to put it down, as people were complaining that it was obstructing their view. Shortly after that a member of the Rush crew came over and stated that Alex wanted to display her sign on stage. Before or during "Red Barchetta" one of Alex's guitar techs took the picture and placed it to the left side of his amps (later moved right in front of his amps), which said anthonyquayle.com across the front. The touching moment came when Alex and the lady made eye contact, Alex saluted her and smiled, which of course made her cry. The picture stayed on stage for the rest of the night.
Auburn (Seattle) (7/2): Continuing the pirate theme begun at The Woodlands, about three songs into the second set the crew on stage right were seen wearing pirate hats and eye patches. This brought laughs from Neil, Alex and Geddy, and Alex again sang in his pirate voice "We are the pirates of the Temple of Syrinx, Arrrrr" during the "2112 medley". For his rant, he started off with a series of strange chords then slipped back into the old pirate voice, and talked about being an old pirate, how his peg leg is bothering him and about the things pirates say like "shiver me timbers, avast ye swabbie and blow me (with a pause) down." He then sang a song called "The Pirate Blues".
Ridgefield (7/3): Lerxst spoke as though he was a pirate, and talked about how he had just sailed in, and how he just loves being a pirate.
Hollywood (7/6): Lerxst again gave a pirate inspired rant, and a Captain Morgan-esque picture (like a black light rug) popped up while Alex was ruminating on various pirate things, but nothing specific. One viewer reported that after resuming La Villa, the video screen showed Alex from his right side and he appeared to look down at someone in the crowd and said "I couldn't think of anything..."
Chula Vista (7/7): Lerxst continued the pirate theme, begining with the usual strange opening chords and moaning and groaning, "la, la, la, la, la, la,", then said he was a "naughty pirate" but that he "didn't need one of those stinkin' patches" (Treasure of the Sierra Madre reference?). He then rambled about the Seven Seas, "Ahhhh, yes, to be a Pirate on the high seas, I want to be on the high seas, and sail on the seven seas being a pirate..."
Mountain View (7/9): Lerxst rambled for a bit before continuing with the pirate theme... "Harrr haaarrrr, arrrrr, arrrrrrr, arrrrrrr. I stink. Tis a hard job being a pirate captain... The hardest part of being a pirate captain is making sandwiches for all the other pirates. 'I need four pastrami on rye, gimme two BLT's...toasted, and something dry to drink.....grop....it's the Pirate Blues.....Harrr harrrr har har..." During the 2112 medley, he again sang "We are the pirates, of the Temples of Syrinx, all the gifts of life, are down below"
Concord (7/10): Pirate Lerxst began with the usual nonsense chords and then some tapping on the fretboard, and then slapping the neck with both hands, making tons of noise, then saying "Arrrrrrr....we were out on the seven seas....I don't remember which one, it coulda been the big one....someone was on the poop deck, it was a mess.....someone was in the crow's nest, way up high...." at this point ged and neil were laughing, and Al continues "You all remember the story of the Meat Bees? Well, this is different...arrrrrr......we didn't have anything to eat but fish.....big scary fish....nothing but fish" he grabbed the mic with both hands and stopped playing, whispering into the mic. Both ged and neil stopped playing as well, and it was just al whispering "Big nasty fish......they had big eyes......and giant sharp scary claws....and big fangs....scary fish....and that's all we could eat were scary fish........STUPID ATKINS DIET!"
Marysville (7/12): Lerxst's rant was similar to previous nights, including the "Pirate Blues". He also threw in another reference to "the Atkins diet," then corrected himself and said "the Claude Akins diet, which is something very different."
Irvine (7/14): Jack Black was in attendance for the show (Rush has been referenced in two of his films, see the Pop Culture References page for details), and during the 2112 medley jumped on stage, stripped down to his boxers and threw his cloths in the dryers, then jumped on top of the dryers and posed as the "man in the star", then ran over to Geddy to bow before him ("we're not worthy"), before high five him a few times and playing air guitar. Geddy sang the last chorus of "Temples of Syrinx" in a pirate accent ("Argh, all the gifts of life, are held down below..."), and even played one song with a stuffed parrot on his shoulder! During Lerxst's rant, he discussed "Blackbeard, Yellowbeard, that other beard...but the most dreadful or terrible pirate was the pirate Jack Black-and his butt crack".
