R. E. Guitar: 2026

Monday, June 8, 2026

The videos are popping up: Rush and Anika Nilles live

So it has happened. Rush is actually on tour, again.

Ok, sure, I get it. I might even do some - meaning a lot of - filming myself if I were there.

Anika is a fantastic drummer, she has huge shoes to fill, but she's a pro. For the hardcore Rush enthusiast, the "new gal" of course is a huge issue. But let's not forget, she's a top-notch, highly trained musician - and she's a human being. OF COURSE she nails it. lol. What did you expect? Of course all eyes are on her, and that might be a good reason to show some restraint. Yes, we wanna give her all the love and respect, but this can also be a little bit overwhelming for the human soul on the receiving end.

Lots of Rush live videos are popping up on YouTube since yesterday, and, obviously, it's pointless to somehow attempt to channel the flood. But, maybe just as a little reminder of the human being behind the icon, maybe before uploading your Anika Nilles video to the internet, you wanna ask yourself: Does the world really need every last bit and angle of her and her drumkit? Maybe will uploading next year do? So when she goes online, she isn't completely overwhelmed by thousands of HD videos of herself, with millions of comments dissecting her performance, looks, persona? Or something like that.

The same, of course, goes for Ged and The Lerxst. But they had some time to adjust, it didn't happen over basically one live show.

Anyway. Yes, I know. It's pointless. Everybody loves Neil, everybody loves Anika.

I am guilty, too. We want Rush! ;-)

Friday, June 5, 2026

It's a scandal

Guitar master BERTH, who has created hundreds of millions of views for YouTube, reports that YouTube isn't capable of sending him a letter to verify his new address.

It's a scandal. One of the biggest (and fastest) guitar players on YouTube, who has a huge audience, and is very successfully collaborating with other YouTubers, creating even more views on other channels, has moved. Now, when you move house, you basically tell your new home address to let's say your bank, and that's it, you can still access your money.

But not with YouTube. According to BERNTH's report, he has provided his new address to YouTube, but they weren't capable of sending him a letter with a verification code for his YouTube account. He requested a resend, three times, and received nothing.

Now YouTube shut down one of his channels, and he's worried about his main channel with 1.52 million subscribers.

Let that sink in: One of the biggest tech companies in the world isn't capable of properly checking an address and sending a letter. Probably the most fundamental process of any administrative contact with a person. In this case, a user that has provided almost 400 million views for them.

Probably because some sort of AI is handling these kinds of issues. Some stupid bot can't read a certain address - and, bang, you're dead.

Is that it? Is that what we invest our time and passion in? Is that the future we want, with algorithm-driven chats, phones, cars, search engines, etc.? Well, you decide, when you choose your next chat, phone, car, search engine.

Big respect to BERNTH for not forgetting about the huge benefits he got from YouTube. Yes, it's true. We got, and get, a lot from YouTube. One must not forget that it's a tool, not a personal relationship. Which, of course, is the sad part: There seems to be no person behind YouTube, it's just this algorithm that has no responsibility or empathy.

From a human perspective, it's just scandalous that a big company seems to be driving away important members of the community, for the simplest, sometimes most random reasons a human would easily be able to fix in just minutes, maybe seconds.

But then, of course, there are alternatives to YouTube and likes of it. "AI-free" is slowly, but steadily, becoming a sign of quality. It remains to be seen how YouTube, Google, etc. will handle this evolution, and how "AI-free" will keep up.

Anyway, here's BERNTH's video, watch it, it's great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXwGHSPfBp4

www.youtube.com/@Bernthguitar

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

"Grace Under Pressure" reissue, Rush live 1984 - the full performance!

In case you missed it: About two months ago, Rush put their live video "Grace Under Pressure" reissue on YouTube - it's about 40 minutes longer than the original VHS tape release!

It looks like Rush is doing a lot of PR these days, which is no surprise, since they're preparing to go on tour with new drummer Anika Nilles. They popped up the Juno Awards, just had two interviews with Rick Beato, ... Among their advertising actions is also a reissue of their classic "Grace Under Pressure" live audio and video, originally recorded at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, 1984.

Amazingly, the new video isn't just a digitally enhanced version of the original release, or subsequent DVD versions, but contains a lot of "new" content: Where the VHS had only about 60 minutes of footage, which is clearly shorter than a Rush concert is supposed to be, the reissue is more than 100 minutes long, it's the full performance, containing more Rush music!

Needless to say, with a contemporary new Rush release, picture and sound quality is probably the best you can get out of the source material. (Wow, "Witch Hunt" sounds very epic in this one!) But what really stands out are "Subdivisions", "The Body Electric", "Between The Wheels", a couple of other songs, and some proper drumming by Neil Peart we didn't get to see and hear previously.

Great stuff!

Make sure you check out the links below, support Rush on YouTube and elsewhere!

Thanks, Rush! Und herzlichen Glückwunsch, Anika!