As Rush returned after intermission on Thursday, June 11, an animated clip of the “South Park” kids arguing over the meaning of Rush’s hit “Tom Sawyer” led, as it has for years, into the band playing its signature tune for fans at the Kia Forum.
But unlike the previous two nights in Inglewood, as Rush launched its first tour in 11 years, this time it wasn’t at the end of the show. And diehard fans, as most Rush fans are, noticed.
“Red Barchetta” followed, and by its finish, singer-bassist Geddy Lee revealed what some might have guessed: Rush planned to play its 1981 album “Moving Pictures,” widely considered its masterpiece, from start to finish.
Rush lead vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee performs during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson performs during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush drummer Anika Nilles, from Germany, performs during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush lead vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee talks to the sold out crowd during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson performs during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush drummer Anika Nilles, from Germany, performs during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush lead vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee talks to the sold out crowd during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush lead vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee, right, guitarist Alex Lifeson, left and drummer Anika Nilles perform during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush lead vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee performs during the bands Fifty Something Tour during their third of 4 sold out shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush lead vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee, right, and guitarist Alex Lifeson, left, perform during the bands Fifty Something Tour during their third of 4 sold out shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. German drummer Anika Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush drummer Anika Nilles, from Germany, acknowledges the crowd during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, left, and lead vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee, right, enjoy their time on stage during the bands Fifty Something Tour during their third of 4 sold out shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. German drummer Anika Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, front, and lead vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee, rear, perform during the bands Fifty Something Tour during their third of 4 sold out shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. German drummer Anika Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, left, and lead vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee, right, perform during the bands Fifty Something Tour during their third of 4 sold out shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. German drummer Anika Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush drummer Anika Nilles, from Germany, performs during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, left, and lead vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee, right, enjoy their time on stage during the bands Fifty Something Tour during their third of 4 sold out shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. German drummer Anika Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush fans rock from the front row as the band performs during their Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush prepares to take the stage during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush drummer Anika Nilles, from Germany, performs during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, left, and lead vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee, right, perform during the bands Fifty Something Tour during their third of 4 sold out shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. German drummer Anika Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, left, and lead vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee, right, enjoy their time on stage during the bands Fifty Something Tour during their third of 4 sold out shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. German drummer Anika Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush drummer Anika Nilles, from Germany, performs during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, left, and lead vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee, right, share a laugh on stage during the bands Fifty Something Tour during their third of 4 sold out shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. German drummer Anika Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush drummer Anika Nilles, from Germany, performs during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
A jet flies over the Kia Forum as Rush performs the third of their 4 sold out shows during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush drummer Anika Nilles, from Germany, performs during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush drummer Anika Nilles, from Germany, performs during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Rush drummer Anika Nilles, from Germany, performs during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Nilles is the bands new drummer following the death of legendary drummer Neil Peart in 2020. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
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Rush lead vocalist and bassist Geddy Lee performs during the bands Fifty Something Tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Anticipation for these shows had been building since October. That’s when Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson announced that – despite deciding in 2015 never to tour again without drummer Neil Peart, whose ill health led to his death in 2020 – they would in fact return this year.
The Fifty Something Tour celebrates more than half a century of Rush’s classic lineup of Lee, Lifeson and Peart, and in many ways, it’s also a tribute to Peart, long acclaimed as one of the greatest rock drummers and the band’s primary lyricist.
The short film “Where’s Rush?” opens these shows, a mystery comedy that features a trio of young Rush fans trying to find them in a haunted castle in which they stumble across the South Park kids, actors Jason Segal and Paul Rudd as Rush wannabes, and finally Lee and Lifeson as wrinkled old men with weak bladders until the kids find two magic robes that return them to rock and roll glory on stage.
Oh yeah, it’s a lot – Old Man Lifeson jokes about his weak bladder at one point – but unlike some of their prog-rock peers, the Rush guys have long had a sense of humor about themselves.
The show kicked off with “Xanadu” and Lifeson and Lee both playing double-necked guitar and bass. It also quickly gave fans an introduction to Anika Nilles, the German drummer hired to replace the irreplaceable Peart. Reports from earlier shows have been overwhelmingly positive.
After Thursday’s show, I’m a convert. She’s not Peart, who is? But she’s a beast on the drum kit, and her solos throughout the show often got bigger cheers than Lifeson’s or Lee’s as fans seemed excited to welcome her into the fold.
“Hello! Let me see all those beautiful faces out there,” Lee said at the close of the 10-minute show opener. “It’s been a while. Thank you so much for still being there.
“We’re here to celebrate 50 years of Rush music,” he continued, joking, “And yet I look so young.
“Music I wrote with this guy,” Lee said, pointing to Lifeson, prompting cheers from the crowd. “Music I wrote with Neil Peart.” The crowd got even louder.
Highlights of the first of two 90-minute sets included “Dreamline,” Lifeson’s guitar solos soaring while Lee and Nilles faced each other, grinning at each other as the rhythm rumbled powerfully.
The band’s 1982 album “Signals” had followed “Moving Pictures” and further marked Rush’s movement from its more ornate prog-rock of the ’70s toward a more straightforward hard rock in the ’80s. It also added more synthesizers to the band’s sound; both “Subdivisions” and “New World Man” had many singing along Thursday.
Where those were concise, the instrumental “La Villa Strangiato” was indulgent – the subtitle of the song is literally “An Exercise in Self-Indulgence.” An instrumental, it ran about 10 minutes or so, shifting through complicated time signatures and key changes every minute or so in impressive fashion.
“The Spirit of Radio” closed out the first set in fun fashion, Lee hopping around the stage, Lifeson slipping a bit of reggae into his riffs, and the crowd punching their fists in the air to the beats.
The “Moving Pictures” album gave Thursday’s fans something that Rush apparently had not done since 2011, when that album celebrated its 30th anniversary.
Its first side, and the opening four songs of the second set, feature well-known favorites from “Tom Sawyer” and “Red Barchetta” and a terrific run through the instrumental “YYZ,” which earned huge cheers for Nilles drum solos, and “Limelight.”
The original album’s second side served rarer tracks from the band’s catalog, including “Camera Eye,” a sprawling epic that ran 11 minutes on the record and was the last time Rush released a song of more than 10 minutes in length. [You’ll win a bar bet with that nugget.]
On Thursday, it was a tour de force played live, the long instrumental opening creating a mood to match the ominous urban streetscape of the visuals on stage, the latter vocal half still pierced by gorgeous soaring guitar soloing from Lifeson.
“Witch Hunt” kept the dark mood alive with imagery of a blood-red moon and flames shooting from flash pots on stage to match the fiery images on screen. Both it and “Vital Signs,” which followed, provided Nilles more space to showcase her drum chops, earning roars of appreciation from the audience in both numbers.
“Time Stand Still” brought the set out of “Moving Pictures” and into one of Peart’s loveliest lyrics, the song’s narrative a plea to remember the past but celebrate the present. Released in 1987, it featured singer Aimee Mann, then still in ‘Til Tuesday, on vocals.
On Thursday, as with the previous two shows, Mann, who lives in Los Angeles, came on stage to sing the song with Lee, the first time she’s ever performed the track live with the band.
The second set wrapped with three of the movements from “2112” – “Overture,” “Temples of Syrax,” and “Grand Finale.” Together, the mini-suite ran a dozen minutes or so, including starting over after Lee wandered off stage and stopped playing early on, prompting a minor “Spinal Tap” moment.
“We’re gonna take a break because I don’t know what’s going on with Ged,” Lifeson said with a bemused smile at his partner’s disappearance. Technical issues with his bass resolved, the song resumed and roared to its finish.
“By-Tor and the Snow Dog,” which dates back to 1975’s “Fly By Night,” the first Rush album after Peart joined, and the first to feature the band’s growing interest in prog music and lyrics, featured a midsection with a guitar and bass battle between Lifeson and Lee, trading of solos in a fight between the title dogs.
“Working Man,” from the band’s 1974 self-titled debut, closed out the night, the big, bluesy hard rock number a fan favorite from the bars of Toronto more than 50 years ago to the arenas Rush is filling now that they’ve gotten back to work.
