{"id":2449357,"date":"2026-06-08T01:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T01:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2449357"},"modified":"2026-06-08T01:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T01:54:12","slug":"looking-back-at-rush-as-their-new-tour-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/looking-back-at-rush-as-their-new-tour-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking back at Rush as their new tour begins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-thumbnail-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAlex Lifeson, Neil Peart, Geddy Lee are the classic lineup of Rush.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"article-thumbnail-credit\"><\/p>\n<p>Fin Costello\/Redferns<\/p>\n<p><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Rush fans are notorious geeks.\u00a0I should know because I was one.\u00a0As a teenager, I loved Rush, a trio in which all three members were virtuosos: Geddy Lee on bass and vocals, underrated Alex Lifeson on guitar and the extraordinary Neil Peart, often considered to be the best drummer in rock \u2014 at least from a technical standpoint \u2014 behind the kit.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been thinking about Rush more since last October, when they announced a 2026 tour. They\u2019ll perform at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale in December, but the tour kicks off tonight, June 7, at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California.<\/p>\n<p>Rush wasn\u2019t like other bands, and that\u2019s one reason why I liked them so much.\u00a0 While other rock stars indulged in the hedonistic world of groupies and drugs, Rush members stayed in their hotel rooms and read books.\u00a0To me, that was cool, maybe because I was a big-time reader, too.\u00a0My friends were into Van Halen, Motley Crue and other groups that I didn\u2019t relate to.\u00a0Sleaze just wasn\u2019t my thing.<\/p>\n<p>Rush had substance.\u00a0Songs like \u201cCloser to the Heart\u201d and \u201cCinderella Man\u201d touched me in a way that other rock songs hadn\u2019t.\u00a0Sometimes they gave me chills, sometimes they produced tears. The lyrics were thought-provoking and humanistic.\u00a0This was a band who cared about people, as I did. Their albums \u201cPermanent Waves\u201d (1980) and \u201cMoving Pictures\u201d (1981) remain two of the best hard rock albums of all time.\u00a0\u201cFreewill\u201d captured my feelings about religion perfectly.\u00a0So many of the songs on these albums held a special meaning for me. I even loved \u201cYYZ,\u201d an instrumental track that showcases the band\u2019s exceptional virtuosity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"vmg-newsletter-form\">\n<div class=\"vmg-newsletter-form__container\">\n<div class=\"vmg-newsletter-form__form-wrapper vmg-newsletter-form__step1\" id=\"vmg-newsletter-step1\">\n<div class=\"vmg-newsletter-form__form-wrapper-inner\">\n<p>Sign up for the Music newsletter to get the latest stories delivered to your inbox<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"vmg-newsletter-form__success hidden\" id=\"vmg-newsletter-success\">\n<div class=\"vmg-newsletter-form__success-content\">\n<h3>THANK YOU!<\/h3>\n<p>You&#8217;re all set.<\/p>\n<p><button type=\"button\" class=\"vmg-newsletter-form__close-btn\" id=\"vmg-close-success\"><br \/>CLOSE\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As the \u201980s progressed, however, they moved to a more synth-based sound.\u00a0\u201cSignals\u201d (1982) was a solid album, and it included another brilliant song, \u201cSubdivisions,\u201d that I related to deeply (\u201cConform or be cast out\u201d).\u00a0 But it also signified the beginning of the end of my fascination with Rush. With each new release, I felt less connected to them and gradually lost interest \u2014 but not before seeing them in concert.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-seeing-rush-live\">Seeing Rush live<\/h2>\n<p>I saw Rush play Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix in February 1988.\u00a0Even though my interest in them had peaked by that time, I was still buying their albums and I was definitely stoked about seeing them live for the first time ever.<\/p>\n<p>The arena was packed with dudes.\u00a0 If my memory serves me correctly, it was like a 99-to-1 male-to-female ratio.\u00a0 It probably wasn\u2019t really that lopsided, but believe me \u2014 it was totally dude-centric.<\/p>\n<p>Before the show started, I remember one stunning, well-endowed woman with long blonde hair in a gold sequined dress walking along the mezzanine level accompanied by some shlub.\u00a0It seemed like every single guy in the stands fell silent and watched her saunter to her seat \u2014 a sea of heads slowly turning in unison to gaze at this gorgeous gazelle. From one side to the other she strolled, eventually taking a seat about a dozen rows directly behind me.<\/p>\n<p>Then the cheers started, whistles and catcalls clearly aimed at her.\u00a0She stood up and curtseyed.\u00a0 The mass of men went wild.\u00a0She stood up again, but this time she gave them something extra.\u00a0She pulled down the top of her dress and shimmied, giving her bare breasts a jiggle.\u00a0One cad who\u2019d been sitting a couple rows behind us got up and barged toward the woman, barreling over seatbacks.\u00a0He lumbered up to the woman and gave her glands a squeeze, then turned around and pumped his fists in the air while some cheered him on.\u00a0She laughed it off while her escort sat meekly, watching this creep grope his companion.<\/p>\n<p>The show itself was the loudest concert I\u2019d ever been to.\u00a0The decibel levels had been pushed to the point of pain, which made it impossible for me to enjoy the show.\u00a0So, after all the anticipation of seeing Rush in concert, I ended up hating it.\u00a0I don\u2019t even remember what songs they did or any highlights from the show because I was too disturbed by the extreme volume.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In hindsight, that event felt like the end of my Rush phase \u2014 not because the band failed me, but because the moment had simply passed.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-back-in-the-limelight\">Back in the limelight<\/h2>\n<p>Last October, Lee and Lifeson announced that they were reuniting as Rush for their Fifty Something Tour with Anika Nilles, a 42-year-old German drum virtuoso replacing Peart, who died the first week of 2020.\u00a0Nilles toured with the Jeff Beck Group in 2022 but did not grow up listening to Rush.<\/p>\n<p>Since the band hasn\u2019t released any new material since 2012\u2019s \u201cClockwork Angels\u201d or played any shows in over a decade, they\u2019re likely to perform a career-spanning retrospective of their best material: \u201cTom Sawyer,\u201d \u201cThe Spirit of Radio,\u201d \u201cFly by Night,\u201d \u201cTime Stand Still,\u201d \u201cShow Don\u2019t Tell,\u201d \u201cLimelight\u201d and more hard rock radio staples from among their 19 studio albums.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-a-new-chapter-for-rock-s-brainiest-band\">A new chapter for rock\u2019s brainiest band<\/h2>\n<p>Thankfully, rock bands no longer take pride in deafening audiences, so you probably don\u2019t need to worry about mega-wattage damaging your hearing this time around.\u00a0And you can damn well bet that I\u2019m going to be there in Phoenix in December \u2014 not to relive the past so much as to see what remains of a band that once made me feel understood and helped shape me into the person I am today.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.phoenixnewtimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart, Geddy Lee are the classic lineup of Rush. Fin Costello\/Redferns Rush fans are notorious geeks.\u00a0I should know because I was one.\u00a0As a teenager, I loved Rush, a trio in which all three members were virtuosos: Geddy Lee on bass and vocals, underrated Alex Lifeson on guitar and the extraordinary Neil Peart, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2449358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[379470],"class_list":["post-2449357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-concert-previews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Looking-back-at-Rush-as-their-new-tour-begins.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2449357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2449359,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449357\/revisions\/2449359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2449358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}