You don’t want to miss this!!! Legendary prog-rock band, Rush, brings the Fifty Something World Tour to NYC with four sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden on July 28 and 30th and August 1st and 3rd.
Formed in 1968 in Toronto by childhood friends Geddy Lee (vocals and bass) and Alex Lifeson (guitar), the band reached their longstanding power-trio lineup in 1974, adding one of the greatest drummers to ever live, Neil Peart (who also served as the band’s primary lyricist). Peart first brought his musical vision to the band for their sophomore album, 1975’s Fly By Night, which reached No. 49 in Canada and was certified platinum in both Canada and the United States. The album marked the beginnings of a new direction for Rush, which would soon come to define them as one of the most ambitious and cultishly-beloved rock bands of the next four decades and beyond. Peart, as equally devoted to jazz music as fantasy/science-fiction literature, embodied a high-art ambition that pushed the band’s sound to new heights, contributing masterful and methodically artistic drum arrangements and in-depth, world-building lyrical compositions.
Rush began to solidify their new vision on 1976’s 2112, which includes the seven-part, 20-minute epic of a title-track on which Lee passionately delivers Peart’s Ayn Rand-inspired lyrics. 1977’s A Farewell to Kings demonstrated Rush’s unique ability to be both obscure and accessible, featuring both the pop-leaning “Closer to the Heart” and the highly conceptual “Cygnus X-1” and “Xanadu,” all of which drew in a wide-ranging audience and led to the album reaching No. 5 in Canada and going double-platinum. In 1978, Rush released one of their most ambitious albums to date, Hemispheres, which, at the height of the band’s progressive rock era, features just four songs composed of grand conceptual thrust and virtuosic musicianship that demand serious concentration from the listener. The album features the eighteen-minute, five-part opener “Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres,” which dives deep into the complex relationship between reason (Apollo) and emotion (Dionysus), and the fully-instrumental, nine-minute closer “La Villa Strangiato,” which is considered one of the most demanding and intricate songs in rock music.
Rush expanded their genre-pushing prowess on 1980’s Permanent Waves, which contained a new wave-leaning, radio-friendly sound with more synths and shorter songs, all the while keeping up much of the prog-rock spirit that had come to define their music. They continued in 1981 with their most commercially successful, widely popular album, Moving Pictures, which reached No. 1 on the Canadian Albums chart, No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and UK albums charts, and was certified quintuple platinum by the RIAA. The album includes the band’s perhaps most well-known song, “Tom Sawyer,” which features a masterclass of a drum break and demonstrates a lyrical shift from the fantastical to the societal. The band continued to power through the rest of the 20th and early 21st centuries with a series of albums that embraced the new technologies and musical trends of the age, disbanding after their 2015 tour for the 40th anniversary of their debut album. As an extremely deserved recognition of their storied and iconic career, Rush was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, demonstrating their progression from having a large cult following to becoming one of the biggest bands of the last fifty years.
Neil Peart’s untimely death from cancer in 2020 left the music world reeling as the iconic musician who had inspired generations of drummers with his massive drum kit and time-bending fills left the world. Lee expressed his tremendous appreciation for Peart and the experiences of playing with him and Lifeson, telling Rolling Stone, “The music of Rush is always part of us… I would never hesitate to play one of those songs in the right context. But at the same time, you have to give respect to what the three of us with Neil did together.” The right context has arrived as Rush reunites for the Fifty Something World Tour in celebration of the tremendous legacy of the band and their former drummer. They are joined by German composer, music educator, and drummer, Anika Nilles, who fills in not as a replacement but as a touring drummer and, along with keyboardist Loren Gold (who toured with Chicago, the Who, and more), assists Lee and Lifeson in keeping alive the vision they spent decades molding alongside Peart. Each night consists of two full sets (without an opener) in which Rush plays hits from across their five-decade-plus career, performing all the songs in their original, non-truncated forms. The shows also are accompanied by an increased visual component to match the band’s expansive lyrical world, featuring two special-effects screens behind and in front of the band. The current run of performances features all the high energy and technical precision that has always made Rush’s music so remarkable as the band puts on as powerful a performance as ever, complete with Lee’s signature falsetto shriek, Lifeson’s commanding torrent of chords and riffs, and Nilles’ fresh takes on Peart’s iconic drum parts.
Don’t miss one of the best bands of all time at Madison Square Garden on July 28 and 30th and August 1st and 3rd!
How to Get Rush at MSG Tickets
Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com.
Location: Madison Square Garden
Address: 4 Pennsylvania Plaza, New York, NY 10001
Show Time: 7:30 p.m.
Doors Open: 6:30 p.m.
Ticket Price: $232-$1487
Ages: All ages
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