{"id":456047,"date":"2026-10-04T09:52:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T09:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/456047\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T09:52:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T09:52:32","slug":"rush-is-nifty-at-fifty-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/456047\/","title":{"rendered":"Rush Is Nifty At Fifty (Something)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rush
Toyota Center
October 1, 2026<\/p>\n

Nobody saw this coming.<\/p>\n

For sure *I* didn\u2019t. I said as much<\/a> when Rush drummer Neil Peart passed away in 2020. That was almost five years after the band\u2019s R40 tour, which sure as hell seemed like a swan song at the time:<\/p>\n

I get the feeling there won\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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, \u201cWe fucking missed it\u201d). 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.<\/p>\n

Recognizing that Peart\u2019s 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\u2019ve also added former Chicago keyboardist Loren Gold on keyboards and backing vocals. <\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s turn at Rush\u2019s \u201cFifty Something\u201d tour came last night. When I say it was everything fans could want, I\u2019m 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>.<\/p>\n

A band other than Rush might not have the temerity to open a show with a prog rock deep dive like \u201cXanadu\u201d (from 1977\u2019s A Farewell to Kings). But they know their fans, and when Lee and Lifeson strode forward with their double-necked axes, that anticipation erupted. \u201cDreamline\u201d followed. The first of many tributes to the departed Peart, with lines like, \u201cLearning that we\u2019re only immortal\/For a limited time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"rushCanadians. So smug. Credit: Jennifer Lake<\/p>\n

Lee addressed the crowd after that song, telling us, \u201cWe have a lot on the agenda tonight.\u201d Boy howdy, he wasn\u2019t kidding. For the first time on this tour, Rush played all of side one of 2112, the band\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The departed Peart figured heavily in the proceedings, of course. The band presented two montages, one before \u201cBravado\u201d and the other during \u201cTime Stand Still.\u201d 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\u2019s throat.<\/p>\n

Not content with just \u201cXanadu,\u201d they also played \u201cLa Villa Strangiato,\u201d the nine-and-a-half minute instrumental from Hemispheres aptly subtitled \u201cAn Exercise in Self-Indulgence.\u201d Didn\u2019t matter. The air drummers and guitarists in the audience still virtually shredded with glee.<\/p>\n

And Rush\u2019s video presentations are always on point. Last night, they treated us to \u2014 in no particular order: a spoooky castle (related to the bookend clips featuring the band\u2019s biggest celeb fans, Jason Segel and Paul Rudd), satellite views of Earth at night, priests from some temple or another, and \u2026 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.<\/p>\n

I was briefly concerned about how Niles would be received. Neil Peart\u2019s 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\u2019t have worried. Her fills on \u201cTom Sawyer\u201d and 2112 earned thunderous approval.<\/p>\n

But musical virtuosity is something Rush fans have come to expect. It\u2019s one of the reasons the band has been able to sell out arenas for going on, well, 50 years. Rush\u2019s supporters are the diametric opposite of \u201cfair weather,\u201d and last night \u2014 as always \u2014 we were rewarded. The set was overflowing with Lifeson\u2019s dexterous solos, Lee\u2019s complex and melodic bass lines, and new drummer Niles masterfully hammering the skins.<\/p>\n

Any quibbles have are minor. Lee\u2019s voice, never the \u2014 let\u2019s say strongest \u2014 instrument at their disposal, struggled at times with it\u2019s former highs (\u201cCloser to the Heart,\u201d \u201cThe Spirit of Radio\u201d). He also stretched unnecessarily in songs that didn\u2019t need. \u201cTime Stand Still,\u201d for example, offered a perfect opportunity to drop the vocal register.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t write Rush\u2019s drum parts. But it was obvious during the encore (\u201cFinding My Way,\u201d \u201cWorking Man\u201d) that she enjoyed stretching out and expanding on original drummer John Rutsey\u2019s more businesslike stick work.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s (and Lifeson\u2019s, in fairness) backing vocals were mostly lost in the mix.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s a show we never thought we\u2019d get, but I\u2019m damn glad we did.<\/p>\n

Alas, it was over all too soon. I think I speak for just about everybody present that the band could\u2019ve played another two hours. Lee thanked us at the end for our years of support, as a message played on the screen\u201d \u201cWe\u2019ll see you down the road!\u201d An overly optimistic sentiment? Perhaps, but I\u2019m no longer counting these guys out.<\/p>\n

After all, I\u2019ve been wrong before.<\/p>\n

\"rushLiifeson and (part of) Niles. Credit: Jennifer Lake<\/p>\n

Personal Bias: As I said in my review<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

The Crowd: We\u2019re getting old, man.<\/p>\n

Overheard In The Crowd: \u201cDid you just say \u2018YYZed?\u201d<\/p>\n

Random Notes App Dump: \u201cThere are a finite number of perfect concert moments. The house lights going up for the \u201cconcert hall\u201d line in \u201cThe Spirit of Radio\u201d as the entire TC went nuts was one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

SET LIST<\/p>\n

ACT I
Xanadu
Dreamline
The Analog Kid
Subdivisions
La Villa Strangiato
Closet to the Heart
The Spirit of Radio<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

ENCORE:
Finding My Way
Working Man<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RushToyota CenterOctober 1, 2026 Nobody saw this coming. For sure *I* didn\u2019t. I said as much when Rush…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[226,56,58,57,156369,48535],"class_list":["post-456047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-homepage","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-rush-band","tag-toyota-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}