The Record Junkies RUSH "R50 Tour" Review!

John Ross Bowie and Brendan Smith, aka THE RECORD JUNKIES, share their thoughts on the epic RUSH "R50 Tour" shows at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Hello, it is your friend John Ross Bowie. And it's your friend Brendan Smith. It's rush week here in Los Angeles. They have just finished four shows. At the not the Great Western Kia uh Forum anymore. It's the Kia Forum. It's not the Great Western Forum, it's the Kia Forum. They've just finished four shows at the Kia Forum in Englewood. And as you've seen from social media, they came, they saw, they conquered Los Angeles. So we thought we would do a quick rush pop-up, not just because I went three times this week, but because Mr. John Russ Bowie, well, he got to see Rush for the first time. First time ever. First time ever.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

And that's on me. I'm I'm I uh I really should have started earlier.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

John, given your punk rock bona fetus and your time in New York City, it is you know, I'm not surprised that they passed you by or weren't in your uh search window when you were going to Tower Records.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

No, they they they weren't. Um I'm gonna yield the floor to you. Uh we'll get to my hesitation uh later, but um as someone who really thought that like 2015 was gonna be the last time you saw Rush, here we are 11 years later, and you got to see them. What how did it compare to Rush 1.0? Mm-hmm uh how or actually 2.0 because I'm gonna give credit to the first drummer, John. Mm-hmm. Sure. Which is very generous of me. Most fans would have actually gone past that, but I thought, you know, what uh we're gonna be, you know, really comprehensive. Tell me what it was like having these guys back in your concert going life.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Okay, well, there's so many levels to what is going on in Rush World right now, yeah. And also why these shows were so hyper successful. Yes, the loss of Neil Peart was a huge deal to Rush World, and they are one of the rare bands out there that they they do not do substitution, it's them. They've been together for a long time. Yes, there was John Rutzi on the first record, but as soon as Neil joined the band, it became Rush. He was their primary lyricist. And we had four or five decades of Rush conquering America, playing hockey arenas year in and year out. Um on the last tour, the R40 tour, um, the 40th anniversary tour, it was known that Neil was hurting. And it was known that Neil was basically saying to the guys, like, I don't think I can do these big tours anymore. So there was concern among the fans that maybe that would come to an end, but then not long thereafter, he moved on to the next chapter. And that really left rush people in kind of uh a state of not panic, but just worry and wonder about what would come next.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

And actually it disappointed me because I'd always been a casual fan, even though, as you said, I'm I I I grew up very much in punk rock and it didn't really have a prog phase. But when Neil died, I was like, oh man, I really blew it. I this is this is Lemmy all over again. I blew a chance to see a allegedly great live act. Yeah, and I'm I'm now never gonna have a chance again. I cut you off. I'm sorry, carry on.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

No, no, no, you didn't at all. That was a great point. And so I was there at the final show, the last show they ever played with Neil was at the forum on the R40 tour. And I think fans knew that we don't know what's gonna be we don't know what they're gonna do moving forward. A lot of people thought in Rush World that they would play like four shows in LA, four shows in Toronto, four shows in New York, and call that a thing. But when Neil passed, nobody knew what was gonna happen. People were hoping for years that there would be some sort of Neil tribute show, but then it was announced that they were gonna do this tour, and they weren't gonna do the tour with someone like Chad Smith from the Chili Peppers or Danny Carey from Toole or all the different, you know, Mike Portnoy from uh uh Dream Theater. I feel like Taylor Hawkins was on a list for a while.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

That might have been a myth.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Absolutely. Well, because they were because the Foo Fighters in Rush are linked, um, because Taylor and Dave are such giant Rush fans, right? As most musicians in their genre of their age, right? So when they announced that they were going to do this tour and do this tour with German lady drummer Annika Niles, there wasn't pushback. There was just like, okay, wow, wait, what are they doing? Now, look, Rush World is largely dude, largely, you know, it's it's not Silver Lake, it's not Mar-a-Lago, it's somewhere in between. It's sort of like a delicately put. It's sort of an Ayn Randy kind of a neighborhood where all the grips live. Um, I'm trying to figure out how to, you know, oh my god, capture the rush crowd, which includes scientists and um, people who are scientists on TV and lawyers, and it's just it's a different kind of crowd.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

