Rush
Toyota Center
October 1, 2026
Nobody saw this coming.
For sure *I* didn’t. I said as much when Rush drummer Neil Peart passed away in 2020. That was almost five years after the band’s R40 tour, which sure as hell seemed like a swan song at the time:
I get the feeling there won’t be a cash grab tour with Jason Bonham (or whoever) in five years. I think we can take Geddy Lee at his word when he says there is no Rush without Peart.
What a prognosticator.
Bassist Geddy Lee said it was a trip to a health spa in Austria with guitarist Alex Lifeson that kicked off the idea of playing live again (as Lee put it, “We fucking missed it”). What started as a handful of dates soon turned into a full-blown world tour. And it will see the band visiting Europe and South America for the first time in decades.
Recognizing that Peart’s absence would be a keen one, the two surviving members hired Jeff Beck drummer Annika Niles to fill his sizable shoes. This turned out to be a savvy move, but more on that in a bit. And recognizing that they, Lee and Lifeson, are both in their 70s, they’ve also added former Chicago keyboardist Loren Gold on keyboards and backing vocals.
Houston’s turn at Rush’s “Fifty Something” tour came last night. When I say it was everything fans could want, I’m not remotely exaggerating. You could smell the anticipation. Or maybe it was the IPAs. The bar nearest us ran out of every beer except Bud Light and Ultra. Take that, Scotland.
A band other than Rush might not have the temerity to open a show with a prog rock deep dive like “Xanadu” (from 1977’s A Farewell to Kings). But they know their fans, and when Lee and Lifeson strode forward with their double-necked axes, that anticipation erupted. “Dreamline” followed. The first of many tributes to the departed Peart, with lines like, “Learning that we’re only immortal/For a limited time.”
Canadians. So smug. Credit: Jennifer Lake
Lee addressed the crowd after that song, telling us, “We have a lot on the agenda tonight.” Boy howdy, he wasn’t kidding. For the first time on this tour, Rush played all of side one of 2112, the band’s 20-minute sci-fi mini opera, and all of Moving Pictures, still their best selling album. An embarrassment of riches for a band with, well, 50-something years of material to draw from.
The departed Peart figured heavily in the proceedings, of course. The band presented two montages, one before “Bravado” and the other during “Time Stand Still.” The latter backed by images of a drum kit standing in a lake and a riderless motorcycle crossing the desert that brought a lump to many a middle-age guy’s throat.
Not content with just “Xanadu,” they also played “La Villa Strangiato,” the nine-and-a-half minute instrumental from Hemispheres aptly subtitled “An Exercise in Self-Indulgence.” Didn’t matter. The air drummers and guitarists in the audience still virtually shredded with glee.
And Rush’s video presentations are always on point. Last night, they treated us to — in no particular order: a spoooky castle (related to the bookend clips featuring the band’s biggest celeb fans, Jason Segel and Paul Rudd), satellite views of Earth at night, priests from some temple or another, and … a strange village. The museum packers from Moving Pictures made appearances as well, but otherwise we got close-ups of Lee, Lifeson (often mugging for the camera), and Niles.
I was briefly concerned about how Niles would be received. Neil Peart’s loss left a seemingly unbridgeable chasm in Rush. Not just for the loss of his songwriting, but also his superlative work behind the kit. Meanwhile, the German-born Niles was largely unknown outside of music insider and drum sickos. I needn’t have worried. Her fills on “Tom Sawyer” and 2112 earned thunderous approval.
But musical virtuosity is something Rush fans have come to expect. It’s one of the reasons the band has been able to sell out arenas for going on, well, 50 years. Rush’s supporters are the diametric opposite of “fair weather,” and last night — as always — we were rewarded. The set was overflowing with Lifeson’s dexterous solos, Lee’s complex and melodic bass lines, and new drummer Niles masterfully hammering the skins.
Any quibbles have are minor. Lee’s voice, never the — let’s say strongest — instrument at their disposal, struggled at times with it’s former highs (“Closer to the Heart,” “The Spirit of Radio”). He also stretched unnecessarily in songs that didn’t need. “Time Stand Still,” for example, offered a perfect opportunity to drop the vocal register.
Niles, for as impressive as she was, clearly appeared stuck between delivering a Peart-worthy performance and putting her own stamp on the songs. Understandable, given that she didn’t write Rush’s drum parts. But it was obvious during the encore (“Finding My Way,” “Working Man”) that she enjoyed stretching out and expanding on original drummer John Rutsey’s more businesslike stick work.
Finally, aside from a brief solo, it was hard to tell what Gold was up to. Lee still played most of the keyboards, and Gold’s (and Lifeson’s, in fairness) backing vocals were mostly lost in the mix.
But some things never change. Lee and Lifeson banter and needle each other on stage like dudes that have been BFFs almost their entire lives. Rush’s songs are timeless, and their skills are still near the apex of their abilities. The addition of Niles brought a youthful (comparatively) energy and new dynamic to the back and forth onstage. It’s a show we never thought we’d get, but I’m damn glad we did.
Alas, it was over all too soon. I think I speak for just about everybody present that the band could’ve played another two hours. Lee thanked us at the end for our years of support, as a message played on the screen” “We’ll see you down the road!” An overly optimistic sentiment? Perhaps, but I’m no longer counting these guys out.
After all, I’ve been wrong before.
Liifeson and (part of) Niles. Credit: Jennifer Lake
Personal Bias: As I said in my review of their 2010 Woodlands show, I whiled away many sunny summer days protected from dangerous fresh air by playing D&D to the strains of Permanent Waves and Fly By Night.
The Crowd: We’re getting old, man.
Overheard In The Crowd: “Did you just say ‘YYZed?”
Random Notes App Dump: “There are a finite number of perfect concert moments. The house lights going up for the “concert hall” line in “The Spirit of Radio” as the entire TC went nuts was one of them.”
SET LIST
ACT I
Xanadu
Dreamline
The Analog Kid
Subdivisions
La Villa Strangiato
Closet to the Heart
The Spirit of Radio
ACT II
2112 Part I: Overture
2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx
2112 Part III. Discovery
2112 Part IV: Presentation
2112 Part V: Oracle: The Dream
2112 Part VI: Soliloquy
2112 Part VII: Grand Finale
Time Stand Still
Red Barchetta
YYZ
Limelight
The Camera Eye
Witch Hunt
Vital Signs
Tom Sawyer
ENCORE:
Finding My Way
Working Man
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