I'm in Hershey amid some Bears' hard-rockers for the Rush concert in Hershey Stadium tonight. I've had good sport with DC Sports Chick the past 24 hours, whose Canuck husband wanted to name their first child Geddy (irrespective of gender) but who herself would prefer a life free of any more Spirit of the Radio. When I learned yesterday that the band would be making their first television appearance in more than 30 years Wednesday night, on The Colbert Report, I made sure she knew right away [Colbert: "The band Rush is here tonight . . . either that or a drum factory exploded in my studio . . . They are the J.D. Salinger of Canadian pro rock."] Then later yesterday the band turned up as one of Yahoo's most popular search topics. (I informed her of that as well.)

Still later yesterday I found this on YouTube: a 9-year-old gallantly attempting to play Rush's shimmering new acoustic track 'Hope' at a music recital. I suggested to my music-challenged bloggermate that if under-10 youths were finding inspiration still in these Great White North geezers' tuneage, that that suggested some level of cultural currency and relevancy. When you consider how small this 9-year-old's hands are, and the relative weakness of his fingers, the recital result is rather stunning -- certainly he captures the track's basic melody :

Master Lifeson performs the adult version of 'Hope' live here: