Tag: 50 Something Tour

Eight Days Away

Eight days. Just eight more days to go.

Eight days from now I will see Rush. I have seen them 25 times dating back to December of 1987. It has been 11 years since my last show. 11 years since Neil Peart first retired, effectively ending the band, and then passed away, seemingly definitely ending the band. I said at that time that I wanted them to stay finished. No Neil, no Rush.

Then last year Geddy and Alex let it be known that they were getting together on their own and jamming. Then they let it be known that they had started jamming on Rush tunes. Then they let it be known that they had started jamming with a drummer, Anika Nilles, and then they announced a tour. 

I surprised myself by going from no Neil, no Rush to OH MY GOD I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THEM AGAIN in the amount of time it took me to read through the tour announcement. They didn’t announce any shows in Boston, but they did announce four in New York and we were able to snag some tickets. Of course they did eventually announce Boston dates but we will be in California those days. There are still two shows in Connecticut though. They are sold out and the resale prices are absurd. We’ll see how they look in October though.

Oh, and there is a rumor of a residency at The Sphere in Las Vegas. If that happens… we might have to be there for it. Just one show, that’s all.

Vegas and Connecticut are questions for future me. Current me just has to make it through the next eight days without spontaneously combusting with glee. You might be able to tell from reading through this blog, but music is really important to me and since 1981 (when I was all of 10 years old) no music has been as important to me as Rush. To my musical soul they have always been the beginning and end of it all. It is going to be different without Neil Peart, but it is still going to be amazing. I just have to get through eight more days.

I.

Cannot.

Wait.

Jealousy

I mentioned yesterday that I went to a wake for the parent of an old friend. The old friend is also a former band mate. Back in the 90’s I was the guitar player and sometimes the lead singer (yikes!) and she was the drummer.

That’s right. Our band had a woman playing drums more than 25 years before Rush had a woman playing drums. How cool were we?

Speaking of Rush (again), that’s what this post is going to be about. Rush. Again. The 50 Something Tour. The grand come back. The historically nerdiest band in the world assuming their rightful place as the coolest band to ever come back from retirement and the death of 33% of the lineup. The feel good story of 2026.

Back in the 90’s, the band we were in was made up of all Rush fans. There were three of us and we were all fanatics. We used to try to play The Spirit of Radio and I could almost sort of get there. Not really, but kind of. There was one, maybe two (memory fails me) occasions where the three of us went to see Rush together. Pretty sure we saw them together on the Test for Echo tour in… 1996? 1997? Probably ’97. I can’t recall. Was there another time too? 2002, maybe? I can’t recall.

Our Rush loving drummer had a sister who was a guitar player who was studying at Berkeley College of Music and was approximately 1369742987149176284691327469 times better than I was. I was always sort of expecting that I would get the axe and she would replace me. It’s kind of insane that they never did that. It would have made the band infinitely better.

The guitar playing sister moved to California at some point. She was at the wake last night. I hadn’t seen her since… I don’t even know when. At least 1999, probably earlier than that. The first thing she said to me last night was, “are you going to see Rush?” Did I mention she was a Rush fanatic too?

Side note: All of you people making jokes about how Rush is a boys only club can just fuck right the fuck off. I know more die hard Rush fans who are women than who are men. I married one. So there.

Back to the story, she asked me if I was going to see Rush and I said we got tickets to see them in New York. At this point I had completely forgotten that she lived in Southern California. If I hadn’t forgotten that I would have known what was coming. She said she saw them in Los Angeles. They played four shows… she saw two.

They have only played four shows on this tour so far and she saw two of them. I think I turned green with envy. I mean it. Literally. Green.

The tour reaches its second location tonight. They are playing the first of two shows in Mexico City. I have a valid passport. There’s no legal reason why I could not be there. I should be there. We all should be there.

I can’t wait.