So I think that there was trepidation that you know there would be a little bit of grumbling, as there a lot of times is in Dude World, with having a female drummer. So for me, first night as a guest of Amy Mann, shout out to my friend Amy Mann. We'll talk about her in a little bit. You know, I was waiting to see what the crowd reaction was going to be. I was there at the first Judas Priest show when Rob Halford came back to the band after announcing that he'd been a gay man. He came back to Judas Priest, and their first show was at Ozfest in San Bernardino. That day I remember thinking, like, oh boy, if this goes sideways and he gets booed, this is the crowd to do it. Because the Osfest crowd in San Bernardino, that's a crowd that could conquer a small uh country easily.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

San Bernardino is uh a relatively right-wing enclave to the uh uh the east of uh Los Angeles County.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Yes, but also Osfest attracts a rough, rough and tough crowd. Yeah, when that crowd went crazy for Rob when he hit the stage, I breathed a sigh of relief. Sure. And then I watched in awe as all of these crazies worshipped their god at his altar, and it was phenomenal. So when Rush came out and they played Xanadu from start to finish at the beginning of the show, which lets you know they're not fucking around tonight, and I heard the crowd pop for her when she nailed the first drum film. I knew we were okay, and then I saw Getty and Alex's reaction to what was happening, and they knew that things were gonna be okay. And for the rest of that night, on the first show, the crowd went bonkers every time she nailed a historic Neil drum roll, a drum fill, a drum part. She plays in her own style, but she knew exactly what to do to give the crowd exactly what they wanted, and they were so with her all the time. So for me, that's the big headline of the week. Rush nerds love Annika. Period, full stop. As we're recording this, the group just posted on Instagram, and they basically posted, you know, a thank you to the fans for embracing her and uh their keyboard player, Lauren Gold, uh, as they did so profoundly. And that is super cool. Then for me personally, um uh my friend Amy, friend of the show, as you would say in radio world, she came on the record, junkies. Um, I knew a couple weeks ago that she was gonna sing the song Time Stand Still with them. Um, they reached out to her directly via email. Getty sent her an email, and it was supposed to be a one-off thing just last Sunday. It went so well, and the nerds reacted so well that they asked her to do it for the rest of the week. And so it was super awesome to see her um get to do that every night. It was super awesome to see the crowd pop in the way that they did for her once they they didn't introduce her. Um, they play a Neil uh paired tribute video, and then the lights go up, and she's already standing on stage, and they launch right into time stand still. As soon as the song is over, Getty says, Any man, ladies and gentlemen. So it's interesting because people realized that it was her when the chorus happened, uh, where she chimes in on that song, and that was just awesome. And I got to sit in three different places through the week, and it was great to see the different sort of um angles of reaction to her. So that was awesome. I got to hang with her a little bit uh backstage last night after the last show, um, and she was super happy and they treated her really well. She loves Getty and Alex. She said that they were just awesome to her. I don't think I'm betraying her by saying this. Uh, so that was just a huge thrill for me, and she fully set me up with incredible tickets uh last Sunday. So I'm the luckiest guy I got to see. You were there to experience the moving pictures from start to finish, which I'd love to hear about. Um, last night they played a farewell to Kings, which is Rush Nerd City, and it was awesome. Um, it's just um I've not heard the forum that loud either in a long, long, long time. I'm not sure if I've ever heard a reaction because the the crowd was so happy that they were back and so happy that they sounded great. And the last thing that I will say, because I've been seeing Rush since 1981. Wow. So I've seen some tours in the latter years where Getty's voice was starting to change. I think the time off has helped him because he has not sounded better in many tours.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Everyone is saying that. Everyone is saying that notes that they thought were gone were back. And there was one, I wish I could remember what it was. There was one song, maybe it was Tom Sawyer, where he he went down where he usually goes up, but most of the time I just sat there astonished at this man who is how old? 70 odd hitting these these incredibly high notes um and holding them in cases and just sounding clean and strong, and there was no strain. Um, and you know, obviously Rush is gonna come out with a really good mix, you know, like that sound check must have been meticulous. So it sounded really good in that room. Yeah. Um, and because sometimes those older buildings, you know, if if things get a little too loud, it can get kind of bouncy and distorted. That was not the case tonight. Um, or the night I I saw, which was night three of the four.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Yeah, he he when they did fair farewell to Kings is peak high voice era Getty. Yeah, yeah. And he nailed it, and people went crazy because he nailed it too. Like, there was recognition that, like, holy shit, Getty has this voice back. And I think that the time off helped his vocal cords. The other thing I'll say, then I'm gonna give you the floor because I want to hear your experience. I have never seen Getty Lee play with this much joy and enthusiasm ever. It's not a knock against Neil. I think that there was a certain way they did things when Neil was in the band. I think that they built some things around his personality. You know, they they were not a jam band in that their set list for every tour was one set list. Oh, really? I don't think I realized that. They do not change up songs, they do not change up.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

