thizzellewashington

"I Am You Are" is the better of the two, for sure. "Gone" is OK, not as good as the ballads on MFH. It's just nice to hear his voice again.

Watched all four episodes last night. It's a good time.

Definitely agree they should use extra musicians -- a full-time keyboard player so Geddy can focus on bass, and maybe even a second guitarist to help Alex out. As far as the vocals, I also worry that Geddy's voice wouldn't be able to hold up for a full tour. He sounded *fine* at the Taylor Hawkins shows last year but there's a big difference between being able to do three songs at two one-off shows with a ton of time to rehearse, and having to play a two-plus hour show several times a week. I don't think they'd need to get a different vocalist, I just think they'd have to be smart about what songs they play. Some of their recent tours (Clockwork Angels for example) focused on the mid-80s stuff that's a lot more reasonable for Geddy to be able to still sing, and he sounded great. R40 was rough in places because they were playing a lot of the 70s stuff. So keep the focus on the later Rush material in addition to solo material and some of the "mellower" older stuff to get around the vocal issues.

Seattle crowd was fine.

Years ago I sat down and ranked all of their songs from 1-175. Just pulled up the document on my computer and I stand by it. Here's my top 10: 1. Red Barchetta 2. Xanadu 3. Subdivisions 4. Tom Sawyer 5. 2112 6. YYZ 7. Marathon 8. The Anarchist 9. Limelight 10. The Pass

Every one of these interviews feels like they're trying to back Geddy and Alex into a corner to say they're going to tour together as "Rush" again and they're clearly still on the fence about it.

Damn, I would have bought a signed copy if they were only $40.

To be clear, I wasn't judging anybody. Just a little surprised.

I went to the book tour stop in Seattle on Friday and Geddy said the songs would be released digitally/streaming "next week." So there's that.

I must have missed this at the time (or it wasn't publicized) but there's a little note in the last chapter of Geddy's book that after the final tour, the three of them did one of those deals to cash out and sell their publishing to one of those companies that buys artists' catalogs. So I don't know how much control Geddy and Alex would even have over archival releases at this point.

Geddy said something interesting in his latest Rolling Stone interview — if he ever plays Rush stuff live again, with or without Alex, it likely wouldn't be as a three-piece. He'd get extra musicians. Which makes sense, because he (and Alex, if he were to be involved) is a little old at this point to still have to recreate all of that stuff himself live. And if they're not calling it "Rush," it doesn't really matter if it's not a trio. I highly doubt Portnoy would be the one. He just rejoined Dream Theater a month ago and they're making a record, and I would think him rejoining his original/iconic band after 10+ years away is a big enough deal that he won't want to commit to another gig, especially one this high-profile, for at least a few years. Plenty of drummers are technically capable of playing Neil's stuff, it's just weird to picture them calling anything "Rush" without him. And again, I think Geddy and Alex would ultimately come to the same conclusion and call it something else, knowing how they're wired and how much respect they have for what they built with Neil.

I was a little surprised at how big a factor cocaine was. I guess I'd always been under the impression that the three of them largely avoided hard drugs and that was credited as a reason for their longevity. But it never got to be a REAL problem in the band. I finished the audiobook yesterday. The stuff about Neil at the end was pretty heavy. But I'm glad to hear that he revisited Rush's albums near the end of his life and felt good about them. I know how much he hated looking back at the past so it was nice to hear that he was able to do that and be proud of what he did.

Started listening to the audiobook on the drive up to Seattle and back for the show last night. I'm up to the recording of Permanent Waves. So far it's great. The Holocaust chapter is really intense.

I had fun. Novoselic did a good job.

I'd go see whatever they did but for me personally, it wouldn't sit well if they called themselves "Rush" with no Neil, and ultimately I think they wouldn't do that. My guess is that what ends up happening is Geddy makes a solo album, Alex plays guitar on some of the songs, Geddy does a solo tour where he plays a mix of his solo stuff and Rush, and Alex comes out for a few shows. I can't see Alex wanting to do a full tour.