As a great bonus, Colbert actually interviewed the band and the banter was hilarious. After talking about who the band's influences were, and noting that they are known for writing long songs, he asked the band, "Have you ever written a song so epic that by the end of the song you were actually being influenced by yourself in the beginning of the song?" Classic.
The show director (and main Rush fan on the show) asked if they could sign his host, so all three signed Stephen's hand. Then Neil says, "I better not see that on eBay." Colbert noted that the band isn't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yet and asked, "Have you considered titling your next album 'That's Bullshit'?"
Then they broke into Tom Sawyer. Wow - very interesting to hear Rush in a studio setting. The drums sounded really bad and there was little processing on the vocals or anything else for that matter. Having heard Tom Sawyer a billion times live and on live CDs, it was actually refreshing to hear this super raw rendition. I bet it was louder than all hell in the studio!
The only bummer is that they had to cut to a commercial right after Neil's epic drum fills at the end of the guitar solo. Very very big buzz kill. Seems like that could have been planned better but they weaved it into kind of a joke, so when the commercials were over, Rush were still playing and Colbert basically fell asleep at his desk while the credits rolled.
The whole thing was light hearted and it was very cool to see. Between that and the Rolling Stone article, it's nice to see Rush hitting the mainstream a bit. They deserve the props.
One of the things Colbert said in his intro is that Rush has the fourth highest number of gold records of any band. I did not know that, and that is highly awesome.
You can watch the segment here:
