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The devout crowd \u2014 is there any other kind of Rush fan? \u2014 certainly was. A dad-heavy audience accompanied by teens here and there (hopefully a few future Anikas), these longtime listeners were vocally transported throughout. That began with the shocked roar that met Rush\u2019s first number, 1977\u2019s \u201cXanadu,\u201d a chugging slab of custom-van-tested shag splendor, akin to kicking off a trick show with the most dangerous stunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to start playing a song now,\u201d guitarist Alex Lifeson said after a little banter, a mumble that became the ultimate flex when the song turned out to be \u201cLimelight,\u201d the strutting riff that launched a million amp-jacked hopefuls. Only 10 minutes in and Rush could go anywhere, into nearly 50 years of material.<\/p>\n
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Rush co-founder guitarist Alex Lifeson and band delivered a powerful show on opening night of their reunion tour. <\/p>\n
(Scott Strazzante \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
Wisely, that path included five selections from \u201cMoving Pictures,\u201d the group\u2019s totemic 1981 release, its most sinewy and muscular, including the ominous \u201cTom Sawyer,\u201d a virtuosic \u201cYYZ\u201d and a spin through the car chase \u201cRed Barchetta.\u201d Bassist and singer Geddy Lee, his voice eerily well-preserved for a 72-year-old, rode the contours of these numbers with electrifying menace and character, justifying all the risks inherent in this reunion tour. (An additional 87 dates will follow globally.)<\/p>\n
There was also vindication for some of Lifeson\u2019s more adventurous guitar work of the early \u201980s, when he all but invented a new chime-laden language of soloing. A punk-vicious \u201cSubdivisions\u201d \u2014 \u201cBe cool or be cast out,\u201d go the lyrics \u2014 benefited from added grit, while 1984\u2019s \u201cDistant Early Warning\u201d burrowed into nuclear anxiety with unstoppable momentum.<\/p>\n
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Anika Nilles more than held her own on the drums with dead-on precision.<\/p>\n
(Scott Strazzante \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
The band, expanded to include touring keyboardist Loren Gold, seemed exhilarated, if a little stiff at times, a first-night quibble that will surely self-correct. Some of the dead-on precision of Nilles\u2019 attack was lost by out-of-sync video screens, an annoying glitch that needs attention given her monster performance. She has learned how to play the intimidating \u201cLa Villa Strangiato\u201d perfectly \u2014 it\u2019s the least they can do.<\/p>\n
Angelenos enjoyed a special unannounced guest, Aimee Mann, who re-created her ethereal backup vocals on 1987\u2019s \u201cTime Stand Still,\u201d Rush\u2019s finest balance of song craft and chops. (The song\u2019s title could have been the motto for the night.) Pecking Lee on the cheek, Mann relished the big-arena rock moment.<\/p>\n
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Fans react during a video montage at the start of Rush\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n
(Scott Strazzante \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
Delightfully, there remains something strange yet approachable about Rush. True fans know this for the compliment it is. It\u2019s not just their goony sense of humor that compels them to make silly intro videos and do funny accents. (The new one takes place in a haunted house and, yes, there are cameos from the \u201cI Love You, Man\u201d guys Paul Rudd and Jason Segel.) Nor is it the way they never concerned themselves with prowling the stage or donning anything other than sensible blazers and jeans.<\/p>\n
No, the truly strange thing \u2014 still remarkable to experience among thousands \u2014 is the way their fame is grounded in epic rafts of sci-fi nerdiness. Peart, also the band\u2019s lyricist, steered them through phases of paperback fantasy, stubborn Randian Objectivism and a lived-in sense of wisdom showcased on their final studio album, 2012\u2019s \u201cClockwork Angels,\u201d and its lovely closer \u201cThe Garden,\u201d also revived tonight.<\/p>\n
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Guitarist Alex Lifeson, flanked by drummer Anika Nilles and bassist and singer Geddy Lee, jam at the Forum.<\/p>\n
(Scott Strazzante \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
Yet this was a set that included the cavorting \u201cBy-Tor and the Snow Dog,\u201d the mathy \u201cNatural Science\u201d and the sidelong 1976 stoner perennial \u201c2112,\u201d which, even in its abbreviated form, conveyed the pungent sense of a band going its own way. When the intermission\u2019s countdown clock reversed itself, climbing back up to \u201c21:12,\u201d the numbers turned red and the crowd exploded.<\/p>\n
I would have liked to see Nilles take a bow, flanked by Lee and Lifeson. She\u2019s the reason why any of this is happening. Maybe after a bit, she can drop the deference. Rush may be onto one of its most significant chapters, the one that extends beyond them, in which their music will bond generations and even transcend death. This tour is doing the good work.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a celebration, a time machine and a delirious three-hour workout of air-drumming. Storming the Forum in Inglewood on Sunday, Canadian prog-rockers Rush played their first official concert since 2015, when the band ended what seemed to be its final tour, even if they couldn\u2019t bring themselves to say so. During its more somber […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2450431,"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":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2450430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Rush-is-reunited-with-its-faithful-through-tears-and-riffs.com2F852Fef2F3687894e451fb7a18b3a32bd.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450430","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=2450430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2450432,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450430\/revisions\/2450432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2450431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}