Supersyl

No one is left out to dry. It takes strength of character and a high degree of maturity to say, "You know what guys, I've had enough. I have other interests and one of them is family. There's nothing more to prove, and we all have limited time. It's time to bow out." Granted, I am doing nothing but speculating, but I say GOOD FOR HIM. Self-awareness is a rare asset. Going out on top is what winners do. I just feel like it's being pushed on Geddy & Alex... ( Did you read FOH's post??) They both seem pretty awkward in interviews.... Every one knows they can't do it like they used to (AND forever), and I think every fan understands that and respects that... It's just that they seem to have been taken by surprise and don't seem to know how to react themselves.... It's not that Neil is the "Bad guy" necessarily... I just wish that if HE wishes to stop and it's not really where Alex and Geddy are at, then that he would step aside and let the other two continue... There's this really awkward vibe around this tour and Geddy and Alex are not doing much to make it seem like they are happy about it.. That's all.. No need to get all wound up... Everyone is so touchy here.... Just my feeling about things.....

Reading all the interviews and stuff with Ged & Al.. I can't help but think "Neil has finally left Geddy & Alex hung out to dry, and they both aren't sure how to really deal with it....." This scenario has been brewing for almost 20 years... And it shows what absolute class acts Geddy & Alex are, having dealt with "Mr Personality" and his constant need for attention for all these years..... I'm starting to think I really hope this is it for Neil.... Maybe now Geddy & Alex can FINALLY get in a studio together, at THEIR pace, and finally get back to writing the music THEY like, about themes THEY like, without having to deal with the last 3 albums of tragedy influenced lyrics that have been dragging the music and the band down since 2001....... ENOUGH of that.... As sad as it is (Believe me I've had tragedies in my life similar to Neil's, so I can identify with him....) time to let all that go, and start anew.... Alex says Geddy has been kind of "reborn" musically, these two are like brothers...... Let that other guy who they barely have any relationship with anyways go his own way, and be done with it... Lift your sleeves up, and get back to writing!! Geddy and Alex will ALWAYS have the fans behind them, they have shown nothing but class, and gentleness towards the fans, forever... Just look at the two recent airport pics....... I will continue to encourage anything these two put out... But I can't see any way to ever support the other 3rd of the band's retirement again past this last show..... So please, Neil... Do the right thing. Call it a day OFFICIALLY, and let the other two go on on their way.... I Can see it in Geddy's eyes in every interview that he's tired of that "We'll see in five years" thing....... He wants to play and record NOW!!!!!!!!! Geddy flew out to London to play ONE song with The Who's backup band... He's nowhere near done..... :geddy: :Alex:

Yet, that won't stop him one second from riding his %$#% motorcycle all over the country, with his Mall Cop Buddy, which he already has started advertising all over....... If you're hurting so much, save it for the show... THAT"s what we pay our tickets for!!!!!!!!!!!

No Electronic Kit = No Red Lenses, Red Sector A, Scars or Mystic Rhythms.... You can't just turn around and play them on the acoustic kit as if nothing ever happened... The WAY to play those songs is dictated by the back kit tom placements and also uses the front kit.. .And back in the P\G days, the 6" and 8" toms were right next to the back kit, now they are way forward..... Unless Neil would drastically reinvent the drums to Red Lenses, I don't see it happening.....

I agree it looks kind of peculiar but it's hard to really tell from the picture. Looking at it again, there is absolutely no doubt! It IS the double-neck!! (Posted the enlarged section to one of my Flickr accounts) https://www.flickr.c...yl/16892414948/

I think the Double-neck is there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just watched Exit... Stage Left, and decided to take a closer look at the pics.... Look carefully at the first pic, the clearer of the two... At the extreme right, right above the monitor there is a black Rick headstock that is different, as it has the white "Rickenbacker" text instead of the white placque with black text... Follow the neck down, to the right, just barely seen above the monitor is a shorter black headstock, and if you look right under the extreme right of the monitor, you can see the bottom "swoop" extend further out than the others, you can make out the white ribbon thing around it and a couple of silver or white knobs... I think my friends the Double-Neck Rick has gone out on this trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :drool: :geddy:

Montreal Forum... Both a hockey Cathedral AND a rock music Cathedral.

I've been drumming to Rush songs for 30+ years and never once have I counted a time signature.... FEEL the music... It will take you where you need to be....

