THE DRYERS! THE DRYERS! ADD QUARTERS!!!

Stolen from a published interview...HU stands for "Howard Ungerleider."

Bp: There has been a lot of discussion amongst fans as to the purpose of the dryers. I'm assuming that they are decorative pieces similar to the refrigerator on the last tour, but then again they have microphones in front of them. Are they real or just a conversation piece?

HU: A conversation piece. What it was, Alex had this big brand new huge stack and Geddy's goes direct so there's nothing - he has nothing. So rather than have a lopsided stage we needed to put something there. We were talking about vending machines at one point in time - he opted for dryers. They actually worked out really well. They're quite humorous especially when they come sucking down the tunnel in "Cygnus." [laughs]

Bp: So the microphones are just there as decoys.

HU: They're there…as a conversation piece. Or maybe not. [laughs]

Those 'conversation pieces' not only display the band's humorous side, but also provide an ambient and moving lighting effect throughout the show as they are loaded with orange, red and black t-shirts which cast a glow from their internal lights as they spin during the performance. Several times a night a stage-tech restarts the dryers, after they complete their cycle, by inserting a new set of quarters. That's not their only humorous role though, as they are also sucked into the black hole of "Cygnus X-1" during the encore's rear-screen animation performed by Derivative VJ, Jim Ellis.