Phoenix (7/16): Lerxst ranted about "those damned pirates...German pirates, we were the best...in boats...it was a good boat...it was a boat that could float...and we would steal and pillage...and go to the beach..." and then broke into a neo-surf tune.
Vegas (7/17): Again, during the 2112 medley, Geddy was wearing a shoulder parrot, sang 'We are the pirates", and added (for the first time?) during Grand Finale, "Attention all pirates of the solar federation...". In addition, the three flying saucers during the 2112 Grand Finale video were flying the "Jolly Roger". During the rant, Lerxst started with "I pooped on the deck once. Couldn't make it in time. See, I was avasting some scallywags...I was looking at some dead man's chests. Say, I always wondered about that. I mean, I see a lot of chests here tonight...and they sure ain't no 'dead man's' chests. Live ladies, ya see..." Then they broke in the Pirates Blues, and Alex added "Reminds me of my peg leg...er...what about the peg leg, I'm not sure..."
West Palm Beach (7/29): Geddy told the crowd, "Today is the exact 30th birthday since our friend the drummer joined." Today being Geddy's birthday, during "2112 Overture" two very scantily clad women came out to tend to the dryers as the crew brought out a giant birthday cake loaded with candles. Without stopping playing Geddy went over to blow them out, and the crew re-lit them and kept it the cake on stage for the duration of the song. Between songs before the acoustic set, Lerxst walked on stage in his third shirt of the night...and Geddy said to the audience, "This guy changes his shirt more often than (someone [inaudible])." At the beginning of the acoustic set, Lerxst played the first six notes of "happy birthday" and a large portion of the audience started signing happy birthday, but Ged and Alex didn't stop and went right into "Resist". During the rant Lerxst mentioned the scantily clad women and then said that Geddy was having a "pirate birthday" and sang "Happy Birthday" to Geddy in a psuedo-sad crying/screech "Happy Birthday....(sob...sob)....Happy Birthday to you....(sob...sob)....Happy Birthday to you....(sob...sob)....YOU'RE SO OLD!....Happy Birthday....(sob...sob)...to you." and finally "happy birthday dear old man."
Tampa (7/30): Lerxst started off by babbling incoherently into the mike which turned into a rendition of what sounded like a children's song. He then told a hysterical story of a couple trying to decide what to do that night. Man: "I thought maybe we'd go to a rock concert" Woman (in high pitched voice): "A rock concert? That's just typical. You always want to do what YOU want to do. How come you never want to do what I want to do? Do we have to sit here? It's so loud" Man "We can do whatever you want to do tonight, honey" Woman "I want to stay home and watch 'Fried Green Tomatoes'!..." This escalated into a blues song as he sang about having a mean woman that treats him bad as he never gets what he wants while the woman whines about him. Even though the rant wasn't pirate-themed, a large Jolly Roger flag was flown in the audience and Geddy had a Jolly Roger windsock on his mic stand and the parrot on his shoulder.
Atlanta (8/1): Lerxst played some "jazzy" sounding guitar, then began to sing incoherently, finally degrading into a mixture of mock laughing and crying which went on for some time. Somewhere in the midst of this, Neil and Geddy stopped playing and looked at each other as if Alex had totally lost it. Geddy then tapped Alex on the shoulder and encouraged him to snap out of it.
Bristow (Washington DC) (8/3): [The morning of the show, Dirk and Lerxst appeared live from XM's "state-of-the-art performance studio" in Washington, DC, for XM's "Artist Confidential". Geddy and Alex partook in a Q&A session and performed acoustic renditions "Heart Full of Soul" and "Resist". The show premiered October 10th, 2004, on XM Live 200, Boneyard 41, Deep Tracks 40 and Music Lab 51.]