Cool! Yes, I see LOTS of Ricks! Black ones and RED ones! I also see a Hoffner!!! Will we be getting Can't Buy Me Love, too?? :)

They rehearse on their own... But, Ged & Al have probably already rehearsed together to some extent....

He was wearing the Expos cap because they were friends with Warren Cromartie and other Expos players from the great late '70's early '80's teams. They were also friends with several Montreal Canadiens from the '70's Dynasty... Steve Shutt (Who introduced Geddy and Alex in school!!), Larry Robinson, etc..... I always say the biggest goal Steve Shutt ever scored was basically "scoring" Rush into existence! :)

The "rumor" was one that the owner of DW started...that his people were making Neil a kit that LOOKED like the old Slingerland kit...not playing an old Slingerland kit.... Lorne "dispelled" that rumor...but purportedly things that were referencing that were pulled from different sites...so it's suspicious...who knows what we'll see... MY guess is that Neil's so "anal" about how he does things that I'd be hard pressed to actually see this come to fruition... I could be wrong..but knowing his disposition, it doesn't seem overly likely. As far as the guitars? Who really knows that either...I think the double necks are just too heavy unless they used them for MAYBE one song....I had a friend in one of my bands years back that had a single Rick bass, and that thing was REALLY heavy.... I don't see Neil reverting to his old setup anytime soon... The interview was probably pulled because John Good seemed stoned out of his mind and just blabbering jibberish..... Alex mentioned last year that he was working with Gibson on a line of custom double-necks!! Hopefully he'll have one made for Geddy too! :)

Anyone else want to accuse me and a few others of saying Rush will end because of Neil?? The irony in this is that Neil will probably get what he's been longing for since the beginning.... That guy still has some serious unresolved issues from his tragedies.... That constant "Running away" theme of his life in the last 17 years.... Running away from fame, from fans, from Geddy & Alex on tour (Ged said in an interview recently "I haven't seen Neil after a show in years!")... All that talk about their "friendship" always makes me laugh... Geddy & Alex have been saying that to protect themselves and Rush for 18 years, because they've known all along that the "New Guy" is one moment away from ending it all at a moment's notice.... The "New Guy" (Why call him by his name since his supposed "friends" have been referred to by him as "The Guys At Work" for 15 years---Geddy couldn't even name a SINGLE charity Neil is involved with in that Juno video, because, like us he probably has no idea!!- "Neil, well he has his own things....") has been a ball and chain on Geddy & Alex since his return.... And I'm sure it's been an emotional toll on both of them too, even if they will NEVER come out and say it publicly... I really hope Geddy and Alex (especially Geddy) realize that there is musical life beyong "Mister Sinister".... I'll be the first one in line to buy any music that Geddy puts out in the future.... And since he hasn't exactly been a "fan favorite" this last decade, and WILL be in the end the reason Rush is done, I doubt Neil will have much of a public to read all his little ramblings about "Lemon Slug Racing"..... Or some cactus on the side of the road.... MOST fans already dont care... I doubt they will care in a few years.... So I'm sure Neil will have his wish of spending his retirement in anonimity... I doubt Geddy or Alex will drop by for some "fun and games"... Geddy showed once again what a class act he was at that Junos thing... While "Mister All Smiles All The Time" was somewhere, too busy to say thanks... Probably racing some lemon.....

Cool! I have a friend who knows Pegi... Was supposed to do some computer work for Anthem... Don't know if it did happen....