The fact that we had four pretty different set lists is is really striking. I don't think I realized that. Okay. Mind blowing. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Mind blowing. And also moving songs around on different nights. Like they played 2112 uh almost every night, but moved it around. Um, that was really wild to see. Um, they played some songs from Moving Pictures on other nights and put them in the first set rather than the second set that you got to see where they played moving pictures from start to finish. They'd not played Farewell to Kings in forever. They basically rehearsed 40 songs for these shows.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

And I think the 40 rush songs is the thing. Those are four, it's like some of those songs run afoul of the 10-minute mark.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

It is remarkable to think of like because like the Ramones did 40 songs every night, you know, and that but I to think of Rush getting out there and and knowing that you had to have the intricacies of farewell to kings down, but you weren't necessarily going to play it is mind-blowing. Again, yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

Well, some of those songs are five songs in one song.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

Yes, they're they're they're uh they're sweets rather than individual songs, yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

So the to see the joy, I mean, Alex is always happy. Alex has always been happy. He's always joking with people in the front rows and doing bits and pretending to get high and doing Alex life and stuff. I have never seen Getty this joyous and enthusiastic, and I think that everyone felt the joy that he was feeling being on stage again. I think everyone felt the joy he was feeling playing with a new player after playing with Neil since 1974 or five. Right, I mean five, yeah. Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, and it working. And um that was those were the big takeaways for me. So the floor is yours. I want to hear about your uh experience because we got to hang out a little bit. We were there on the Thursday night show.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

So I I want to um speak to what you just said about the the joy coming off of Getty. Um uh, and for that matter, Annika, who looked like she was having a grand old time up there. Yeah, yeah. Um I you're right. I did not, they were not in my search window as a kid. Um, I feel like I gotta shout out a guy named Ken Diorio with whom I went to high school. Ken Diorio turned me on to uh uh we were in uh uh an acoustic guitar class elective in high school. You know, somehow the somehow the school managed to have 35 guitars, and we were all like learning as tears go by or whatever. I was noodling around on it one time and I came across this great bass line, and he goes, Oh, that's spirit of the radio. I was going, it is? What's spirit of the radio? And that's how I heard about rush because I I came across the bum bum bum bum kind of thing. And obviously without any of the uh the flourishes that uh Gary Lee Weinrip brings to the song. So we played me some rush, and I was like, oh, I kind of like this. This is catchy in a way that yes, and Emerson Lake and Palmer aren't. But the other key thing I like about Rush, despite the objectivist lyrics, despite the fact that, you know, some songs are not songs, they are suites in five movements, is there is a there's some sort of sense of humor. You know what it is? It's the same thing I like. I'm gonna say this about Rush. Rush have a quality that British actors have, which is they take the work very seriously, they don't take themselves very seriously. And almost every British actor I've worked with has this quality where like they are good, they show up and they bring the motherfucking ruckus, but they also will, as they say, take the piss a little bit in between takes, and uh they will relax. That's why Daniel Day Lewis is such an outlier, because all the British people are like, what the fuck is this guy doing? Why does he have to stay in character all the time? We're just going, we're going out for a pint. There is something about Rush that makes me think of the great British actors who have a good sense of humor, do the work very well, are technically very proficient, are great at dialects, you know, uh, and and I find that incredibly endearing. Chalk it up to them still being a distant member of the British Commonwealth. So that I think is what distinguishes Rush. That and like a real gift for a melodic hook and understanding, despite those five movement songs, that a hook is a hook and that's important.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Well, you got to see, you know, Rush has always used little interstitial films and intro films in many, many, many of their tours.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

And I was familiar with that actually, because I've seen live uh live uh videos of them, not like concert, like people on their phones, I mean like actual pro-shot videos where they include the little intro video. And I know that they Getty dresses up as a Scotsman and they do all sorts of weird little bits, and there's in jokes and all sorts of stuff. So I was prepared for that. This one is particularly endearing and star-studded. Um, loved the uh I I don't I think it's probably been leaked by now, but the Jason Siegel, Paul Rudd, I love you, man, callback is exceptionally well placed um and very, very endearing. Um and it's interesting that they go from what is essentially a high production sketch into the decidedly not particularly funny Xanadu. Nope. Based on, and this is by the way, that's uh that's two bands we've discussed extensively who uh do work based on a Coleridge poem. Uh, because I'm gonna give it up for Iron Maiden's uh rhyme of the ancient mariner. And I'm about Brendan, you picked me for a reason. I'm here for a reason, Brendan. Laugh all you want, but this is how I add value. And of course, Rush paying tribute to uh uh uh in Xanadu, did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree?

