Rush played its first show in more than a decade on Sunday, June 7, at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. It was the same venue where the band wrapped up its last tour in 2015. This time, something was missing.
Drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, widely considered one of the greatest rock drummers in history, died of brain cancer in January 2020. The Fifty Something Tour marks the first time remaining members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson have toured without Peart in more than 50 years, since the band launched out of Toronto in the mid-1970s.
According to a report by Billboard, Lee addressed the decision to tour in a statement, saying that "Alex and I have done some serious soul searching and come to the decision that we f–king miss it … So [we're] going to hit the road once again to pay tribute to our past and to Neil by performing a vast selection of Rush songs in a handful of cities. No small task, because as we all know Neil was irreplaceable."
The tour is billed as a celebration of Peart's legacy and the band's half-century of music. To fill the drum chair, Lee and Lifeson brought in German drummer and composer Anika Nilles. Her first public performance with Rush came at the 2026 Juno Awards in March. Sunday night was her tour debut.
Nilles performed to a packed arena, powering through a 22-song setlist on a sprawling drum kit. Billboard reported she has mastered Peart's signature cascade of drums technique. Her work on percussion-heavy songs like "2112: Overture / The Temples of Syrinx / Grand Finale" and "YYZ" drew loud cheers from the crowd, as did her name when Lee introduced her from the stage.
The show began at 7:35 p.m. with a six-minute intro video. It showed a trio of young people entering a gothic castle while searching for Rush, encountering characters from the band's universe. Among them were the sausage-maker introduced during the 2010 Time Machine Tour, the owl from the cover of Fly By Night, and actors Jason Segel and Paul Rudd reprising their Rush-loving characters from the 2009 comedy I Love You, Man.
The arena was also notably phone-free for portions of the show, a detail Billboard flagged as unusual in the current concert landscape.
The Fifty Something Tour continues in other cities following the Los Angeles opener.