Lerxst started his rant with a scat singing bit then started making fun of Geddy. "Oh Ged, it's the same old thing (makes bass noises)" then makes fun of Neil "Drums, Drums, always drums...they're EASY". Then he made fun of himself "then the guitar (looking down at it)" and proceeded to make up a song containing power chords and lots of nonsensical screaming and yelling as Ged and Neil looked on while playing along with him. Then he stopped and said "that's the easy stuff". He then started making more weird guitar noises before going back into La Villa. Lerxst also took a flower from a bouqet tossed on stage and stuck it in the strings on his guitar head. In addition, the pirate theme was continued during 2112 and it was noticed the stage lights spelled "BYE BYE" during the Jerry Stiller trailer.
Camden (8/4): It During YYZ two very exotic dancers came out check on the dryers, and pretended to try them on as they gyrated provocatively for the band's benefit - Geddy walked back to them and leaned up against the vending machine as he played and checked them out with a cool guy "how you doin?" kind of look, and then wondered back up to the front... ; in addition it was noted that six banks of bright white stage lights spelled out YYZ. During the rant Lerxst began with his typical guitar doodling before saying "there's always something happening over on that (indicating Geddy's) side of the stage...dancing girls, guys in pirate hats...nothing ever happens on this side of the stage and no one ever comes over here, except those guys"...pointing out the crew who were smoking on his side of the stage "always smoking...smoking, smoking and more smoking...". Then someone from the audience threw a hat at on stage and within a second he kicked it back and said "No thank you!" which had everyone laughing.
Hartford (8/6): The new biography, Contents Under Pressure was on sale at the show. Lerxst's rant was like "nah nah nah nah nah nah nah" for a few minutes while making more bizarre guitar noises (more info welcome...). The Pirate theme was continued with a couple of "pirates" with hats and cutlasses adding coins to the dryers during the show. Geddy had the parrot on his bass strap during 2112 and sang "We are the Pirates...", the three flying saucers during the Grand Finale were still flying the "Jolly Roger", and one of the guys working the board wearing a rather large pirate hat. During the rant, Lerxst started off with the funky jazz guitar as usual then he started to sing along with his guitar part, "na na na, Na. na, na, naaaaaaa...", before the jazz warbling guitar would come back in. He would repeat the vocal part mirroring his guitar part. This went on for a minute or two and then Neil started to really pick up the drums to match Alex. Alex, sensing it was time to get back into the song started to pick it up along with Neil doing something like "Na NA NA!! Na NA NA. Na NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA!!!!!!." All the while Neil and Geddy were cracking up and the music is building and building and Neil seems as if he's trying to punch a hole in his snare drum. Then all of a sudden....it got really quiet again and Alex started it all again..."Na na na na NA na naaaaa."This went on for a little bit and then came into a mighty crescendo before going back into the song.
Scranton (8/7): Lerxst began playing some dream notes (more of a dream scale - from a low pitch to a high pitch, hitting every note in between, then back down to low). He played around on his guitar for a while, then finally stepped up to the microphone. At first it was incoherant words (sounded likes "oo-oo-oo-ah-ah-ah", like a monkey, but slower and differentiating pitches), then he started screaming into the microphone ("RAAAAAH!", sort of like a battle cry, which the audience would answer back). He did his war cry about four times, then started saying what sounded like "La Villa Strangiato is La Very Strange" or something of the like.
Saratoga (8/9): Neil could be seen sporting an eye patch during 2112. Lerxst began the rant with the usual odd guitar notes and mumbling, then began telling a story about a boy and girl who walked into the woods and found a house made of gingerbread. When they started eating it, a witch came out of the house and said "Stop eating my house!" The kids replied, "Be quiet you old bat. We're eating your house." He end by saying "Fairy tales really suck these days."
Jones Beach (8/11): During 2112 Geddy again sang "We Are The Pirates...". For the rant Lerxst began by making random noises and singing along as "La La La LA LA", then said "I smell a skunk. I smell a Stinky Skunk." He continued babbling and making od noises, then ending in a whiny kind of voice, "What a stupid thing to do! What a stupid, idiotic, insane, retarded, moronic...thing to".
