Canadian progressive rock masters Rush announced on Monday their plans for tours of both Europe and South America for early next year.
This comes hot on the heels of last October’s announcement that the band was reforming, albeit with German YouTube drum sensation Anika Nilles filling in for the deceased Neal Peart on the skins alongside Geddy Lee on bass/vocals and Alex Lifeson on guitarist. At the time, the band announced only the American dates for the ‘Fifty Something’ reunion tour, having been inactive since 2015. Peart’s death came in 2020 at the age of 67 and, until last year, it looked unlikely that the band would reform.
The announcement came on Monday via an Instagram video in which the band show the trademark humour that they were known for in the Peart years, laughing and joking with one another while earnestly describing their tour plans. The band are “ecstatic” according to the press release, with the tour being “the first time the band has played in Europe since 2013 and 17 years since visiting South America”.
The tour announcement came with another lineup change, with the band stating that they will be joined for the tour by Loren Gold, keyboardist for fellow stadium rock gods The Who since 2012, with more than enough experience in playing arenas internationally. That arena experience will come in handy because on this tour Rush’s booking team have set the bar high. The LA show will be at the Forum, the London gig will be held at the O2 Arena and Manchester’s visit will be witnessed at Co-Op Live.
What ups the stakes even further for the band is that they have announced they will be learning thirty five songs for the tour, with Monday’s press release (semi-jokingly) hinting at forty of their progressive classics, with the setlist varying nightly. Rush are bringing no new music to the table, focusing on their Peart-era output, although Geddy has hinted at the possibility of a more creative collaboration with Nilles.
Rush, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Taylor Hawkins and Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters in 2013, made a name playing a hard-driving but sophisticated style of rock in the ‘70s, producing such classic albums as ‘Moving Pictures’ and ‘2112’. A lot of what makes their post-Peart collaboration so ambitious is that much of what made their music so unique was his singular drum style, playing huge fills on an elaborate kit, often in odd time signatures. This was coupled with deep, searching and often intergalactic lyrics and big riffs to gift them their signature sound. They are also credited as one of the only truly major rock acts to hail from Canada, for which all three members were awarded the Order of Canada.
