HalfwayToGone

Signed Hemispheres CD booklet. Sent to Seattle during CA tour. That package went to hell and back in the mouth of a pit bull by the time I got it back a month later. I couldnt believe the booklet was barely scratched.

Google is your friend. Mr. Big guitarist. Jammed with a lot of people in various tribute projects after Mr. Big.

I already have the ultimate henispheres edition. It’s an old edition of the regular CD, but the booklet says “Hi Dan” and has three signatures on it in sharpie. Im sure there’s an image of it in ancient thread here. It’s a 1 of 1. I think all in it cost like 30 bucks—mostly for postage to and from wherever the heck it was those guys wrote on it. Seattle maybe? I forget.

I would expect that they will probably pop up from time to time in a non-performance type of scenario—Award ceremonies, charity events, etc.

I don't know why he wouldn't want to do a book signing tour. After all, he did do a CD signing tour for 'My Favorite Headache'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQrkl9F_VcY He sure did. I went to one of them. Longest line I've ever been in but totally worth it. First time I stood on line for a signing was when my buddy invited me to a Halloween KISS DVD signing. It was a whole wristband affair, and my friend managed to score an extra bracelet for me. It was a long line, but they knew exactly how many wristbands they gave out. It was just Gene and Paul, but in full KISS gear. The other two times were both in one day—same buddy invited me to wait forever on line to get Ace Frehley’s autobiog signed, and while standing on the longest line in the world, we checked their schedule and saw that Tony Iommi was signing his book that night across town at another store—was much farther up in line, but had to wait for it to start.

It’s his book about his basses and he’s a bassist. For like 50 years.

If that ends up being true, I’m not missing it.

It was indeed, man. The crowd was big, but they were chatty and approachable. One of my favourite moments was getting back on the bus to take us to the train back to Toronto. Alex was in the front seat, and I did the "we're not worthy" thing to him, and said "being in the crowd on Rush in Rio, my favourite moment was not singing YYZ, but doing that gesture to you guys". He said "I will NEVER forget that show, man!". Yes, my one Rush encounter was at a party after an MSG show on counterparts tour, and it was a similar thing—cocktails and mingle. Much cooler than their meet and greets on later tours. And Neil was there, but well shielded from us peasants.

Glad to hear it was a relatively relaxed atomsphere rather than just standing on line to take a photo for three seconds in front of a background poster.

Have fun yas all—I am jealous of those of you who could go.

I agree that a lot of the Rush quotes were groaners. That said it wasn’t an unbearable read. That said, I don’t read many books, and when I do it’s usually an autobiography or nonfiction

Everybody does bundles now, not just Kiss and Rush. It’s the new normal. These really are priced to not move like hotcakes, I’m betting to discourage the secondary market from making more than Geddy on the numbered editions. Ebayers will make nothing if they still have them sitting around at the band online store for a long time, like that european art of rush edition did.

They ship out of Virginia now for my NE US location, anyway. Just an update—they got my order out in a very reasonable time and it was packed pretty well, but one coffee mug I ordered was chipped. I emailed with some photos and got a robo-response saying they respond within 48 business hours (you think, oh 2 days, but really it’s 6 business days at 8 hours per day). Anyway, I was pleasantly shocked to get an email one week later that they shipped a replacement. Also gave a pre-printed return free-shipping label for the return of the chipped one. Sigh of relief.

If I were closer to Toronto and could afford it, I’d go on this train ride. It’s about right considering all it involves. KISS charges almost the same for a short acoustic intimate/fan requests set with a meet and autograph session, then a photo op later when they get their makeup on before a show. So to spend all that time and be wined and dined is about right.

If the signed edition is put on the band’s merch site rather than direct through the publisher, I’m guessing it will be a disaster now that musictoday is handling the official Rush merch. Worst customer service department ever, and worst track record with missing shipping dates and not bothering to tell anyone until months later when they finally get around to sending things.

This sucks. I was always very happy with the in-house crew they had in Rush’s merch store, but looks like they transferred all that to livenation’s musictoday outfit (I use the term loosely—more like “nitwits” in reality). I decided to order a couple of little do-dads only to discover my old login no longer works at all, and I had to create a new account from scratch, even though they’re still calling it “backstage” and I had a years-long order history—same email account, etc. went right through, and when I got my confirmation email, my heart sank. Ugh! If you’re wondering why I’m reacting this way, it’s because any and all experience I’ve had with these yokels from VIrginia has been pretty awful. From VIP merch bundles to any CD purchases bundled with ticketmaster tix to other bands’ merch stores, it’s always rotten customer service with zero ability to get any useful information about how long it will take before they ship anything that isn’t in stock at the time of purchase. In my case, the worst things were a mastodon CD bundled with concert tickets and a pre-order of a Soundgarden album that was released by a smaller label (subpop)—got those things many months late and any attempts to figure out when they’d get them after the release date had long passed were met with a “form letter” style email with nothing useful. When I checked with subpop, they said they had no idea what musictoday’s problem was and wished me luck. The only good news was I did get what I ordered, but months late. Didn’t even get a single courtesy email saying “ sorry—we are still awaiting the item you ordered” when it was clear they were horribly late—nothing whatsoever until I asked WTF was taking so long 6 full weeks later, and then it was the bullshit non-answer. I learned from that episode that I can expect to get the new Clutch CD that was bundled with my show ticket (release date was this tuesday) sometime in 2019. It’s a freebie, so I paid for a copy that I know has shipped this week already, because I’d like to hear it before the show in late October. Anyway end of an era, and end of rant.

