The current RUSH tour, which started in June of 2026 and will run until April of 2027, has been generating quite a bit of discussion, so Mikey has decided to chime in as well.
Mikey’s first reaction to the announcement of the tour—this was not videotaped, of course—was one of genuine surprise, tempered by just a little cynicism. After all, RUSH is old. No, “Fifty-Something” isn’t a reference to their ages. It’s a reference to how many years they’ve been touring. And the current trend of septuagenarians and octogenarians prancing around on stages has gotten… well, a little long in the tooth.
Rather than describe RUSH’s music as “prog rock,” the label usually applied to it, Mikey has always preferred to think of it simply as heavy-driven guitar rock—although it’s been much more than that over the years. For reasons Mikey has never fully understood, the word prog has always conjured up images of mysterious little creatures darting through some shadowy Tolkienesque forest. Oddly enough, that doesn’t entirely clash with the atmosphere of certain RUSH songs… especially after A Passage to Bangkok. No matter the label people insist on attaching to RUSH, they sit comfortably at the top of it. The more interesting question, however, isn’t what to call RUSH’s music. It is whether RUSH should continue without the man who largely helped define it.
Mikey’s immediate impression upon hearing the news of the impending tour was that a RUSH tour without Neil Peart was not a RUSH tour; even though as diehard fans know, RUSH did briefly exist prior to the appearance of Mr. Peart. So, the enormous ‘Neil Peart question.’ How could they play without Neil Peart who served as the band’s extraordinary drummer and primary lyricist for nearly its entire career and who lamentably passed away from an illness in January of 2020? Then there is the question of Geddy Lee’s ability to still sing the songs that he so forcefully and uniquely commanded in his younger years. And a second part to the first question was: ‘who could possibly fill Neil Peart’s role as percussionist?’ The one constant, always solidly anchoring the band to the splendor of its past, is the mesmerizing guitar wizardry of Alex Lifeson, and happily that still appears as effortless for him as ever.
To answer the question of who could fill the void left by Neil Peart’s absence, not only did the two surviving members find someone to very impressively fill the role of drummer, but this actually changed the band’s dynamic in a subtle and unexpected way. Anika Nilles, the remarkably accomplished German drummer chosen to fill that huge vacancy, has stepped gracefully into that role and the music now continues without missing a beat. It is a very different RUSH experience to gaze at the drum kit and see the serious but smiling Deutschlander rather than the reserved concentration of the intently focused Canadian. A RUSH fan from way back might notice a slight difference in the sound, but perhaps this is primarily due to the make and model of the drums rather than the musician playing them? The difference, if any, is pretty much negligible, at least when heard with non-professional ears. Watching Anika Nilles tackle Neil Peart’s seemingly endless catalogue of demanding drum parts, Mikey almost feels sympathy for her. Choosing Anika Nilles, as it turns out, was a brilliant move, as it is so different seeing her “in that unlikely role” that the sadness attached to the loss of Neil Peart is at least temporarily pushed to the back of one’s mind.
The strange thing about grief is that eventually it stops asking whether something is identical and starts asking whether it’s honest.
As it turns out, ‘the boys,’ as their legion of adoring fans refer to them, aced the test in their response to that looming question. So now for the Geddy Lee issue. Mikey has to say that Mr. Lee has sounded worse in the past than he sounds on this tour. He doesn’t sound terribly terrific, nor terrifically terrible, and while singing for him now appears to be a bit of a struggle, he has successfully adjusted his efforts to compensate for the range that he has lost over the years. Luckily his definitive bass playing is as dazzling as always and he somehow accomplishes it while simultaneously playing keyboards, foot pedals and singing.
The show, satisfyingly, does go on and a large part of the spectacle of a live RUSH show is the amazing production and visual effects that accompany their enchanting music and, in that regard, they are still on top of their game. The stage antics might at times appear a little over the top for some, but what allows this to be disregarded is that the members of RUSH truly seem to enjoy the complex music that they play at least as much and maybe even more than their fans do.
Back to the original Neil Peart question; in an interview that was aired before the tour began, together Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson addressed the tender issue of moving on without Neil Peart and the fact that they didn’t take the decision lightly. In this interview they reveal that after consulting with the surviving members of the drummer’s family, they understood that not only did they have the family’s blessing but that they were actually encouraged by them to continue in the music that the great timekeeper had played such a huge role in. The band has also, with elegance and class, deferentially made a tribute to Neil Peart a significant and touching part of each show. Mikey very much appreciates this as most certainly do all RUSH fans.
RUSH has developed an almost cult-like following over the years which itself has been the subject of more than one documentary and those fans appear to be very happy with the band’s decision to tour once again. And if the fans are happy, who should complain? Amidst all the excitement it feels as though there is an unacknowledged specter lurking over this tour and while no one seems to want to breathe life into it by discussing it, the fact that this may well be the end of an era can add a slight seasoning of melancholy as one experiences these performances.
Mikey has been a RUSH fan since long before the band itself became so widely celebrated, and he must say that this tour turned out to be a very pleasant surprise in spite of all the potential threats to its success before it ever got underway. One thing about RUSH music is that it is not the kind of music that you can play in the background while you work or do whatever. RUSH music demands one’s full attention and so whatever one does while listening to it becomes the secondary activity and that unspoken compliment is probably the highest that can be paid.
Regardless of whether or not this tour ultimately ends with a final goodbye, Mikey no longer finds himself asking if RUSH should have continued without Neil Peart. He began following this tour wondering about the implications of RUSH touring without one who played such a crucial role in what the band evolved into. Mikey now takes leave of this topic believing they found the only acceptable way to do so—not by replacing the irreplaceable, but by sincerely honoring him. If that’s the standard, then RUSH’s Fifty Something tour is successfully “sailing into destiny, closer to the heart.”
From one of the many planets of the Solar Federation…
