“It’s jammed. There aren’t going to be any days off,” says Chibi, the former Fanshawe College fine art student who is a founding member of cult band the Birthday Massacre.

Chibi was actually talking about the Birthday Massacre’s next European tour, the third trip for the band which is mostly comprised of former Fanshawe students.

Chibi’s words also apply to today’s colourful calendar with a Birthday Massacre date on it. September is a jammed month.

The Toronto-based band still has the Fanshawe connection going. When founding member and bassist Aslan, a former Fanshawe student, left recently the band found his replacement in another former member. Oe — not to confused with Birthday Massacre keyboard player o-en, a former multimedia design student at Fanshawe — is a former Fanshawe student and used to play drums with the band. Now he is back in time for Thursday’s gig at Call the Office. “It’s like everything’s come full circle,” Chibi says.

I haven’t seen Rush since they opened for the New York Dolls at Toronto’s old Victory Burlesque in October, 1973. It would appear that Canadian prog-rockers Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart have done all right for themselves in the three decades since then and have a date this month at Sept. 12 at the downtown London arena.