Chris Thile & ‘Live From Here’ Band Covers Rush: Pro-Shot Video

Live From Here With Chris Thile recorded an episode at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco earlier this month during house band bassist Mike Elizondo’s birthday week. In keeping with tradition, the bassist and band director was able to choose a song to play as part of the show’s “Musician Birthdays” segment. Elizondo picked the Rush classic “YYZ” and pro-shot video of the performance has been shared on the Live From Here YouTube channel.

Rush released the instrumental on their 1981 album, Moving Pictures. “We’re going to take it back to when I was 14-years-old,” Elizondo explained of his selection. “My uncle was a big fan of this power trio from Canada called Rush. So of course, me being the precocious 14-year-old I decided to swing for the fences and I wanted to learn anything [Rush bassist] Geddy Lee could do. So that was my beginning, and what we’re going to play for you today is a song that we Americans call ‘YYZ’ but in Canada it’s called ‘Y Y Zed.'”

The performance of “YYZ” featured Elizondo along with Thile, keyboardist Jeff Babko, guitarist Chris Eldridge and drummer Matt Chamberlain. Watch how it went down below: