Alex Lifeson And Rick Mercer’s ‘Man Date’
— October 29, 2009 1 98Popular Canadian comedian Rick Mercer recently took Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson on one of his infamous “man dates” for his CBC television program, The Rick Mercer Report.
The highlight of Mercer and Lifeson’s date was a visit to an indoor skydiving facility which actually looked like a lot of fun, but may be a bit tricky to master if Mercer and Lifeson’s experience was any indication.
In typical Rush form, Lifeson seems a bit reluctant to toot his own horn when Mercer asks him what it feels like to be one of the best guitarists in the world. “Oh, don’t ask me,” Lifeson responds.
Towards the end of the segment, they visit the bar that Lifeson co-owns. Called The Orbit Room, a Toronto watering hole that offers patrons live music nightly. Lifeson and his partner Tim Notter have been running the place for about fifteen years.
Despite the respect he has earned for decades of performing with Rush, Lifeson still does not get high marks for his attempts to play along with one of Rush’s songs on what appears to be the popular music video game, “Rock Band.” Lifeson appears to be making a genuine attempt to play well, and is clearly in synch with the guitar parts but still falls somewhere short of a satisfactory performance, according to the feedback from the game.
Rush fans will likely remember a similar experience that the entire group had while making an appearance on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report during the summer of 2008.
Obviously, there’s no compelling reason for Alex Lifeson to spend time learning how to play “Rock Band,” but he and Mercer seem to enjoy their time together. I do wish, however, that he would have indulged himself a bit and actually smashed the guitar at the end of the game. It might have made for some good TV and the game could easily be replaced, considering that he happens to be a member of one of the best-selling rock groups of all time.
Check out the segment at the CBC site.
1 Comment
Never heard of Rick Mercer before but sounds like an interesting show. Yep, Alex seems very humble. I remember seeing them on Stephen Colbert!!
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