Diarrhea outbreaks are always a blast, but in all seriousness, when you need a quick "divorce" that doesn't involve paying alimony, or dealing with child custody arrangements, etc. they're great. Oh and motion sickness is just wildly entertaining. A riot!

I'll go ahead and disagree. Knowing a lot of scales means nothing if all you do with it is noodle around for a half-hour at a time. The reason the dead had such a huge following is because 90% or more of their fans were obliterated on acid or toward the end, ecstasy. I tried very hard to give them a chance, and saw them 4 times while Garcia was still alive. I've had a "thing" for plenty of other guitarists who noodle, but Jerry's noodles bored me to no end every single time--literally, I'd be looking around trying to get a hit off someone's joint and waiting for it to be over. When they actually played songs and sang, they were a decent live band, but the only part of the show that even slightly interested me was the big drum jam, and that's only because I'm a drummer. The one other thing you could say about the bands is that Rush came from the entirely opposite approach to performance--extremely rehearsed and pretty consistent, which lends itself to putting a lot more mental effort into really nailing and nuancing each performance, as opposed to just flying by the seat of their pants and crashing on a regular basis. I'm sure I remember tons of times my friends commenting about dead shows, saying things like, "oh, Jerry must've gotten some really crappy drugs that night." Never had to worry about that at a Rush show--their bad nights were still pretty good. On the other hand, for people who have bootleg fetishes, dead tapes from one show to the next are much more unique, while rush boots from any one tour are probably similar other than sound quality and how perfectly or not they played on a given night.

Sweet! Did BTLS win any awards? I don't recall, but I think it's one of the best music documentaries I've seen. Jaco is another great one, although it's also really heartbreaking at the end. And just FYI, Geddy shot an interview for it, but I can't recall if it was included in the film itself or just the special features. Either way, he's definitely on the DVD. Rob Trujillo headed up the production and did a fantastic job. Must-see for any bass-player or fan of bass players.

I'd get a signed copy if I can before it sells out, but I'm sure it'll be a crapshoot unless rushbackstage actually emails ahead of time (they didn't for Alex's west end Phoenix newspaper piece until it was on the site). FWIW it's not supposed to be a Rush book, it's a bass book. As usual, though, a couple of fans here think it's all about what they want--waaaaaaaah! It doesn't have 1980s Wal basses in it! Waaaaah! Bass players in general give zero rats' asses about Wal basses, aside from those who worship Geddy, and if he had never played one, no one would. Yes, I get that a lot of people who will buy this are going to be Rush fans who really know nothing about playing or about musical instruments, but it's supposed to be a big beautiful bass book, not a big beautiful Geddy or Rush book. Get over yourselves already (fat chance). The guy is an obsessive (like Neil) and he collects things--baseballs, wine, whatever. He managed to get a great collection together in a short time and he probably knows about every one of them intimately--the book is for similar-minded bass freaks. And I'd go to a signing/stay on line however long I have to if I get to just say "hey, remember me? My buddy almost spilled his drink on your shoe!" That would be fun. Probably not happening though--it would be a cluster-f.

FWIW, Rush fans ridiculing art...hysterical! You all do know that Rush and Rush fans have been ridiculed through the ages by most everyone else, right? The Peart poster is gone, but I found out they have three more limited posters by Fantoons ranging from $30--one's a hemispheres art print, ones a vapor trails and the other is just charicaturish/comic book style art of the band. Turns out they actually used quality paper, too.

I got one. Not hording any. They're lasting much longer than I thought, probably because they aren't signed/numbered and the poster market is more for underground stuff and famous poster artists. On top of that, the merch company has done nothing to advertise it that I've seen. If I didn't actually surf by every other day, I'd still not know about it.

That is correct. I am extremely experienced with eBay both in auction and "buy it now" purchases, and I know how to do my homework--the "sold listings" option is your friend in assessing what people actually pay, and how many suckers vs smart buyers are out there. A fair amount of things I'd sell are eBay auction wins. There are few things that I really just would have to take a bath on that are not music-related. My stuff ranges from music to sports to comics to toys. Way too many toys--they probably should go, like, yesterday.

At 100 pieces it will sell out at some point. It's a 16x20 poster, don't let the tiny jpg fool you, and FWIW, rock concert silk-screen posters that are run in similar numbers start at around $35 and are a fraction of the size usually. So $50 for a run this small is about right for a poster this size unless they printed it on super-cheap stock with crappy print quality.

It's a poster of the "Early Years of Neil Peart" cartoon--only 100 made, 16x20. Fiddy clams. For sale on the official online store this morning--just stumbled onto it today. Get it while it lasts....probably gonna go quick