Mansfield (8/12): After the drum solo, as Geddy and Alex came out to play Resist Geddy said "it feels good to able to sit down, he (pointing to the drum set) gets to sit down the whole show!" 2112 included the lyrics "We Are The Pirates..." Lerxst began the rant by singing the notes he was playing up and down the neck, then Pratt took up the pace with a bass-snare-snare beat, resembling a surfing style song. Lerxst then sang nonsense lyrics to the tune of "Monster Mash" for about a verse, but before the chorus he changed the tune into a blues song. Dirk and Pratt were in perfect sync for this as Lerxst rambed on in jibberish until they built to a crescendo until stopping in the blues tradition so Lerxst could let out on big note, which he sang along to, then finished saying "If a schmuck like me can sing the blues" (Pratt then starts the snare return to LVS) "then so...can...YOU!"
Holmdel (8/14): Geddy informed the crowd that it was "to-the-day, the 30th anniversary of their first American gig" (with Neil Peart on drums). During the rant, Lerxst discussed smoking and drinking and making sure we had enough, and told the loud crowd "you guys are soooooo damn quiet in joisey".
Darien Lake (8/15): During YYZ some girls came out to check the laundry, and 2112 still had the pirate theme with a parrot on Geddy's shoulder and sang the final chorus of Temples in his now signature pirate voice. Also during 2112 two of the crew came on stage with w/huge hats and vests carrying golf clubs and began to feed the dryers quarters, and when they didn't start spinning again they took out their clubs and beat the dryers. When done they walked past Alex and gave him a big wave. Moments later a guy wearing a black shirt and Speedo slowly walked across the stage. Lerxst started by making rollercoaster ride sound effects "RAAAAUHHHHH...RAAAAAAUHHHHHH" going up and down (the roller coaster ride at Six Flags was present in the backround throughout the show) and then started crying obnoxiously before telling a story about Little Boy Blue, and what he was wearing and "poor Little Boy Blue" before being joined by Geddy and Neil for a short blues tune.
New York City (8/18): Lerxst warmed up the crowd with some of his signature strange guitar sounds and noises, then began "Oh thank you God for making me Paris Hilton...I'm thinking to myself, maybe I'll spend some money today, maybe I'll get my picture taken again...and again...and again...and again...and again...AND AGAIN!...and why? I don't know why. Just why not?" This led to a rock riff where he sang "Paris Hilton, Paris Hilton, Paris Hilton, where are you baby? Paris Hilton, Paris Hilton, Paris Hilton, where are you baybee? Where's your brain? Where's your brain? Where's your brain? WHERE'S YOUR BRAIN!?!? Paris Hilton, Paris Hilton, you're so beatiful, oh yeah, Paris Hilton, Paris Hilton, YOU MAKE ME SICK! I don't know what my problem is, but she makes me sick...well I probably make her sick, but you know what? I COULDN'T CARE LESS!"
New York City (8/19): During 2112, the pirate theme was again continued, with Geddy sporting a parrot on his shoulder. During the rant Lerxst began mumbling nonsense as usual, then did alternating voices of "parents" saying "time to go...come on we gotta go"... followed by the voice of a child whining..."But I don't wanna go....I don't wanna go home!" which ended with "I don't want to leave New York City, the best city in the world!!" He followed that with more whining before finishing it up with a short blues song.
Montreal (8/21): Geddy introduced "Between The Wheels" as a song "recorded not far from here". During 2112, Ricky and Bubbles (Robb Wells and Mike Smith) from the Trailer Park Boys walked onstage: Ricky lit a cigarette and Bubbles posed as the 2112 guy. The pirate theme was continued, with Geddy wearing a parrot and using a pirate accent for "We are the pirates...", one of the crew wore a pirate hat while checking on the dryers and the soundboard operator had a huge jolly roger flag which he waved at the end of "Temples". During the rant, Lerxst began with the typical mumbling/singing of nonsense, before clearing his throat and singing in a loud, and hoarse voice. Then he started to sing a blues tune while Geddy and Neil joined in, "Just a poor boy..."
Toronto (8/22): Lerxst began with the usual odd guitar noises...then he started saying "there is no place like home...there is no place like home...click your shoes dammit...there is no place like Toronto...Toronto" ...and then he started breathing through his nose into the microphone in what sounded like a country & western beat. After doing this for a minute or so, they broke back into La Villa and Geddy asked Lerxst (not into the mic) "What was that?"
