Awesome / Rush (Band)

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• From the ending of Book I of "Cygnus X-1": "Sound and fury drown my heart/Every nerve is... TORN APAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART...!" Ladies and gentlemen, the highest note (B♭6) that Geddy Lee ever hit in his career.
• The quick triplet fills that Neil plays on timbales at the start of "Time Stand Still" were inspired by a similar fill in a Genesis song. Later, he worked with the same engineer as that Genesis record and was told that the original fill had been recorded with the tape slowed down.
• Neil's triumphant return from his late '90s Trauma Conga Line. Vapor Trails opens with the song One Little Victory... as Alex stated in Beyond the Lighted Stage, "it was a huge victory!"
• After having his guitars take a backseat to Geddy's keyboards from Signals to Hold Your Fire, many thought Alex Lifeson would be thrown into the background again on Presto. The first 20 seconds of the opener "Show Don't Tell" starts quietly. Then, this happens. Many fans rejoiced and started cheering "Lifeson has returned!"
• The band's 2013 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, after being snubbed every year since first becoming eligible in 1999.
  • At the start of the ceremony, Jann Wenner (publisher of Rolling Stone magazine) read off a list of the year's inductees, with Rush at the very end. He got no farther than "And from Toronto..." before the audience broke into a solid minute of cheers and standing ovations.
  • Comments from Neil in his acceptance speech:
  "We've been saying for years that this really wasn't a big deal. Turns out, it kinda is!"
  "All of the previous inductees in this pantheon of rock are like a constellation of stars in the night sky. Among them, we are one tiny point of light. Shaped like a maple leaf."
  • Neil gave a very well-written, eloquent speech, followed by a more casual but still gracious one from Geddy. Alex did this. While mostly done to be funny (which it was), it was also a very obvious dig at the Hall. He pulls "notes" out of his jacket towards the end, which seems to indicate he was going to make a proper speech, but decided not to do so. After all, the Hall decided they weren't worthy of being inducted for 14 years; why should he feel they were worthy of a real speech?
    • His bandmates had no idea of what he was going to do. Looking closely, one can see Geddy whispering something towards Alex during his "speech". According to Alex, Geddy said "I'm going to fucking kill you!"
    • Geddy also specified in a later interview that Alex did have a speech written out, which was being given to him on the teleprompter. He just ignored it.
    • As to why he didn't use the prepared speech, Alex has said that on the drive to the ceremony he was feeling nervous about being able to give it without getting tongue tied and sounding like he was just saying "blah, blah" or something, which gave him the idea to do just that. During the dinner he decided to go ahead with it, telling only his wife what he was up to.
    • In the comment section of the video linked to in the example, YouTube user tiehut has posted a rough "translation" of Alex's speech, which appears to match his gestures and vocal tones quite well except at the very end, after "and arrive at the ceremony." Alex is known to be both gracious and humble, and has said that like Neil, he'd not thought that being inducted was all that big of a deal, but after learning they had been, he realized it really kind of was. So it doesn't seem likely he'd say something like "We accept this stupid fucking award." It looks more like he's saying he had a speech, but could see himself crying from happiness while trying to give it and didn't want to do that, so he's not going to use it. He thanks the Hall and then profusely thanks the fans.
  "Ladies and Gents, let me tell you a story. After years and years of touring by driving in a bus and flying and sleeping in motels, working hard to create music, we thought that MAYBE we would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Let me say that again. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Oh I really hope we get it! Will you pick us???? NOOOOO! WE DO NOT PICK YOU!!! Why not? We have created more than 10 platinum albums. NOOO! YOU ARE NOT MAINSTREAM ROCK MUSIC!!! Really? REALLY!!!! Well then FUCK YOU! So, after years of years of time passing by, touring, and more flying, out of the blue, we get a phone call Hello? Yes. We are getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Wow! What do you know? So I get dressed up, shower, and shave, and arrive at the ceremony. They pull out the envelope and officially induct us. I cry from happiness. Eh. Whatever. We accept this stupid fucking prize. When all is said and done, all we really care about are our fans. Thank you, fans. We love you."
• For the R40 Tour, the band had a set-list in perfect reverse chronological order of their discography (Starting with Clockwork Angels, ending with the self-titled album). While they played, their road crew moved era appropriate backlines in place (the steampunk set-up of Clockwork Angels, huge Marshall stacks for Moving Pictures, etc). How did they close the show? Amps propped on desk chairs and a disco ball while they played their earliest songs, mimicking the high school dances the band started out at 40 years ago.
  • Geddy gets extra points for the huge selection of basses he brought on the R40 tour, from vintage limited-edition Fenders to pawn shop wonders.
• Outside of the band, Geddy performing "Roundabout" with Yes during their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Fans were sad that longtime Yes bassist Chris Squire died from leukemia before he could see the band inducted, but they universally agreed Geddy was the perfect choice to play in his stead.
• Randy Johnson (a.k.a. "The Big Unit"), a retired professional baseball pitcher, is a fan of rock music in general and Rush in particular. At a ceremony to retire his jersey number in 2015, the Arizona Diamondbacks presented him with a replica of the drum kit Neil used during the R30 tour. He even tried it out on the spot.
• Geddy and Alex re-uniting for the second Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in Los Angeles, playing with a trio of great replacement drummers: Dave Grohl for "2112", Chad Smith for "Working Man", and Danny Carey for "YYZ". Somewhere, both Neil and Taylor are proud.

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