Thoughts about Rush and the new tour!

Posted to Reddit today:

Hey, this is a great post. I am 54, and a Rush fan since 1987, sophomore year in high school. I recall an older kid in the hood, probably in the Moving Pictures time frame, calling radio stations and requesting Tom Sawyer and Queen's Another One Bites the Dust, so that's my first Rush memory. But I had started playing bass guitar in 1985 or so and in high school, I started listening to Rush.

My first Rush tape was Hold Your Fire, and after that, I just deep dove on whatever I could get. Back then, no internet, so finding any non-official recordings was wild. Any concert footage was whatever I could find on VHS, and, at that time, it was Exit Stage Left. I had that on cassette tape as well and I'd spend hours in my room with my Steinberger knock-off Hohner bass hitting Play, Stop, Rewind and then Play again, trying to figure out riffs to YYZ, or The Spirit of Radio, or the Trees, or La Villa Strangiato.

I could never do what Geddy does, I learned so much. I learned how a bassist and drummer need to sync. I learned that bass is not just all root notes. I learned what it felt like to be quirky without knowing it. Rush was all those things to me.

When I picked up some bootleg CDs in Victoria, Canada, while on a high-school band field trip, I was like, "wait, they make mistakes in concert? NEIL makes mistakes?" I was floored. I thought "professional" bands didn't make mistakes. Ah, youth!

My first concert was Presto, in Seattle. A few years later, it was Roll the Bones, when me and a friend, all of 16 or 17 at the time, drove from Seattle to Vancouver, BC, as Seattle wasn't announced yet... and then, of course, it was. Over the years, I saw them at the Gorge for Test for Echo, and then twice at the White River Amphitheater, once for R30 and then for Snakes and Arrows.

Over the years, my tastes changed. I discovered other music and artists, bands like Fountains of Wayne, Muse, the Hold Steady, while still doing deep dives on stuff Rush would release. I didn't see them live anymore and come 2020, though I had moved on from obsessing about Rush, I was still shocked and so saddened by Neil's passing.

A few years after that, maybe still during COVID lockdown, I had turned on one of the official concert videos and found myself getting totally choked up. I was super surprised and didn't know what to make of it.

Fast forward to the past few Rush performances without Neil over the years. The one with Dave Grohl playing 2112. The one at Taylor Hawkins' memorial. Decent, but simply Rush without Neil and a reasonable substitute.

Then last year they announced Anika. And a tour? I didn't know what to think, but my buddy bought a ticket for Seattle and so did I. It went on the backburner for a few months until somewhere I heard they were playing for the first time at the Juno awards in Canada. All of a sudden it was like I was in high school again. No announcement, no leaked videos, simply hearing somewhere that it would be on YouTube soon.

And then that night, I watched them play Finding My Way and I was amazed. Not only was I choked up all over again, but it was Rush. It wasn't Rush with a special guest or anything like that. It was Rush with their new drummer and my god, she was great.

That stoked a huge interest in me, but after watching it a couple dozen more times, I was done for the moment. Until last week. I knew Rush was kicking off at the Forum. Didn't see any sound check videos or anything and like some sort of dork, I said, "no spoilers for me, let's hold off," but that lasted all of until the first videos started to show up on YouTube.

Like the rest of you, I watched TapeHeadToo's viral post of the Anika Cam video. I caught the Xanadu stick drop and was like, "did I see what i just saw?" Had to rewind and yup, it was, and she handled it like the pro she is.

More and more songs went and each time, I was grinning ear to ear. Did I miss Neil's signature ride pattern in Subdivisions or Sprit of Radio? Absolutely. Did she play some fills differently? Was it purposeful or did she do it wrong? I'd say all purposeful; she's too good to do it "wrong."

Throughout some other videos, I'd get caught in my nitpicking of Alex missing notes and/or whole parts (end of Anthem one night, he forgot the hits at the end, leaving only drum hits), and Geddy's overplaying nearly on every song (end of Red Barchetta anyone?). And don't get me started on the flamenco strumming he does (hate it).

But then the camera would come back to Anika and I AM HERE FOR IT. I love Neil, but as good as he was, I am now realizing that to him, Rush was so demanding, that it seemed to suck any joy he got out of it. Maybe it was the rigors of touring, his health, being away from family, etc, but he looked to be on autopilot.

