Tickets for all 58 shows on Rush's Fifty Something tour have been on sale to the general public for over a month now. While the initial batch of cities (Toronto, NYC, etc.) sold out quickly, sales for the second batch of dates has not been nearly as robust, with plenty of tickets left. Prices on the secondary markets seem to have settled down as well, so if you missed out during the pre-sales and still need tickets, you have several options. There has been little additional info given about the tour since the initial announcement, although Rush lighting director Howard Ungerleider revealed a few more tidbits in a recent guest appearance on the Geezers of Geer podcast. Howard spoke at length about his long career in the touring industry and his longtime relationship with Rush, including the band's upcoming tour and what they might have in store for the fans. He discusses the excitement surrounding the tour from both the band and crew, new drummer Anika Nilles, the dynamics of ticket pricing in the current market, and more. Howard describes how he first learned Rush would be touring again, and his involvement in the initial planning:
... for the first time ever in the history of Rush, we all had to sign NDAs to keep it quiet. I had to keep it quiet for months. I had to be sitting through meetings with them. ... [Rush] have always treated me well. When I won the visionary award in 2014 at LDI, [Ged] said that, I can't imagine doing it without Howard. So that's cool. ... I go there for the meeting and it's the usual players - every time we do a Rush tour we sit down with Geddy's brother Alan and his buddy, he's an award-winning video director, Dale Heslip. Then there's Alex Lifeson who comes and goes, but he's usually there, myself again. And then we start brainstorming. ... The only thing we don't talk about really is lighting because they don't want to deal with that. They want to deal with how the show is going to look on stage. They trust me with the lighting because of all these years ...
Howard also heaps praise on new drummer Anika Nilles and describes how she came on board, nothing that the band had essentially already chosen her by the time he learned about the tour:
.. Not only was she chosen, but she was already rehearsing with them. On and off. She's been coming in. ... I saw her [perform] with Jeff Beck before I even knew that she was going to be the drummer. But Geddy's base tech Scully, he was Jeff Beck's tech out on that [tour]. So Scully was the one that said to Geddy, "You should check out Anika." And ther's me in the audience sitting with my wife watching Jeff Beck and there was a female bass player as well. That was awesome. ... I just kept saying to to my wife, "This drummer, it's insane how good she is." And we walked out of there blown away. And the fact that she's now in Rush is just amazing because it really is cool. ... they made the best decision on this one ...
Here he is discussing how Rush will have a keyboard player (that's not Geddy Lee) on stage for the first time - something Geddy had already mentioned:
... There's going to be a keyboard player on the stage. ... [Ged] wants to back off on keyboards. He's still going to play his synthesizer, but the keyboard thing ... he had to trigger everything. He had to play all the keyboard parts. And he's a bass player. He'd rather be free to move around and sing. And that's what he wanted to do. Matter of fact, one of his dreams is is to just play bass like what he did for YES [playing Roundabout at their Rock Hall induction]. But that's what I kind of heard in that in that little speech that he made. ... If it wasn't Rush, he he would definitely play bass in another band for sure. ...
Howard also notes that this will be the first Rush tour with no buses, and that the band and crew along with all their gear will be flying between cities. You can check out the entire hour-and-a-half interview below or on YouTube. It's unlikely that more US/Canada dates will be added at this point, especially since plenty of tickets remain for that 2nd batch of cities. But that doesn't mean they won't add more legs in the future, as Ged mentioned in an interview with the Globe and Mail last month, saying that they are mulling the idea of extending the tour even further, outside of North America:
.. The tour has yet to begin, but already there is no end in sight, with concerts in Europe, South America and Asia being considered. "We're wrestling with extending the tour into 2027," Lee said. "I really don't know. We'll see how that all shakes down."
Ged also did an interview with the Canadian Press around that same time, sharing a little of what he, Alex and Anika might have in store for the fans:
... Lee said they've rehearsed at least 19 songs with Nilles so far, with about 38 songs on their ultimate set list. They plan to hire an additional keyboardist who will step in for Lee. "Every time we play those songs, it's more fun," he said. "By the time the tour starts, we'll have months of rehearsal under our belt." So far, Lee has no regrets about Rush's comeback, though he said it's impossible to ignore that Peart is the missing piece of their original trio. "When we used to have meetings, it was the three of us ... talking about the future," he said. "Now it's just me and Al. Being the buddies we are, it's taken our friendship a little deeper." As for the reunion itself, Lee said he can't help but feel optimistic. "The world is crazy right now," he added. "I think when you find something that makes you happy, you have to follow it."
As far as drummer Anika Nilles goes, she just wrapped up a tour with her band Nevell in Australia last night. She doesn't look to have any other touring planned for the near future, so I'm assuming she'll be taking a break for the Holidays too before getting with Dirk/Lerxst next year to prep for the Rush tour. Exciting times!
The comedy team of Lerxst/Dirk posted another beer video to Instagram this past weekend, where the pair banter back-n-forth about Rush Canadian Golden Ale, highlighting the fact that you can get it at the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario). Alex Lifeson apparently also has an apartment at the LCBO and has been living there for a while now. :)
The Phoenix New Times posted an article this past week where writer Cory takes a personal deep dive into Rush's Presto album:
... Recalling "Presto" from a distance, I think of being 17, pinned under earphones, volume unbearable as I pace my bedroom in thought. The soundtrack saturates memories of girls, suburban dreariness, Saturday night drives to nowhere and dreams of eventual dead-town escape. "If I could wave my magic wand," indeed. ...
The Power Windows site posted an article by blogger Jay Roberts this past week, where he gives a brief rundown of Rush's touring history in Washington DC - breaking down all 26 of their shows in the DC area, from their first show at Lisner Auditorium in 1975, to their 2015 appearance at Jiffy Lube Live on the R40 Live tour. You can check it out online here.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 2025 Induction Ceremony took place last month in Los Angeles, where Seattle grunge rockers Soundgarden were included in this year's crop of inductees. The ceremony aired live on Disney+, with Jim Carrey having the honor of inducting the band. Carrey gave his heartfelt induction speech, and then introduced the band's induction video, which gave a brief history of Soundgarden in between band interview segments and glowing comments from other musicians singing their praises. One of those musicians was Rush's Geddy Lee, whose comments were sprinkled throughout the video. An edited version of the ceremony will be airing on New Year's Day on ABC, and the Rock Hall released another video snippet of Geddy Lee to help promote the broadcast which you can check out below:
35 years ago this past week, Rush's Neil Peart was a guest on Rockline to discuss the band's Roll the Bones album, which had released the prior September. You can listen to the entire interview below or on YouTube. And for more videos of old Rush interviews, Rush references in TV/film, live clips and more, be sure to subscribe to the RIAB YouTube channel:
That's all for this week. Have a great weekend everyone!