London (9/8): During 2112, Geddy sported his parrot and included his pirate lines. Lerxst began the rant singing la la la la la and making weird sounds with his guitar, then talked about the tower of London, Buckingham palace and how bad Radio One was (BBC 1 pop type radio station). He also sang some lines from Roger Miller's England Swings: "England swings like a pendulum do; Bobbies on bicycles, two by two; Westminster Abbey, the tower of Big Ben; The rosy red cheeks of the little children".
London (9/9): The parrot was again in the house during 2112, and after appearing to have audio problems with his inner ear monitor, Lerxst began the rant with a mock sobbing rambling about his problem and mentioned "they won't turn it up". In reference to an earlier mistake in La Villa, Alex said "It was strange, I was dreaming. I dreamt I was in a band and playing in front of all these people and that I made I mistake. And then I realised it wasn't a dream, it was real! I've been playing this song for like 100 years and it happened. On no! Wait, how does it go again? I remember how it goes again!" He starts singing the last section and played some more of his odd guitar sounds.
Birmingham (9/11): Lerxst began with the usual odd guitar sounds, then said "I'm so sad...I'm so sad...I'm so sad. They've closed Boddingtons Brewery..after 200 years of brewing beer." Boddingtons is a brewery in Manchester, makers of 'Real Ale', which was being closed after 230 years in business. Lersxt then turned it into a sad blues, similar to what he's played on earlier nights of the tour. "I'm so sad. Everybody's drinking too much lager now...I want my Boddington's!...Well its only beer!"
Manchester (9/12): At the beginning of YYZ a cake with "HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEIL" flashed up on the screen, and it was brought onstage during the song. After the song, the crowd started singing "Happy Birthday" but were cut short by the beginning of "The Trees". For the rant Lerxst began with the usual strange noises before squealing like a pig. "Hey I sound like Babe". Then he seemed to go into a conversation with himself as Babe and the farmer (could be wrong here?) When he really got into it he seemed to be sort of telling himself off - gruff voice / wingey voice, eyes closed, grimacing all the time. Then his eyes popped open as if he'd just woken up and he started staring around at the crowd and said, "Hey, where did you come from?" He ended it by just tanding and waving his arms and said, "That's it."
Glasgow (9/14) - Lerxst's rant started with him mumbling into mic with the usual strange guitar noises and heavy breathing before launching into the song "I belong to Glasgow" ending up with "there'll always be a Scotland!" to much applause from the crowd. During Bytor Lerxst stood all the way over on stage right and screamed at Geddy who was singing over on stage left. He kept shouting "Oi" "Oi" until geddy finally heard him and turned. Alex then gestured that he wanted to fight ged and they made their way to stage centre and started throwing punches. At one point during the show a roadie came onstage to check the dryers wearing shorts and a pillowcase over his head with a face drawn on it with a big tongue hanging out. Lerxst looked at neil and mimed "he's mad". Lastly, the pirate theme was continued including skull and crossbone balloons provided by the crowd, while Geddy wore his parrot on his shoulder during 2112 and ending it with "shiver me timbers". Although some fans hoped for the addition of Closer To The Heart during the Glasgow show (see site of "Closer To The Heart" recording for Exit Stage Left), the setlist remained the same.
Birmingham (9/15) - Lerxst played a slow bluesy riff and sobbed into the microphone "12 years .....sorry, but we gotta go" (referring to the 12 years since the last UK tour!!) He repeated this a few times before starting to sob profusely. Geddy & Neil joined in wholeheartedly with the slow blues but soon began to show signs of losing it. Neil was smirking and Geddy was making a "T" (Time out!!) sign behind Lerxst' back, much to the crowds enjoyment. He wrapped up by saying something like "....next stop - Amsterdam!!!!!" (should have said Germany!)
Oberhausen (9/17) - Geddy greeted the audience during the drum intro to Animate by saying "Hello Deutschland" (accent free). He also added "Willkommen zu unserer Jubiläumsshow" which means "Welcome to our anniversary show" along with stuff like "Guten Abend" (Godd evening) and "Danke schön" (Thank you). With all remaining German dates, he greeted each city by changing his greeting to "Hello Stuttgart/Frankfurt/Hamburg" instead of "Deutschland". For the rant Lerxst mumbled a few things as if he had a bad cold or something, sounded a bit like he was choking.
