toadbrother

Tai Shan certainly would have been greatly improved. Or imagine an Anthrax-style version of Marathon. They could have called it Two Minute Mile.

How about a two CD collection of Alex Lifeson's best concert rants.

And the bonus track "Blah Blah Blah" (Lifeson solo writing credit)

Tom Sawyer Meets Bi-Tor Gnomes On Ice Lakeside Park II

I'm advocating for a Lee/Lifeson album. I don't see why if they made a solid instrumental record they couldn't take it on the road. I saw King Crimson a couple of weeks ago at a fairly small venue of 1,400 seats, and they had seven musicians this time around, including three drummers. I paid as much for tickets to that show, and had a pretty good view of the band, as I did for seats for the Clockwork Angels tour, where the band was about the size of the nail on my pinky finger. I'd happily pay $100+ to see Alex and Geddy play, Neil or Neil, Rush or no Rush.

So, to reiterate: The original story was, before and during R40, that this was the last big tour the band would be doing. There might be residencies, maybe small tours, that sort of thing. Neil is characteristically vague, but talk of tendinitis and "ambivalence" towards gets traded around. Alex's arthritic issues get covered "Geez, maybe it's Big Al that's the problem..." some say. Halfway through the tour, Geddy is obviously on fire, Alex clearly isn't as in as poor a health as first reported, but Neil is still... meh. Still "Rush is not over!" is the refrain. Last show of the tour, and for the first time in decades, Neil doesn't run for the backstage exit like a man being stalked by a tiger, and instead takes pictures and is all Mr. Smiles (no one was sure before this that Neil even could use those muscles anymore). Hmmm... After the tour, Alex confirms he had a good time, that his fingers are not falling off, that Geddy's dumped a bunch of money into his home studio and he's sure they'll get together soon. Geddy is just as keen to forge ahead. Neil's writing a book, but what he does release seems all about endings. Hmmm... Now - Neil uses the word retired, even quotes his young daughter using the word "retired". Geddy says "Touring is totally over, but..." I'm seeing a trend here of a band, or at least some parts of it, that would love this boat to keep going downriver, and just keeps trying to find the most optimistic, if improbable explanation, for Neil's clear intentions to ride into the sunset.

Maybe Neil doesn't feel he owes the fans an explanation, any more than an insurance guy owes his clients an explanation when he turns 63 and decides it's time to go.

Meanwhile, everything Neil says or writes is in past-tense. I'm sure Alex and Geddy really want the band to go on in some form, but every signal being transmitted by Neil confirms what he allegedly told Jack Black "I'm done."

That's actually not really true. They're all perfectionists and playing "one offs" would require the same preparation by both the band & crew, as it would for a regular tour. I can't see them investing that amount of time & money into a venture that would essentially be a losing proposition. I remember John Paul Jones talking about the Led Zeppelin O2 concert, and mentioning the weeks of preparation and rehearsal that went into it, and how disappointed he was that they didn't go on tour. LZ literally rehearsed for a tour and did one concert.

Charlie Watts is a great drummer, very underrated, but I'm going to be kind of blunt, he doesn't play anything like what Neil plays. Neil could probably play a Stones' gig with one hand tied behind his back. There are some kinds of music that are, well, just pure athleticism, where it's strength, dexterity, speed and endurance. Watts' job is keep a steady beat, and as timekeepers go, he's one of the best, but Neil is a whole other kind of drummer. I have my doubts he'll be able to play anywhere that level when he's in his late-60s. If they don't tour soon, I think they never will, and seeing as it is clear Neil has no intention of touring any time soon, as sad as it is, I think he's finished.

I think Alex and Geddy aren't done playing as a live band. I think Neil is very much done. He's been coaxed out on to the road more out of financial reasons than anything else, I think, particularly as recording and publishing royalties have collapsed over the last fifteen years. But between some pretty darned successful tours and being 63 years of age, Neil is fin. At this point, I'll be honest, I'll take Rush any way I can get it, even if out of respect to Neil they don't call it Rush. There are drummers out there that are at Neil's level, and even beyond, and I'm some of them would love to play with 2/3s of Rush.

