{"id":196701,"date":"2025-10-08T05:02:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T05:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/196701\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T05:02:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T05:02:09","slug":"rush-is-returning-to-toronto-for-a-tour-next-year-and-even-rushfest-canadas-founder-didnt-see-it-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/196701\/","title":{"rendered":"Rush is returning to Toronto for a tour next year, and even RUSHfest Canada’s founder didn’t see it coming"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even a dedicated Rush expert didn\u2019t see the news coming that the Toronto prog-rock legends would hit the road again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The iconic Canadian rock trio and members of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Canadian Music Hall of Fame lost their drummer and lyricist Neil Peart in 2020 to brain cancer, ending any hope \u2014 we thought \u2014 that singer\/bassist\/keyboardist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson would continue playing live shows together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That changed with the unexpected announcement of a 2026 tour, called Fifty Something, that will see the two Willowdale schoolmates hit the road again, joined by German drummer Anika Nilles, who played over 60 shows with the late Jeff Beck and has put out four solo albums.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a surprise. I knew they were up to something, but I didn\u2019t know what exactly,\u201d Rush aficionado Paul Beaulieu, who put on the two-day fan convention RUSHfest Canada in August at Massey Hall, told Now Toronto.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ironic because I help my friend [Steve Brown] run RUSHfest Scotland every year and his Rush tribute band [Moving Pictures<\/a>], one of the better ones in Scotland and Europe, has a female drummer. So, we\u2019re pretty excited that they chose to have a female drummer and anybody that\u2019s played with Jeff Beck is obviously going to be pretty good at what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Paul Beaulieu, Rush Historian and RushFest Canada co-founder; Rush singer\/bassist Geddy Lee; the late Pegi Cecconi of SRO Management.<\/p>\n

The tour kicks off with a pair of shows in Los Angeles at Kia Forum, June 7 and 9, where Rush played their final show for their R40 Tour on August 1, 2015, and will hit their hometown Aug. 7 and 9 at Scotiabank Arena. They will also play Mexico City; Fort Worth, Texas; Chicago, New York, and wrap up in Cleveland on Sept. 17. Fans are already calling for more shows.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Beaulieu, who is based in Oakville, Ont., has seen Rush 114 times, starting Oct. 2, 1975 at the North Bay Memorial. He hopes to go to both Toronto and New York shows, and maybe one in LA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rush has a long history of playing shows in Toronto. Once Scotiabank Arena, then called the Air Canada Centre, replaced Maple Leaf Gardens, the band played there seven times, for 2007\u2019s Snakes & Arrows Tour, 2010\u2019s Time Machine Tour; 2012\u2019s Clockwork Angeles Tour; and 2015\u2019s R40 Tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re from here so, obviously, it\u2019s where they played a lot when they were young and built up their chops and then, eventually, when they got huge, they always came back,\u201d\u00a0 Beaulieu said. \u201cWe had RUSHfest Canada at Massey Hall because that was the first live concert that\u00a0 they recorded [1976\u2019s All The World\u2019s A Stage] and it happened to be the 10th anniversary of the last time they played in LA. So, that was in honour of them. We had no idea if they were going to play again and with who so it was pretty important for us to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now, they\u2019re going to come back for one more year. It\u2019s neat to be able to have a venue where you can go up close, but also if you sit at the back, you can see what Howard Ungerleider, who was their show producer and did all the lighting, intended for everybody to see. You can see the entire stage, the lighting and all the special effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Producer Terry Brown; Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson; Paul Beaulieu, Rush Historian and RushFest Canada\u00a0
co-founder.<\/p>\n

Fans can sign up for the Artist Presale at\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0until Thursday, Oct. 9 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Those tickets go on sale Monday, Oct. 13 at 12 p.m. local time in the U.S. and Canada and Thursday, Oct. 16 at 12 p.m. local time in Mexico. General on-sale begins\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0on Friday, Oct. 17\u00a0at 12 p.m. local time for the U.S. and Canada, and 11 a.m. local time for Mexico.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Rush released the 50-track super deluxe anthology,\u00a0RUSH 50, which includes the first-ever reissue of their 1973 debut single and and a live recording of the final song\u00a0Lee,\u00a0Lifeson, and\u00a0Peart\u00a0played together at\u00a0The Forum finale.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been over 10 years since Alex and I have performed the music of RUSH alongside our fallen bandmate and friend Neil,\u201d\u00a0 Lee said in a press statement. \u201cA lifetime\u2019s worth of songs that we had put our cumulative hearts and souls into writing, recording and playing together onstage. And so, after all that has gone down since that last show, Alex and I have done some serious soul searching and come to the decision that we f**king miss it, and that it\u2019s time for a celebration of 50-something years of RUSH music.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo in 2026 my BFF Lerxst (aka Alex Lifeson) and I are going to hit the road once again to pay tribute to our past and to Neil by performing a vast selection of RUSH songs in a handful of cities. No small task, because as we all know Neil was irreplaceable.\u201d
\u00a0
\u201cYet life is full of surprises, and we\u2019ve been introduced to another remarkable person; an incredible drummer and musician who is adding another chapter to our story while continuing her own fascinating musical journey. Her name is Anika Nilles, and we could not be more excited to introduce her to our loyal and dedicated RUSH fanbase, whom, we know, will give her every chance to live up to that near impossible role. Before we hit the stage, we also hope to add another musician or two to expand our sound a wee bit and free up Alex and I, in order to show off some of our new fancy dance steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peart\u2019s family are behind the tour. His widow Carrie Nuttall-Peart and daughter, Olivia, said, in a joint statement, they are \u201cthrilled to support the Fifty Something tour\u2026and to honor Neil\u2019s extraordinary legacy as both a drummer and lyricist\u2026 As the band enters this new chapter, it promises to be truly unforgettable. We are excited to see how their new vision unfolds, and to hear this legendary music played live once again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tour Dates:\u00a0<\/p>\n

June 7 \u2014 Los Angeles, CA, Kia Forum
June 9 \u2014 Los Angeles, CA, Kia Forum
June 18 \u2014 Mexico City, MX, Palacio de los Deportes
June 24 \u2014 Fort Worth, TX, Dickies Arena
June 26 \u2014 Fort Worth, TX, Dickies Arena
July 16 \u2014 Chicago, IL, United Center
July 18 \u2014 Chicago, IL, United Center
July 28 \u2014 New York, NY, Madison Square Garden
July 30 \u2014 New York, NY, Madison Square Garden
Aug. 7 \u2014 Toronto, ON, Scotiabank Arena
Aug. 9 \u2014 Toronto, ON, Scotiabank Arena
Sept. 17 \u2014 Cleveland, OH, Rocket Arena<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even a dedicated Rush expert didn\u2019t see the news coming that the Toronto prog-rock legends would hit the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,56410,97488],"class_list":["post-196701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-rush","tag-toronto-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}