E101 A RUSH Presale Queue, a Plastic Surgeon, and a Backwards Guitar

A rush of tour news collides with ticket chaos, memories from Nassau in ’82, and why certain songs outlast the charts. We dig into supergroups, The Jam’s perfect demo, UK vs US tastes, and the small human moments that keep music personal.

• Rush 2026 reunion dates and presale chaos
• First Rush show memories at Nassau Coliseum
• The Jam’s Sound Affects and demo vs studio
• UK vs US charts and what sticks
• Motorhead, Simple Minds, Arcadia highlights
• Thunderstruck’s long fuse and video camera angle
• Smashing Pumpkins tour stories and Garbage opener

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Transcript

Welcome And Rush Reunion Frenzy

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Hey everybody, this is Jim Boge, and you're listening to Music in My Shoes. That was Vic Thrill kicking off episode 101. That's 101 episodes, not to be confused with 101 Dalmatians. As always, I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. So, Jimmy, I don't know if you heard, but Rush is coming on tour. They're reuniting in 2026, and they are going to be playing seven cities in North America.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

All of those in Canada?

SPEAKER_03 1:10

No, not all, but close, close. Cleveland's one of them, so that's pretty close to Canada. They're doing Los Angeles, they're doing New York, Cleveland, Toronto. I don't remember, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Chicago, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Yeah, Chicago's one of them. So they're doing, they announced that they're going to do two shows in New York and two shows in most of the cities. And you can sign up, you know, for the pre-sale. And, you know, I get signed up, and two days later, it's like, oh, overwhelming demand. We're going to add two more shows to New York. Not just New York, you know, other cities as well. And I guess it's because how many people signed up for the pre-sale? Well, my brother has a credit card that is like a preferred credit card. So you can actually buy tickets a day before the artist presale.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:09

And my brother goes on and he's like 269,000 people ahead of him. Oh. And I'm saying to myself, not that many people could possibly have this credit card and want to be going to see Rush. Like it's uh to me, it's almost impossible.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

What do you think? Aaron Ross Powell I don't know. I mean, I think a lot of Rush fans are older and probably have credit cards and whatnot.

SPEAKER_03 2:39

So yeah, but it's this specific one. You have to have this brand of credit card to get on. And they sponsor a lot of concerts. My brother was able to get tickets, you know, usually a day before a lot of these pre-sales because of this particular card. I think it might be the reason that he actually has it. So he's kind of texting me. So it's like 269,000, like 10 minutes later, hey, it went down. I'm at 247,000 people ahead of me.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

I mean, how how many people does the arena hold? 20,000? Yeah. You know, but it's four nights. Fourteen nights.

SPEAKER_03 3:16

Yeah. And it was insane. But finally he got through. He waited the whole thing. It was probably 45 minutes before he got in, you know, to the spot. And you know, the ticket prices were a little outrageous at that point. So he went on an aftermarket and found tickets, like all the prices were high, except this one group of four tickets. Pretty good seats on the second level. Like, you know, you're not behind the stage. It's pretty good. It's pretty close. And they're really much cheaper than every other ticket. And me, I'm always like, yeah, there's got to be something about it, you know? And so he starts to do it, and sure enough, it's verified, it's this, and he bought them and got the confirmation, and you know, everything's protected. I can't believe we got tickets.

New Drummer And Filling Out The Sound

SPEAKER_01 4:15

They probably just popped up when he saw them. You know, he was like the first person to see those. Somebody bought extras, realized, oh, we got plans that weekend or whatever, and then they just put them up for face value or whatever plus fees. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 4:28

And we got them on July 28th, 2026. I will be at Madison Square Garden to see Rush.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

All right.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

And they have a new drummer, obviously. But they have a female drummer, and and I don't remember what her name is. I I don't know anything about her, but from what I've heard is that we're really going to s be surprised to see her play. And they're also talking about adding another musician or two on stage. You know, when bands get a little bit older, they tend to, you know, fill out the sound by adding some additional people.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Right.

