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Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Thu, Oct 3, 2024

Rush's Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson make surprise guest appearance at Gordon Lightfoot tribute show in Toronto

Fri, May 24, 2024@10:35AM | comments

UPDATE - 5/26@4:40PM: Geddy posted some photos from the event to his Instagram, with the following caption:

On Thursday evening at Massey Hall in Toronto, both Alex and myself had the profound pleasure of paying tribute to a true Canadian musical legend, Gordon Lightfoot. A huge thank you to the gracious members of Blue Rodeo for sharing their stage and prodigious talents with us both- a tremendous evening full of compelling performances and warm remembrances. An honour to be there. ...

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UPDATE - 5/25@10:35AM: Here are a couple of Facebook photo galleries along with better quality video of both The Way I Feel and the all-star jam (thanks RushFanForever). There's also this Variety article with some quotes from Geddy:

... Lee and Lifeson, billed on the private performer rundown and setlist only as "L+L," were backed by Canadian Music Hall of Famers (and the evening's house band) Blue Rodeo on Lightfoot's song "The Way I Feel," complete with an acoustic guitar solo from Lifeson. ... "It was important for us to pay tribute to Gordon," Lee told Variety. "Not being folk or pop artists, Alex and I were looking for one of Gordon's songs that might better suit our style of play and we found that in 'The Way I Feel.' Its structure was loose and more open to interpretation than many of his more popular tunes." ... "After the gig, Gordon's daughter Meredith [Moon] said to us, 'Leave it to Rush to make 'The Way I Feel' sound prog,' so I think we succeeded," Lee added. Lee and Lifeson also came out for the ensemble finale, "Summerside of Life," featuring all of the evening's performers ...

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A tribute show celebrating the music of late Canadian icon Gordon Lightfoot took place last night at Massey Hall in Toronto and Rush's Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson made a surprise guest appearance:

... Everyone from his own daughter to contemporaries like Burton Cummings paid tribute to Gordon Lightfoot in song on Thursday night at Toronto's Massey Hall in the first musical gathering to honour the iconic singer-songwriter since his death just over a year ago at age 84. But the biggest surprise was when previously unannounced performers Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush fame took the stage to join Blue Rodeo, one of two house bands for the evening, to perform The Way I Feel. "Fancy meeting you here," joked Lee. ...

You can watch some fan-shot video of the performance below or on Facebook.

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