I agree with you. The solos from the mid-80s onward did seem very gimmicky; big kits with lots of doo-dads that might get hit once in an entire two and a half hour show. I was listening to the solo off of R30 recently and while it's pretty technically brilliant, I can't say as I got into them all that much. Whereas Neil's solos in the old days were a highlight of the show, they steadily became the "get a beer, it's the drum solo" segment of the show. That's why I really liked the mini-solos from the CA tour, and the scaled down kits in this tour. Still not the awe-inspiring solos of the late 70s and early 80s that made the world know Neil was one of the greats, but more, how do I say it, enjoyable. And I did like the R40 solo, it was a bit less gimmicky and more straight forward.

I think he likes drumming but hates touring. He wanted to call it quits back in 1989, and just do studio albums, but had an epiphany that a band is only a band if they play live. I had heard rumors back around the end of the Roll The Bones tour that he was thinking of calling it a day on touring. One thing is for certain, Neil has disliked touring for a long time. Let's be honest, if concerns over money hadn't driven him back into the studio and out on the road again in 2002, Test for Echo might have been the last tour. Look at what it's taking for even Geddy and Alex to tour; no more tour buses, but jetting it to each location. So while Geddy may still have the fire in his belly, even expensive accommodations have had to be made for him to tour.

The Beach Boys died with Carl Wilson. I have little interest in watching Mike Love, that talentless royalty-stealing hack, gigging with a surf band with Bruce Johnston's animated corpse in tow for "legitimacy".

Apparently Neil told Jack Black at the end-of-tour after party that he was done. Rush, I think, no matter what Geddy and Alex may suggest, is finished. I don't think there's going to be any more shows of any kind, no new music, no activity beyond maybe future re-releases. Heck, maybe they've been socking away an extra song or two per record so maybe there might be "new" recordings to be released (but I doubt it, everything I've heard suggests they're very efficient at what gets written ending up on albums). This is it folks. Maybe Neil will outright admit it, maybe he'll hold back from telling the fans what he seems to have told whatever passes for his inner circle these days, out of respect for Alex and Geddy, I think Geddy's still got the fire, and I think maybe Alex does too. There might not be any more Rush, but I'll wager we'll see something from the two of them. But Rush is finished.

Wow. If the vitriol from a rumor of retirement is this bad, no wonder the band isn't coming out and saying it openly.

We all know it's going to be a two or three thousand word essay about riding his bike on some god-forsaken logging road overlooking the Pacific Coast highway, and talking about how summer always reminds him of Upton Sinclair's novel about a guy who go lives in a cabin and talks to himself for thirty years. At the end he'll talk about the last couple of shows, about how Al is funny and Geddy was gestabulatory (I guarantee you, the word exists and Neil is the first person in 138 years to use it). At the end he might drop a hint that it's time for a good long rest, but there won't be any great declaration that the band is done, or that he's retiring, or whether they will record again. You will have waded through a long travelogue and vocabulary-busting prose only to discover you've learned absolutely nothing.

Nonsense. They will all be wearing Clockwork Angels limited edition anagram pajamas.

Not trying to pick a fight but who were the other tours for? One could argue this tour certainly left Snyth Era fans wanting and the Synth Era was not some brief period. I'm saying they played songs that a lot of fans wanted such as Jacob's Ladder and Losing It. They sure did and that second set was pretty damn special. I agree. When they did Xanadu all the way through with Geddy on the double-neck, it was literally the fulfillment of a childhood dream. If I could replay that eight minutes again, I would.

I took that to mean that they'll tour as *solo artists*. Frankly, I'm not even sure about Alex. I'm almost certain Geddy will tour.

That's funny, it's not on my copy of Roll The Bones.

Xanadu. Although Roll The Bones was a hoot, and Losing It was a darned closed second. But Xanadu, which I view as the highest achievement of Rush's prog era and still one of the greatest songs they ever wrote and recorded. When that deep synth base note rattled Rogers Arena, it was like the venue became a Prog Cathedral, and in that moment I thought "I can now die happy."

Clockwork Angels 2: Revenge of the Gnomes

Shows you the difference in tastes. Marathon is the song that got me into Rush. As to Anagram, well, I have to think really hard before I can remember what it even sounds like, so I guess that says something.

But if there are no more Rush concept albums, what will do Kevin J. Anderson do for a living?