Early Rush Memories At Nassau

SPEAKER_03 4:59

So I'm kind of looking forward to seeing what it's all about. Uh first time I saw Rush was December 1982 at the Nassau Coliseum. And I just thought it was super cool. They had a like a big uh movie screen behind them, and at one point as they're playing a song, like the space shuttle is getting ready to take off, and to see it on such a big screen, it was just, you know, wow, this is cool. And then I saw them in 2007, uh, Jones Beach up in New York also. I just was happening to be in New York at the time they were playing. And so it was 25 years after the first time I saw them, and I saw them, and it was a good show, and that's 2007. So now it's gonna be 19 years later when I go see them again.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

And so are you gonna go see them in like 2051 again?

SPEAKER_03 5:53

Uh I might. They might actually you know what? That sounds like a good album for them to release in 2051, you know?

SPEAKER_01 6:00

So see them in 2112.

Black And Blue Tour Nostalgia

SPEAKER_03 6:03

Th there you go. I'm not sure I'll be around at that time. You know what? I'm pretty sure I won't be. But we can hope, but I don't think so. So it reminds me, you know, it said that the Nassau Coliseum, it reminds me of I think it was 1980, and Blue Eyes to Colt and Black Sabbath were touring together. It was called the Black and Blue Tour. And there's actually a live video that came out and it's recorded at the Coliseum, you know. Again, that's you know, right down the street from where I grew up. But the commercial for it was just unbelievable. And I don't remember it exactly how it went, but it was something, you know, like Black Sabbath and blue eyes to go at the Nassau Coliseum.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Yeah, it's like that guy, that voice that they had for those. Yeah. Yeah.

Supergroups And Role Switching

SPEAKER_03 7:03

And it was just like I loved listening to the commercial for it. I just thought it was just so cool. Like, man, how does he do that with his voice? And you know, I I practiced there for a long time. I mean, it's what, 45 years later, and here I'm still talking about it. But you know, I I don't know. But they they made a live album. I again, I don't know if it was a live album. I know it was a live video and it was recorded at the Nassau Coliseum. I don't know. Just something that popped into my mind and just makes me, you know, reminisce about things from from days of old. The black and blue. The black and blue tour, yes. So speaking of tours, um there's a band called Drink the Sea that's going on tour. And Peter Buck of REM, it seems like I mention him quite often. He's in the band, but there's also members of like the Screamin' Trees. Uh I I can't remember everyone who's in it, but they're coming on tour in February 2026. They're in, you know, here they're playing at the 40 watt, you know, they're playing in uh uh New York City, they're playing, you know, a bunch of places. But I think it's kind of cool there's a lot of new bands that have, you know, people from other bands where they've gotten together. And, you know, I talked about the baseball project and and minus five. I know they've been around for a long time, but just, you know, they kind of take members and switch them out, and Peter Buck is b part of both of those bands, and it's just kind of interesting to see how music goes and through time and, you know, how people get together and how they make something work, because you think of of people just one way, but then when they're with a new singer or a different, you know, bass player, all of a sudden they have a whole new style about them. Or sometimes they're really just kind of like a guy in the background. Like they don't have to have that here I am kind of image. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes people have to play a certain role in one band, and maybe they don't want to do that in the next one.

Peter Buck, Surgery, And A Perk

SPEAKER_03 9:16

Yeah. And, you know, again, we talked about the minus five and the baseball project, which I saw a few weeks ago. In the minus five, you have Peter Buck playing bass, and then in the baseball project, Mike Mills then grabs that same bass and plays bass, and Peter now moves the guitar. And it's just, you know, kind of cool. So along those lines, I talked about recently how Peter Buck had commented about my face because I didn't have the beard anymore. We talked about that. Yeah. And I had said to him, you know, had a shave, I had skin cancer, and I'm not trying to draw this out any longer, but uh another quick fun story is a few days after Peter Buck had said, hey, you had a great plastic surgeon, and you know, he had mentioned to another band member, Steve Wynne, look at his face, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. I went for a checkup to my plastic surgeon. He wanted to see how everything was, and I told him the story. And, you know, he's laughing, he's smiling, and you know, he thinks it's great. He has a story he can tell his friends that Peter Buck of REM commented on his work. And so when my visit's over, he says, All right, you know, I won't need to see you anymore. I said, okay, well, usually like the doctor just gets up and walks out of the room, but he didn't. And uh, you know, I get up and I start walking to the front to check out. He's walking with me. And I just found it a little strange because doctors usually don't do that. And we get to the checkout, and he says to the lady, no charge for him today. I didn't have to pay my copay because I had a good Peter Buck story.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

You were a rock star.