Seeing Anika smile after hitting the Tom Sawyer fills, or her incredibly cool charisma when blasting through the 2112 finale, or the Bytor battle fills before the breakdown? Worth the price of admission. And as the OP says, the "older brother" energy from the boys to her during the songs is so damn endearing!

I have noticed that Geddy is all about checking in on her, watching her/ giving her cues, while Alex is almost always with his back to her, really clocking his guitar neck. Watch as they hit the first unison run in YYZ. It's never tight and almost always a minor train wreck (IMO), but Geddy and Anika are at least close; Alex, well, see for yourself. I don't think he's ignoring her, he's just hyperfocused on his own parts.

But despite all the nitpicking, they are enjoying themselves so much and I am loving seeing their reactions, interplay and hearing the songs I grew up on. I am grateful for all the attendees recording their videos and posting for us to see.

My nerdier side wants to see only Anika drum vids. The power and precision she gives is intoxicating. I've seen Alex and Geddy do their thing long enough. I want to consume all of the drum videos I can, and I'm not even a drummer! I'm watching other YT creators dissecting her playing and it is so cool to see.

I did enjoy the renaissance Rush had in the 2010s with their pop culture relevancy and was always a bit bummed it was during what I found to be their most meh recordings. However, one side of me also loved that they never found super mainstream popularity, that they were our little secret.

These days, with Anika uniting our country (/s), let their popularity grow. Let them bring organic, instrument-driven rock back to the masses. Let them show that a couple senior citizens can still play circles around most bands around. Let them get their flowers and everything that's coming. I am here for it all and I am so proud to be a life-long Rush fan.

Sorry for hijacking, but I loved the OP's post and I've been thinking about this all week.

We bought Marci a new car!

Since I got my Ioniq 5 in November, it's been great. No gas stations, charging at home, all the benefits. Marci started asking about EVs so we drove a few in the spring. She checked out an ID.4 and a Nissan Ariya. She drove my car for the first time and that was that.

We let it go for a month or two, but then a couple things happened: gas prices went close to $6.00. Luckily the Alltrack is regular gasoline, but even so, it was costing us about $75-80 to fill that car up. Weekends we'd take the I5 out, so gas went longer, but it was still a bit of a shock. The AT was just paid off, so we were willing to ride it out.

Riley's Fiat 500 was paid off last year as well and his plan after graduating was to sell it for $2k or whatever he could get for it. It had pretty low miles, but the car was getting rough: trunk door wouldn't open, interior was a bit messy, stuff like that. We had just put new tires on it in February or something, so it was OK and maybe he could get a few bucks for it.

Until he got backed into in early May and the car was considered totaled. RIP F500.

If there was something good that came out of that, it was we got paid way more for the car than I expected, even more than if we sold it, and even a good chunk after they kept my deductible. They did us a favor by relieving us from having to sell it.

So then we had to make a decision. Do we let Marci keep driving the AT, give Riley my Jetta (also paid off) and move on with our lives? The Jetta had been at Mom's house for the past 6 months or so and needed some resurrecting. I think Riley would be happy with either, but in the end, we decided to give him the Alltrack and sit on the Jetta as a trade-in of some sort.

All during this time, Marci was researching a car for herself. She wanted an EV smaller than mine, but with AWD. Trouble was, anything crossover sized wouldn't have AWD, so she looked at the Kia Niro EV, which was just about the same size as her Alltrack. We drove a couple and she was pretty much sold on it. Price was decent and she could get the Wave trim, which was top of the line.

As she looked more, she found a Hyundai Kona EV Limited down at a small EV dealer in Renton. We ended up going there for a look and that was pretty much that. It was the chalk/cyber gray that I liked for the Ioniq. It had the Limited trim, with the 360 cameras, heated/vented seats, heated steering wheel. No HUD, which she actually liked on the Niro, but since she doesn't roll with normally, not something she'd miss.

We drove it around town and she seemed to like it. It was in really great shape and only had 7500 miles, 2024 MY. We had Genny, the salesperson/co-owner of the dealership, run financing for us and within a day or so, we were approved. I sent over pix of the Jetta and they offered me $2700 for it, before asking if the windshield had a crack, at which point they lowered it to $2500, which, considering its condition, I thought was fair, especially sight unseen.

