There’s a lot going on in the world, and yet it all just melted away for three hours (including an intermission) Sunday night, June 4th, at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, where RUSH played their first full concert in 11 years at the kickoff of their “Fifty Something Tour.”
The show equalled or exceeded any of the eight times I’ve had the pleasure to see the band. There has been a lot of online chatter amongst fans as to newcomer Anika Nilles and her ability to handle the drum chair. I’m here to say that she has it all going on in her full commitment to both honoring the late Neil Peart and also adding her own personality. The smiles, the love for each other, and their history was very much on display tonight. Loren Gold (The Who, Chicago) on keys and backing vocals also filled in the spaces and let Geddy Lee have more mobility onstage.
The first half (preceded by a hilarious animated short) started strong with “Xanadu” and from the first notes, as the audience were all up and on their feet. “Limelight” was next, followed by Lee doing an introduction for Nilles and Gold.
It’s a balancing act for every single career artist when formulating a setlist. RUSH have done retrospective tours, spotlights of classic albums, and also a tour like “Clockwork Angels” where a new album gets the spotlight. On this night, they hit a bit of every era and played a few things like “Caravan” and “By Tor” that I’ve not heard in ages. There were video salutes to Peart at several points, and hearing “Vital Signs” followed by “The Spirit of Radio” was a 1-2 punch to close out the first half of the night.
During intermission, I was people watching in the lobby of The Forum and saw old fans, new ones, and so many T-shirts, and it brought back memories of the old days when one had to wear the shirt at school the next morning to let everyone you’d been there at the big show.
The second set began with “2112” and the screens/visuals and stage/set design were perfect and not a distraction, but rather an enhancement. I also loved the camerawork capture of the smiles and interplay between Alex Lifeson and Lee, but also as those two interacted with Nilles, who had a smile quite often throughout the night. There was lots of genuine love in the band as they played “Distant Early Warning” and “Red Barchetta” back to back. An absolute surprise and highlight was Aimee Mann as a great surprise to all of us as she recreated her vocal on “Time Stand Still” for the first time since she appeared on the recording session almost 40 years ago.
That led into “Red Sector A,” with its lyrics tied to Lee’s ancestors and their concentration camp survival and it always hits me hard. He writes beautifully on this in his autobiography My Effin’ Life, which I highly recommend to not just RUSH fans, but any student of musical or social history. A touch of bell work and it was time for “YYZ,” which had all of us up and playing air bass/drum/guitar. A fave Neil Peart lyric for Lee was why “The Garden” was the penultimate Set 2 song, and then after a hilarious “South Park” clip, it was time for “Tom Sawyer,” and when Anika did those drum fills, everyone was cheering her on. She smiled as it’s a huge moment in the song.
The encore was the rarely played “By Tor and the Snow Dog” followed by “Working Man,” all the way back to their first album and a nice salute to their first drummer John Rutsey on the animation seen on the screens. A great little wraparound bit at the close from Jason Segel and Paul Rudd reprising I Love You, Man’s RUSH-loving leads and then we were up and out to the night.
When Alain Johannes played with Lifeson and Lee at the Taylor Hawkins tribute show in London a few years ago, they got to hear of his Fairfax High School days band Anthym and of his love of their band. Then, the two classic members of RUSH heard Paul McCartney tell them, “You’re not done with your music. You have to honor your old mate and then go on and play!” McCartney’s advice may not be the sole reason we get a RUSH reunion tour, but a credit to the Beatles legend for giving them some motivation to hit the road again.
I look at RUSH as a band started by two Canadian teenagers who eventually took their music to grand heights when the drummer/lyricist they needed came aboard. It’s a true thing that no one can “replace” Neil Peart, but I’ll bet you there’s a very happy “Professor” in the next world smiling as his old friends are still sharing the music they all created.
I cannot recommend this tour highly enough. RUSH are not over and done. Not by a long shot. Go and see this band if you’re a real fan, a casual one, or just a little curious. You’ll be glad you did.
RUSH’s “Fifty Something” North American reunion tour runs all the way through December, with the band playing multiple nights in each city. Pick up tickets here, and see our photo gallery of the kickoff show, as well as fan-filmed video and the setlist, below.
Setlist:
Set 1:
Xanadu
Limelight
Far Cry
Subdivisions
Freewill
Bravado
Caravan
La Villa Strangiato
Vital Signs
The Spirit of Radio
Set 2:
2112 Part I: Overture
2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx
2112 Part VII: Grand Finale
Distant Early Warning
Red Barchetta
Dreamline
Natural Science
Time Stand Still (with Aimee Mann for the first time ever live)
Red Sector A
YYZ
The Garden
Tom Sawyer
Encore:
By-Tor & The Snow Dog
Working Man