Minute With Jimmy: The Jam’s Sound Affects

SPEAKER_03 10:56

I was a rock star that day. I saved a little cash. Hey, I'm not gonna complain. But I thought it was kind of cool because now I have another story to tell about it. Very cool. So it goes. Tick, tick, tick. It's Minute with Jimmy.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

It's time for a minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy. It's time for a minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

So The Jam put out an album in 1980, so that's been uh 45 years ago, called Sound Effects. And one interesting thing about this is you know, sound effects like sounds that you hear in a TV show or movie, those are E F F E C T S, right? This is sound effects with an A. So effect is actually a verb. So they're saying sound affects you, right? So it's like a comment, sound effects. Anyway, that's got some some good songs on it, including Start, which is a little bit like the Beatles Tax Man with the the way that the bass line goes. And uh one of my favorite jam songs, That's Entertainment. Interesting thing about That's Entertainment was the version they released on this album was you know the normal studio version. When they went back to release their greatest hits, they called Snap, they went back to the demo because they said the demo was actually better than the version they released on the album. And they could never recapture that sound. It was just like this one recording they did, and the guitar sounded extra kind of scratchy in a good way, and you know, it just had this tone to it that they didn't get on the full studio recording.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

So, Jimmy, I did have Snap. So I do have um that version of That's Entertainment. That's entertainment, it it's not one of my favorite jam songs. I would say it's in my top 250 songs of all time. Okay. Absolutely love that song. I think it's just really cool. It's just kind of a little bit about life and Yeah, a little slice of life. A little slice of life, kind of the sound effects around you. You know? The regular version, if you listen to it, it has backwards guitar very Beatles-esque later in the song. I mean, it sounds exactly like they stole it from the Beatles.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Aaron Ross Powell's a cool effect. And um that's not there on the demo. So that's one thing about the main studio version that's better. But I think, you know, I agree with Paul Weller and and the jam that the demo version is better, other than that one part of it.

UK Vs US Charts And Motorhead

SPEAKER_03 13:49

Aaron Powell Yeah, the demo version is what I, you know, I recorded on cassette off of album and listened to mostly. But the one thing I really did like about that regular version is, you know, hearing the Beatle influence. I just think that's super cool. And it wasn't that long ago we talked about when there was the supergroup for the uh the help album, the charity benefit, and Paul Weller and Paul McCartney and a bunch of other people did come together. So, you know, one day you're doing a backwards guitar in 1980, and then 1995 you're getting to actually play with Paul McCartney of the Beatles. That's a pretty cool thing. Hey, that was a really good minute with Jimmy. My name was Jimmy. Let's revisit some more music in my shoes. Motorhead, Ace of Spades, the single. It's released October 17th, 1980. It reached number 15 on the UK singles chart.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Oh, I thought you were gonna say U.S. I'm like, no way.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

No, no. And that's the thing, you know, I've mentioned this before. The UK and the US as far as music, it's a just a whole different world. It's a you know, the British listen to music differently than than how we do. I'm not saying it's better. Not saying it's worse.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

I'm saying it's better. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 15:08

It's a it's a different way. They like a song. It doesn't have to be a certain kind of song. It doesn't have to be that only kids like it. It doesn't have to be anything other than a good song. And if it's good, people will make it number 15. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Yeah. I mean, not to go back to the jam, but I'm gonna do that. That, you know, they had lots of hits, like number one hits in England. And I don't even think they scratched the charts. Maybe Town Called Malice got into the top 40 or something in the US, but that was it.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

Aaron Powell Yeah, and that was their last single before they broke up. But very good song. I I do like Town Called Malice. What was that? In um late 82, I would say. So Motorhead, again, number 15, Motorhead Lemmy. Right. I mean, you just you don't even have to say his last name, you just say Lemmy. The only card I need is the Ace of Spades. The Ace of Spades.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Mm-hmm.