Stuttgart (9/19) - One of the roadies put a dwarf on stage which Alex took during the middle part of By-Tor to play his guitar! Lerxst's rant was totally insane, he never said a word and was just laughing and screaming.
Milan (9/21) - For Rush's first visit to Italy, Geddy first greeted the crowd with somthing like "Grazie! Thank you so much! Sorry I can speak Italian...just a little...'piccolo'..it took us quite a long time to come to Italy but now we are here to play a million songs tonight!" ('Piccolo' means 'small'; it was pointed out by one Italian fan that he should have said 'poco', which means 'little', but his minimal Italian still still received a strong ovation from the crowd!). In addition, following Limelight, Geddy said 'buona notte' (good night) . During his rant, Lerxst mumbled for some time, sounds like "bbbb... bbbbbboooppp....bbbbiii....booo.... bbboooo..." and didn't speak until the very end, when he counted off the return to La Villa Strangiato with "uno due tre quattro" (Italian for one, two, three, four).
Frankfurt (9/24) - As expected after being alluded to by Geddy while on Phil Jupitus' Breakfast Show, this show was filmed by the band "not that we have a specific DVD release in mind for it, but just kind of as a historical record of 'this' tour." This may be why, during the rant, Alex didn't say anything, he only laughed for awhile! Like in Frankfurt, Lerxst again counted into the return to La Villa in German ("Eins, zwei, drei, vier").
Prague (9/25): Geddy spoke some Czech, specifically "Dekuji", which translates as "I thank you". Likely as there were few native-English speaking audience members, the "rant" was entirely non-verbal. No words. Lerxst began with the weird guitar stuff and segued into some low kind of mumbling that you couldn't really hear much less understand, with Geddy and Neil smiling. Eventually Lerxst heightened the pitch of the rant little by little until he was squealing with his arms held up high. Then he moved into a kind of a gub-gub-gub sound made by vibrating the back of his hand under his chin before ending the rant and returning to La Villa by counting one two three, not only in Czech, but in slang Czech. He said ?Raz dva tri?, and the crowd let out a big cheer. The concert was held in the Sparta Praha national ice stadium, and during 2112 (while Geddy wore his parrot), the Rush Backstage Club's Patrick McGlocklin and pyrotechnician Kevin came on stage to fill the Maytags with coins wearing hockey jerseys: the first was wearing a Czech nationals jersey while the second wore a Team Canada jersey. As they put the coins into the dryers they started to jostle each other, then in true ice hockey style they pretended to throw gloves to the floor and started fighting with each other while the band looked on.
Hamburg (9/27): Lerxst began with something like "mi, mi, mi, mi" (similar to Beaker from the Muppet Show) which progressed to some kind of Polka Stuff (Humba, Humba, Humba), until everybody had tears of laughter in their eyes, Neil even stopped playing and the crowd clapped along to his strange noises. Like in Frankfurt, Lerxst again counted into the return to La Villa in German ("Eins, zwei, drei, vier"). During the intro to the second half of the show Lerxst threw an empty plastic bottle at the road crew and as an response he got ten to twenty of them back from his crew and it soon turned into a bottle fight. During 2112 Lerxst had a big owl on his left shoulder which was at least three times the size of Geddys parrot. During Temples it fell of his shoulder but was still hanging on his back so Lerxst turned around a few times like a dog chasing his tail, trying to get a look at it. Later the owl fell on the ground and Lerxst kicked it to the crew. The drawf from Stuttgart returned, as the crew also positioned the dwarf and a sheep in front of his mic.
Stockholm (9/29): Lerxst ranted about Mats Sundin. It was unclear if Sweden would never get Sundin back, or if he was sorry about Mats Sundin coming back from Toronto. This led into a blues tune that evolved into a heavy metal chant, "Come Back, Mats! Come Back, Mats! No Mats Sundin, he dosen´t wanna hang out with you...no more Mats Sundin boo hoo hoo, no more NHL boo hoo hoo too bad too bad boo hoo hoo".