I think it's pretty clear most fans are getting a little weary of Neil's Motorcycle tours.... From reading his blog, it's like the tours now are not even about how great the shows were anymore, but some "Awesome new backroad I almost got killed on 4 hours before showtime thank goodness my "buddy" Mosbach between the non-stop gay jokes like a 13 year old saved the day and gave me his bike so I could make it barely in time for the show !" kinda thing.... I'm pretty sure, that SILENTLY, Ged & Al have had enough too... What a TOTAL waste of energy, especially at his age... And then as soon as the tour is over it's "I was so glad to get home and get into my Aston Martin for a week long road trip AWAY from the stress of home!"... It's time to man up Ged & Al, and tell the dude to PARK his motorbike for the summer....... Ok...so lets just hang this all on Neil's head...FORTY YEARS! That's how long these guys have been at it That's a long freaking time....most people retire after being somewhere for 30 years... Watch some of the available videos of Neil on the last tour...he pounds the living $hit out of the drums, and being a drummer, myself, I can attest that after a LONG night of playing it HURTS! (and I don't hit HALF as hard as he does!) I'm looking for loopholes in the interviews that have been up with different people lately, and I GET it...I'm just hoping that once they get back on the road they feel like a little more... No...It's Neils fault and the fact that he runs out of the shows and rides a motorcycle.... I'm a lifelong drummer too, so I agree with you that he's still pounding the $*** out of those drums... NO complaints there from me.... Although he HAS simplified some things a bit, and it's somewhat easier on him... Just saying that if he didn't come to the show already half beat up by a day of riding in 100° weather in the middle of summer, touring would be easier on him... He's already so much more tired BEFORE the show than Geddy & Alex, who spend the day what.... Reading a book, hanging out at the museum... Sleeping til noon? The SHOW is Geddy & Alex's most demanding part of the day. While Neil's day should already be over BEFORE the show starts.... He's been up since 5AM, rode several hundred miles in the sun may have a bit of heatstroke... It's like he's making himself miserable on purpose at times.... At least this tour is in arenas, so it will be cooler than playing in that aweful mid-summer humidity in those sheds all over the US....

I think it's pretty clear most fans are getting a little weary of Neil's Motorcycle tours.... From reading his blog, it's like the tours now are not even about how great the shows were anymore, but some "Awesome new backroad I almost got killed on 4 hours before showtime thank goodness my "buddy" Mosbach between the non-stop gay jokes like a 13 year old saved the day and gave me his bike so I could make it barely in time for the show !" kinda thing.... I'm pretty sure, that SILENTLY, Ged & Al have had enough too... What a TOTAL waste of energy, especially at his age... And then as soon as the tour is over it's "I was so glad to get home and get into my Aston Martin for a week long road trip AWAY from the stress of home!"... It's time to man up Ged & Al, and tell the dude to PARK his motorbike for the summer.......

All we have at this point is speculation and nothing more. Geddy seems to want to leave the door open on shorter tours or a new album. His appearance on That Metal Show pretty much debunks the fact that this is a "farewell" tour seeing as how Ged doesn't like the idea of that. I've said it before... Neil wanted to wait a couple years for his daughter to grow up before going on tour again.... Al was a little sleepy, but once on the road, he'll have fun, as usual... Geddy is NOT ready to stop, he's made that pretty clear, and that Ray Daniels statement (Some are ready to stop, some want to go on forever) really to me definitely illustrates the state of the band: ONE wants to stop, the other two want to go on.... Like I've said before, Neil's daughter won't be 5 forever.... Neil was ready to dispappear forever 15 years ago.... He got bored after a couple of years.... Let this pass... Maybe in a couple year's time Neil will be the first one to bug the other two to go on tour.... (Maybe his wife will kick him out the door, because she'll get tired of seeing him every day for weeks on end... "Call your buddies and get out of the house!!!!!") I'm pretty sure they'll be back together to record within a couple of years.... And if the other two don't want to follow, Geddy will go on... He's been ITCHING to go into the studio for months!!!! I think this might be true if they were 40 or even 50, but Neil has said multiple times how much he hates leaving Olivia, and comments on the pain he feels after every gig. Even if they don't call it a farewell tour, doesn't mean it won't be the last one. I want to optimistic, but there comes a point where they should hang it up. I say keep writing songs for sure, but I doubt they'll get Neil out on the road again. We can speculate til we drop, but we won't really know for a few years.... I can see Geddy at that meeting going "Farewell??? You sure 'bout that?"

All we have at this point is speculation and nothing more. Geddy seems to want to leave the door open on shorter tours or a new album. His appearance on That Metal Show pretty much debunks the fact that this is a "farewell" tour seeing as how Ged doesn't like the idea of that. I've said it before... Neil wanted to wait a couple years for his daughter to grow up before going on tour again.... Al was a little sleepy, but once on the road, he'll have fun, as usual... Geddy is NOT ready to stop, he's made that pretty clear, and that Ray Daniels statement (Some are ready to stop, some want to go on forever) really to me definitely illustrates the state of the band: ONE wants to stop, the other two want to go on.... Like I've said before, Neil's daughter won't be 5 forever.... Neil was ready to dispappear forever 15 years ago.... He got bored after a couple of years.... Let this pass... Maybe in a couple year's time Neil will be the first one to bug the other two to go on tour.... (Maybe his wife will kick him out the door, because she'll get tired of seeing him every day for weeks on end... "Call your buddies and get out of the house!!!!!") I'm pretty sure they'll be back together to record within a couple of years.... And if the other two don't want to follow, Geddy will go on... He's been ITCHING to go into the studio for months!!!!