Simple Minds And Arcadia Highlights

SPEAKER_03 16:05

Did you know for two years, because he hated playing the song after a while, you know, a lot of bands don't like playing their songs. He's like, this is not, you know, this song doesn't define us. So for a number of years, I think it was about two years, he sang Eight of Spades. Nobody noticed, he said. No, no one had any idea. He was just he was just doing it. But did you know that Lemmy was a roadie for Jimi Hendrix?

SPEAKER_01 16:30

No, wow.

ACDC Thunderstruck And Iconic Video

SPEAKER_03 16:31

Yes, he was. You know, uh Lemmy did a bunch of that stuff when he was younger, and you know, trying to get his way into the whole world of music. And I think he was with the band, what was it, Hawkwind, I think that he played with. Um just uh pretty cool life. And, you know, towards the end of it, he spent a lot of time at the Rainbow Room out there in Los Angeles, and you could find him at the Lemmy seat, you know, he had his own seat at the bar, just drinking, you know, his drink and enjoying life. The Ace of Spades. Or eight. There you go. Simple Minds, alive and kicking, WLIR, Screamer of the Week, the second week of October 1985, reach number three on the Billboard Hot 100, December 28th, 1985. You turn me on, you lift me up, and like the sweetest cup I'd share with you, you lift me up, don't you ever stop, I'm here with you. I like that song a lot. You know, it was probably their first song after Don't You Forget About Me. Right. Alive and Kicking, I I just like it. I could listen to that song over and over and over. It's got a great drum beat, it's got great piano, you know, listen to Jim sing. I I I really like it. Good song. Yeah, real good song. Arcadia, election day, W-L-I-R, Screamer of the Week, third week of October, peaked at number six on Billboard Hot 100, December 1985. So Arcadia was kind of like a um a little splinter group from Duran Duran, Simon LeBon, Nick Rhodes, Roger Taylor, they were all in it. And I like this song, Election Day. I, you know, it's just one of those songs. I can't tell you another song that they did. I know Election Day, but it had that kind of impact. You know, it was a very sultry type of song when they sang it. And earlier in the year, Duran Duran actually had the song A View to a Kill, which was from the James Bond movie.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:47

So if I'm correct, A View to a Kill, Grace Jones was in. In Election Day, she does a spoken word part in the song because they met her through A View to a Kill, because they did video for it and you know, really promoted it. And I I think both the songs are really good. I really enjoy both of them. ACDC, Thunderstruck. You know the song. Everybody knows the song, whether you know it or not. This is one of those songs that at sports events it's played. Right. It's everywhere. People know it. Reach number five on Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay, October 20th, 1990.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Oh, I was gonna guess 95, 90. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 19:36

35 years ago. It's hard to believe sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

You know, the thing about Thunderstruck that's so different than a lot of songs is it doesn't get to the chorus where he says Thunderstruck for like I want to say almost two minutes. Like it's way into the song. It has a long intro and then a really long verse that he they they kind of milk, you know, and then it finally kicks in minute and a half, two minutes into the song.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

Yeah, you know, and it's a kick butt song for sure. I really like that song. Do you remember the video? Because the video is one of the first that I remember. I guess they put like a little camera on the guitar. So as Angus is playing and kind of turning, it's turn like it was a whole different view. At that time, we didn't see that. That wasn't normal. You always had the camera pointing at the person, not right on the guitar as it's moving.

Smashing Pumpkins And Garbage On Tour

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Aaron Powell Well, and you probably couldn't have a small camera like that up until that time. You know, cameras were huge, and the that was probably just small enough that you could put it on the guitar.