SPEAKER_00 19:34

To stand within the pleasure dome, decreed by Kubla Khan.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Q, the applause break from the audience who were super psyched to hear that. Um so yeah, so that was so that's my my basic stance on rush in general. Always like them when when Neil died, I thought, shit, I really blown it this time. I'm never gonna get to see them live. And then the tickets this time were so prohibitively expensive that I was like, uh, I don't know. But I went down at uh the behest of our friend, uh our mutual friend Simon. I I took his suggestion, went down to the parking lot, waited to the last minute, went on the secondary market, and got a very, very reasonable ticket on the floor, 20 rows back from the stage. Um, really, uh, really, really enjoyed myself. The guy next to me did the same thing. Oh. Also got a last-minute ticket. We maybe bought it from the same guy. He was in town to pick up his daughter from UCLA. His daughter was like, It's my last night in town, I want to go out with my friends. And her dad went, That's fine. I'm gonna find something to do. And he took his ass to see Rush. And I was like, Yes, go ahead, dad. Go ahead. He said something really beautiful, though. While we were talking at the break, um, he said something really kind of interesting um that I that really kind of struck with me. He reminded me of the various tragedies Neil Purt had in the earlier part of this century of losing his daughter in a car wreck and his wife, ostensibly of a broken heart. He really Neil insisted that yes, there might have been some substances involved, but really it was just the loss of the daughter's daughter that just broke his wife, and they both passed. And he the guy next to me, whose name I really should have gotten, found something very lovely and fitting in the fact that Neil's parts were being played by a woman.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Oh, that's wow. That I have not heard that take. I like it.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Um that's so interesting because you know sort of an homage to the losses that that Neil felt in his life.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

There were people that also thought that, like though that event, which also almost ended the band back then in the late 90s. Um they were off for a while just giving Neil time to heal. And a lot of people felt that he came out the other side, uh, a softer version of himself, you know, that sort of objectivist side of Neil that he he very much was. He was very Public about it. The people in that world knew that he was a devotee. And I think that that life event sort of softened him a little bit about that. You know, he took that fate, he took the famous motorcycle ride on his BMW motorcycle all the way down to the tip of South America to heel. Um and and came back, and and the band never missed a beat either. Um you know, so many of those tours were just phenomenal tours, but the specialness of this tour, um, I think that the fans will continue to talk about, and it's just getting started.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