I think the interview has been removed... Maybe somebody in the Rush camp decided to shut him up! That guy seemed like the drunk uncle telling all the family secrets at the Christmas party.... After seeing THAT, I will make sure to NEVER buy any DW products.... EDIT: Forget it... It was only the fb link in a private message to a friend that wasn't loading....

It won't be his last kit. Just another way to promote the upcoming tour by brazenly stating this. Best rule is to not trust any statement by any Rush inner-circle stooge (including Rush themselves). If there's any truth to the replica Singerland and 'bar band' feel for the 2nd set... ...then you are one step closer to getting your wish of hearing a lot of pre-80s songs. GR79...I think you should move forward on getting some tickets and just hope for the best. Just don't leave early...you may miss some old school Rush rock. Well the fact that GR's calling John Good a "stooge" is just hilarious! Eccentric, maybe...but the guy that invented DW drums, surely isn't a stooge! He's done SOMETHING right! (and I think a few offhand comments from some conversations with the Professor might hold more merit than the boy's trying to keep things on the hush hush) I agree with this. I think their management has told them not to say it's the last tour. But they've always had that "let's wait and see" attitude about everything they've done. So I have a feeling only time will tell. If what that DW guy is saying is true, and considering what Geddy said a couple weeks ago, me thinks the elephant in the room of Rush is slowly starting to come out.... Everything Geddy & Alex have done in the last 2 decades has been focused around Neil and his new "California life" and I think it's starting to take its toll on the band, especially Geddy.... I understand what Neil has been through, and believe me, I have been through much of the same, but a 63 year old with a 5 year old kid is not your common situation.... I'm sorry, but every Daddy has to go to work.... When I was a kid my Dad travelled all around Canada and the US and France and was gone for weeks at a time... So no "boo ho hoo " from me on that.... This is also a guy who bikes HUNDREDS of miles on dirt roads and back roads on SHOW DAY, and NEVER hangs around Geddy and Alex for whole tours at a time, preferring time with his Rent-a-cop ambiguously testosteroned buddy, and stoner friend.... This is ALSO a guy who constantly ESCAPES from his family on month long "Vacations" all over the place...... From Geddy's recent comments, I'm beginning to see a rift growing between him and "Mister Smiley".... And I'm pretty sure at some point, Ged & Al who have been like an old couple for the majority of their lives will have to get away from that cannonball who has been dragging them and slowing them down for 20 years or so..... I think both still have LOTS of creativity and energy..... MAybe they'll even get to sing to better lyrics resulting in BETTER songs! My 2 cents, but it's my honest opinion on the state of the band from what I've been seeing in recent years..... :codger:

Wow......That guy is a complete idiot! Another one in Neil's strange collection of friends... Why don't you just give out the setlist while you're at it????

♫ Welcome to the New Age, Welcome...♫ euh...no...Just go away..... Not even gonna watch... To their credit they DO play instruments, and all switch around on various drumkits, live... But I can't stand that song anymore after hearing the commercial about 100 times per hockey game for the last 2 months, here in Canada....

With their current propension at self-derision, I wouldn't be surprised if Miss Oo-La-La came out running on stage at some point.... :)

I understand, Neil's point of view... But how old is his daughter?? 4? 5?? To me, it's pretty evident he wants to be around her while she's a pre-schooler... Which is why he would have preferred if this tour had been next year, or the one after that.... Once she starts school, she'll grow up pretty fast... What's he gonna do?? Stare at her until she's 15??? Once she gets a little older, she'll understand that her daddy can't be around 24/7.... (Believe me... My brother died 14 months ago, and my Niece who was 8 understood these things a whole lot better than my Nephew who is 5). And once she gets older, Neil will start getting pretty bored too.... It's pretty clear Geddy is NOT ready to call it quits any time soon... I very much doubt Alex is too... Musicians don't just quit one afternoon....

Maybe kinda like the Exit...Stage Left sleeve! :)