SPEAKER_03 20:43

Aaron Ross Powell It worked. I still remember it, you know? And those are the things. I think we remember things because they worked. Or they didn't work, Millie Vanilli. And you know, just that's how we remember different things. But I remember that video only because they had that camera on there. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to tell you anything about it.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

It's like the aha video. Everybody our age remembers that video because it was so cool with the animation, the drawing, and the mirror and everything. Yeah. My kids see that video, they're like, what's the big deal?

SPEAKER_03 21:14

Because nobody had done it before. In 1985, it was a big deal. Yeah. It really was. Smashing Pumpkins Bullet with Butterfly Wings, released October 16, 1995, and peaked January 6, 1996 on the Billboard Hot 100. It peaked at number 22 on January 6, 1996, on the Billboard Hot 100. The World is a Vampire. I think the world can be a vampire at times, and I think this song is really cool. Everything about the song is cool. I think at that time in 1995, you know, it was a good year for music, and you're getting towards the end of it, and it was like a great song to come out. I think that Smashing Pumpkins kind of elevated themselves a little bit from where they were. They released that double album, what was it? Um The Melancholy and Infinite Sadness. I think that's what it was. And 1979 was on there. I mean, there's a ton of songs that were on that album. And it just was really cool. I still really like that song. Like I listened to it and it's like, man, this song could come out today.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

You know, I saw them back on that tour. Um, the sound guy for Smashing Pumpkins was looking to get into the studio business, and he got my name and said, Hey, do you want to go and sit with me in the sound booth and maybe you can introduce me to some people in the studio world? And so I did. But it was kind of fun. I went to the the show at uh the Omni and sat in the sound booth.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

Very cool. Yeah. Who was the opener on that tour? Do you remember? Garbage. They were great. And that was the garbage album, I think, maybe. Yeah, that had come across. And I don't mean the garbage album. That's not how I intended it to come across, but the garbage album.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

That had Stupid Girl and I'm Only Happy When It Rains, and you know, some of their real signature songs.

SPEAKER_03 23:15

I'm Only Happy When It Rains is a great song. I really like that song.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

I saw them on the bricks, I guess it was called, in downtown Atlanta.

SPEAKER_03 23:23

99X used to do a thing.

Audience Engagement And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_01 23:25

And and it rained, and they played that song. Yeah. And they were happy. Were you happy? Not really, but I mean, I was happy that it stopped raining, honestly. Like right around when they started playing it, the the rain broke, or stopped, you know. Do you say the rain broke if it stopped? I don't know. It sounded kind of literary, but anyway, the rain stopped, and a lot of people had gone home, so it was, you know, kind of like we had our own private show. Got up kind of close and it was fun.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

The rain broke. Not my arm, but the rain broke.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Wow. Was that like that's total poetry, Jim?

Credits And Sign Off

SPEAKER_03 24:03

Well, thank you. I've been working on it. Something I put together. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Is that a haiku? Yeah. Hey, watch what you call me. Jimmy, I always enjoyed kind of revisiting the music. You know, I only talk about the music that generally that I liked, that, you know, at some point made some sort of impression on me, and then I remember it for whatever reason. But I'll tell you what I really liked is on the last episode, episode 100, when we had that little, you know, Stones versus The Who and Prince versus Bowie, and you know, a listener had sent that in. And, you know, I've gotten so much feedback at, you know, how much this guy had to put into it and think about, you know, what band against what band and what singer versus what singer. And it's it's cool. I mean, that was Robert, right? That was Robert. I really like when I get the feedback from people and they're talking about that. And, you know, it makes them think, all right, who would I pick? You know, what what would I say? And you know, I like the engagement, you know. So if people out there have anything that, you know, they think might be a cool topic to talk about, please feel free to send it in, which you can do by reaching us at musicinmyshoes at gmail.com. Please like and follow the Music in My Shoes Facebook and Instagram pages. That's it for episode 101 of Music in My Shoes. I'd like to thank Jimmy Guthrie, show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios, located right here in Atlanta, Georgia, and Vic Thrill for our podcast music. This is Jim Boj, and I hope you learned something new or remembered something old. We'll meet again on our next episode. Until then, live life and keep the music playing. And again, it's not 101 Dalmatians.