I know, and it it's much more expansive than we thought it was going to be. Initially, it was just gonna be a few, it was gonna be like four here, four there, yeah, and you know, and that was it. But I looked at the back of a t-shirt and I don't think I fully realized how extensive this tour is gonna be, and they're going uh overseas next year, yeah. Um, if all goes as planned. So the other thing I enjoyed, so there's something interesting about Rush musically. I I as you've said, I'm I'm you know, I I I'm a big punk guy, and and as such, I don't necessarily respond to technical proficiency or even expertise. I'm impressed, but I'm rarely moved. But I think you kind of have to just sort of adjust your brain a little bit and realize that no, there's something about guys at the top of their game enjoying themselves who have spent, you know, 30,000 hours perfecting their instruments and the playing thereof that is incredibly fun to watch. Uh, it made me want to play music, but it also made me want to never play music again, because what kind of a pretender am I? Um that but there is something kind of steeped in the European classical tradition of these guys that is a little less bluesy and a little more, you know, Vivaldi uh or or or Bach in the way they they structure their songs. And even their quote unquote shorter songs will have you know more parts than you would expect. Like there's a bridge, sure, but there's also a coda, there's a few different other things going on. Um, and then we got to hear on my net, we got to hear a chunk of 2112. We didn't get to hear the whole the whole little operetta, we got to hear three of the movements, I think. Um but it was just really interesting to watch them like meticulously go through these parts replete with, you know, some uh some pyros, some lasers, all this other stuff, and then also have that counterpointed with the relatively accessible songs on um moving pictures. As you pointed out, we heard the entire album that night. I have always loved the song Time Stand Still. I mean, I I love Amy's work. I am a Till Tuesday fan, I I love her solo work. When she came out, even at the time, I remember thinking like, wow, that's an interesting collaboration. Um, but I really um I really got a lot out of it. It was I I just enjoyed that that song uh a lot. I thought the version that they did that night sounded great. Um I love that they just played and she walked out. And by that point, by the third show, the word was out that Amy Mann's been showing up. So the place just kind of went nuts with like a sort of a satisfied expectation rather than a surprise. Yeah, right. Um 100%. Uh we texted a little bit during the show with Brian Posse, who was there my night and was there for a couple of the other shows. He was over the moon to hear all of Moving Pictures, which was actually the album I pre-gamed with on my way down that night. Um and that was just lucky. That was just, you know, uh the the stars aligning for me. Um, but yeah, I I it was a it was a stupendous show, and I get it, you know. I just really got rush in a way I never have before. Again, as I say, have always enjoyed them, but there I saw something really special in the craftsmanship and the work ethic, the working man that I saw, the working men and women that I saw up there. And uh uh I'll add one last thing. Um I saw a video recently that talked about Alex Lifeson being underrated, and I guess when you're that good, but you're in a band with Getty Lee and Neil Pert and now Annika Niles, it's easy to look a little underrated, but the I was pretty close, and they also, you know, the video uh a video uh component to a show like Rush is gonna spend a lot of time on the fingerboards. You're gonna see a lot of fret work. Yeah. A lot of close-ups on the frets, more than you would at other shows that have a video component. And there's amazing stuff going on with harmonics and unusual chords, and he's he's doing a lot of really interesting work and doing it very quickly. And uh it was very inspiring to watch and to see them enjoying each other. Would have liked to have heard Fly by Night. Did they do it at all?

SPEAKER_00 27:18

They did not do that song, they played Anthem from that album. Okay, which is yes, Ayn Rand fans, it's Anthem. Yeah. Anthem of the Heart and Anthem of the Mind, a funeral dirge for Eyes Gone Blind. Uh, and they played The Trees also last night, which is another very randy tale. Yep. Of Maples being mad at Oaks because they're they're too greedy and they're grabbing up all the light.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

Well, 2112 talks a lot about how we don't want to scare off the averages.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Yeah, it's you know, it it's so interesting. You got to see the full range of rush, modern day rush and old school rush, you know, from working man until stuff from Clockwork Angels. Like this, these shows they've done it all. Very comprehensive. You know, the original Rush in their DNA is of course Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel era Genesis, yes, Jethro Tall. Like that was the original DNA.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

But I like all I like Rush more than every single band you've just mentioned.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Right. But they but they're kind of an amalgamation, and then but even later years, they were very uh upfront and honest about how they were inspired by new music at the end of the 70s and the early 80s. Like they loved the police, they loved Ultravox. So they that's where those 80s records started to get a little bit more experimental and you and the use of keyboards and and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

We got subdivisions on Mind Knight, which is very synthy and really and and very the the the live version not so much, the studio version could only have been recorded within a two-year span. Like you've listened to that record, like that's early 80s. Oh boy, is that early 80s? And I don't mind that at all. I'm a child of that era, but that is syntastic.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

As was Red Sector A from Grace Under Pressure, which they also played. Um early Disney warning, they also played this week. Um you got a little bit of I'm just so happy. I'm so happy that we were there when Pustain was there. Um we had Brian Pustain on Rocktail. Um and we went out to dinner afterwards with our friend. I'm gonna give a shout-out to some people right now. We had dinner with our friend David Falcano from the company Fantoons. Uh, and they've done a lot of work with Rush, and they did the animation for the song Working Man. So we're sitting there with Brian, with David, Richard Sheltinga, who everybody knows. Um, and three people came out of uh Batola and they came to say hi to David, and I literally said, Is there a rush connection here? And it was Getty's brother Alec, Alan, Getty's brother Alan Weinrib, who does you know, who directs all their videos and basically does so much for the band. Oh wow. So cut to me and Richard getting to go to the final night, courtesy of Alan. So I want to give a shout out to David Calcano from Fantoons, Alan, of course, Alan Weinrib from Rush, the Rush Camp. Thank you so so much. Richard Sheltinga also took me on Thursday. He'd never seen what rush he wanted to go.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

