With the death of Neil Peart in 2020, it seemed unlikely, even inconceivable, that we’d ever see Rush on a concert stage again.
The Toronto rock trio was a tight-knit musical family, after all, and the prospect of carrying on minus the acclaimed drummer and lyricist was implausible at the time.
Flash forward six years, and the band of brothers now has a sister in the form of Anika Nilles, a German phenom who has taken the drum seat with the blessing of Peart’s family. And so there was Rush back in Detroit on Wednesday, Aug. 26, with group founders Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson up front, kicking off a two-date Little Caesars Arena stand that will include a Friday show.
The band’s Fifty Something tour is as much a Peart tribute as it is a rich survey
of the band’s catalog, and the vibes Wednesday were upbeat and poignant in a three-hour, 27-song set for a capacity LCA crowd. Imagery and reminiscences of the late drummer were interspersed throughout the concert, including a photo slide show accompanying a shimmering “Bravado” and an animated sequence with a riderless motorcycle for the heart-tugging “Time Stand Still.”
Peart was also present via the bulk of the evening’s lyrics, as sung by Lee, who reflected on his friend’s songwriting evolution through the decades, a journey that took Peart from the philosophical to the personal.
In the mid-1970s, Detroit was among the Canadian border towns to first embrace Rush and its prog-oriented hard rock. At LCA, bassist Lee greeted the audience like a group of old friends.
“Is this the Motor City? Are we really back here in Detroit?” he said early in the show. “Oh my God, a sight for sore eyes.”
Fans got their first taste of Nilles with the wood-block sounds that launched “Xanadu,” and the drummer went on to meet the larger task at hand: She brought technical chops and rock muscle to the Rush repertoire, ably navigating the time shifts and turn-on-a-dime changes that run through the band’s music while tucking her own subtle touches into fills. Twenty-five shows into the tour, it’s clear she has built a chemistry with her more seasoned onstage partners.
Throughout the night, Nilles was a picture of intense concentration behind the kit, finally allowing herself a grin during the waning moments of the late-show song “Tom Sawyer,” one of the many demanding selections to go with complexities like “La Villa Strangiato,” the multipart “Natural Science” and assorted instrumental breaks.
That rock sophistication is Rush’s bread-and-butter, of course, and Lee and Lifeson — three decades senior to the 43-year-old drummer — were right back in the pocket, although a 25-minute intermission was an obvious concession to the exertion now involved.
The opener “Xanadu,” a 1977 epic that stands among the band's greatest triumphs, served as Lee’s first vocal test Wednesday. At 73, he proved to be in serviceable form. On many songs, he reformulated melodies as needed, saving the upper end of his register for key moments and occasionally getting vocal supplement from hired keyboardist Loren Gold.
Lifeson, whose 73rd birthday came an hour after he stepped offstage, was a dependably lively presence, clowning with fans in the front rows and delivering guitar work that's now supplemented by digital effects modelers, allowing him to replicate the tones of familiar studio recordings more accurately than he could in the past.
For this tour, a globetrotting run that’s scheduled through April, Rush is continually shaking up the set list as it goes. Alongside the core of must-play rock hits — “YYZ,” “The Spirit of Radio,” “Limelight,” “Subdivisions” — are about three dozen numbers that can swap in and out any given night. Wednesday’s lesser-played fare included the overlooked 1982 gem “The Analog Kid,” 1993’s bass showcase “Animate” and the seven-song “2112” suite in its entirety.
After the heavy work of the main set, the show’s encore gave Lee, Lifeson and Nilles a chance to cut loose as they reached back to the straightforward rock of Rush’s 1974 debut album (“Finding My Way,” “Working Man”) for a rambunctious closing punch.
There’s no replacing Neil Peart, but Wednesday brought a concert that did justice to his spirit. The essential virtues of Rush are intact: precise musicianship, occasional moments of whimsy, a commitment to integrity and the deep fan bond that comes with it all. Fifty-something years later, Rush remains a North American treasure.
Rush will be back at it Friday night at LCA with a new set list in hand. (Note for concertgoers: The band took the stage Wednesday just before 8 p.m.)
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Rush delivers excellence – and much Neil Peart love – in Detroit return