Um that's weird. I I don't I didn't uh talk about that. I didn't realize we were both uh Rush virgins that evening. I spoke to Richard briefly that night. Yeah um that's cool. Uh great.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

So I'm just so grateful to those guys, and of course, I'm grateful to Amy for including me. She um, you know, unsolicited, knew I had to be there on that opening night. So I'm just so grateful to everybody because you know, I'm the luckiest fucking boy in the world.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

And I'm so grateful that you uh that you were able you've opened my eyes to so much deep cut rush and opened my eyes, ears, and yes, heart. Um by you know, talking about them on record junkies and just in our in our day-to-day conversations. Um uh it was really inspiring for me to to uh to sort of take your lead and and and go and enjoy this show. Um uh still kind of pricey, but I rarely regret spending money on experiences. I regret spending money on stuff. Yeah. Pants that don't always fit, a guitar I don't need, but experiences, experiences are what we should be spending our money on, and uh I am grateful for that experience.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

And you got to experience something that is wholly unique. Um and it's part of the reason the uniqueness of this event is part of the reason that the Rushners are freaking out so much. Uh and you're it's uh the just the explosion of enthusiasm for the band and the anticipation of them coming to new cities now. I mean, it's a it's a spot really awesome to watch because they deserve their due. They really never got it. You know, they got into the rock and roll hall of fame, but you know, they were never a media darling at all. Journalists couldn't stand them. It was historic in the way that journalists hated Rush. They were not Rolling Stone rarely covered them. Um, they were rarely on national television. Remember, it took until Stephen Colbert's version of the Daily Show for them to, or not the Daily Show. Colbert report. The Colbert Report to be on TV for the first time in America in a long time. Um Wow, yeah. You know, they don't they didn't get away from the remote.

SPEAKER_02 32:41

I remember seeing like I guess Friday night videos, I would have seen Time Stand Still.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Right. But they weren't they weren't. I mean, you know, I will say this in the very early days of of MTV before Billy Jean sort of changed everything, they did play a they did play a lot of rush videos in the early days, especially the video that they shot for the uh Exit Stage Left album. Uh that was the Moving Pictures Tour. So they would play the live cuts of Tom Sawyer, uh Limelights, and Red Barchetta. Oh, yeah. Um, and they played subdivisions, but they Red Barchetta's sweet. That's an unexpectedly sweet song, isn't it? Yes, absolutely. And it's awesome and it sounded fantastic the other night. Um, but you know, they were just never did you know, Russia existed on the love and the devotion of its fans, yeah, which they cultivated by touring constantly. Um and I'm just so happy they're back, and I'm so happy that I got to go and experience it with uh a bunch of my friends. And um, you know, thank you. I'm so glad you got to go.

SPEAKER_02 33:52

You know, everyone needs uh look, as I said, you have helped me change my perspective, and it makes me realize that I think everyone needs a reverse polarity. Everybody's got to deviate from the norm. I really, I really do I really do believe that, and I I I thank you for for that uh inspiration. Um it feels like this uh this train is pulling into the very comfortable, polite Toronto station.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

Um we're gonna pull the red barcena back into the uncle's barn. I'm sorry, that's much better. Yours is better.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

Yeah. You know, it actually, if you want to cut mine, I won't blame you.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

No, no, no. Yours is much, much better.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

No, no, no, no, no. No. I just know all the little can we just say I want to tell people that John did text me and Brian Pussain wanting to know some of the nerd Easter eggs in all the films that they play, because it's pretty heavy.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

They're they're pretty heavy. Oh, I forgot to mention this. Um, and uh Brian Possain might have mentioned this on Rock Tales. I want to make sure it gets mentioned here. So just a week and a half ago, Brian and I were in Toronto to promote the show we're working on, Stuart Fails to Save the World. And we fly into YYZ, and they are there are cars waiting for us because God bless HBO, they really think this show is gonna work. They're really excited about it. There's cars waiting for us, and we three of us get onto the uh the sidewalk and we can't find Brian. And Kevin goes, Kevin Sussman, uh the the titular steward, goes, Oh, uh, Brian stopped behind us. There's a rush-themed bar he had to go to. And I'm like, There's cars waiting. Yeah, he said he'd catch up with us. And I was like, okay, well, uh, there we go. And uh, he was only a few minutes after us, but when he showed up at the hotel, he had this brand new shiny rush water bottle that he bought at the airport, and um, it was just so delightful. Now the red barchetta can go into the barn.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

Until the next time, cats and kittens.