Goodbye old friend!

We agreed to terms and picked it up last a week ago Saturday. Marci drove it around and got used to it over the next couple days, until I saw a weird thing on the rear right tire. Turns out the previous owner must have hit a nail and got the tire plugged. Problem was it was causing teh sidewall to bulge also. And since the dealership missed it, they agreed to replace it for us. So we picked it up yesterday, a week or so after getting it and now it's back.

Marci in the new car!

Driving it home!

Lots of bells and whistles on this car. Same as mine. I think she'll love it as much as I love the I5. Just need to finish setting up the Bluelink stuff so she can use her phone to cool/heat it, etc. And then when she charges, she's gonna love that! No more gas stations! And Riley's coming home tomorrow to pick up the Alltrack. Lots of changes, all for the better.

Anika Nilles and RUSH

Totally surprised when Rush announced Anika Niles as their drummer and that they'd be touring. Cass and I bought tickets in October last year for October this year and their tour started last night in Los Angeles. I was going to avoid spoilers, but fuck that.

I watched a lot of videos. I'm so proud of Rush for picking Anika, despite knowing nothing about her. She's done her time in jazz improv bands, she toured with Jeff Beck's band and now she's the drummer in my favorite band.

I saw her perform with the boys a few months ago at the Junos and I got all choked up. I couldn't talk to Marci without getting wobbly in the voice. It was pretty cool!

Then last night happened and I watched more and more videos. The band itself is good enough. It's the first show in forever and there were nerves, etc. Geddy sounds good enough, Alex is messing up some solos and parts here and there, but for a couple of 70+ year olds, can't complain too much.

And then there's Anika. She is powerful, solid, aggressive and god damn if she isn't an incredible drummer. She is hitting all the songs, but she's not doing everything Neil did. Biggest thing isn't doing Neil's ride cymbal part in the songs that have it. Like in Subdivisions, or Red Barchetta, it wasn't there. Some fills are different for sure, and it seems the boys have told her to make the songs her own.

Some dude at the show recorded the whole show focused on Anika and it's pretty incredible. Long blonde ponytail, just great. Her face is hidden behind cymbals, but when you can see it, she's smiling a lot and it's just a beautiful thing to see all the way around.

Looking forward to this for sure, all the musicians are coming out and praising her and October's show is gonna be off the hook.

Someone said something like, "All Hail the King, Long Live the Queen." Pretty appropriate.

2026-06-06 Planets in the Ocean at Conor Byrne

Last night was way too fun. I wish I had a reality TV crew following me around to capture all the people that were there, the music made and the good vibes overall. I made a strong effort to pump the socials and text and reach out to folks. It worked out well, let's see who came for me (or at least confirmed they were coming with me): Michael P, Taylor H, Elizabeth D (+2), Jose C (+3), Evan C (+1), Marci!, Christian S (+3), Dusty H, Eric J, Brian H (+1). Maybe there were more? But overall, there were so many people for us. Hell, with Stag and the Rallies in the building, we couldn't help but have a good draw.

Marci came out and I was stoked for that, but it was gonna be a long night. I-5 north was closed from I-90 all the way to 45th, so we left about 4pm for a 5pm expected arrival time. It was lame. She shopped for a printer the whole time. Cheaper to replace the stupid thing rather than buy new ink, I hate that.

Stuck in traffic with my favorite person!

Anyway, an hour later we arrived at my new favorite club, Conor Byrne. As mentioned in last month's recap, the room sounded so good. Would it be the same for this show? Unsure. Last time, I played through Charlie's Ampeg 610 and it was thunderous. This time, I provided backline with my new Orange 112 powered by the old Ashdown, for its first show. Despite Mark the repair guy saying to not trust it at a gig, over the past 10+ hours of rehearsals and home practice, it's been fine, so I figured why not? I did tell Pete Nordstrom to bring his Orange Bass Terror just in case...

I pulled up and Ben London was unloading his car. Lee Brown pulled up after us. Ben Heege was already inside. Cass showed up a few minutes later, as did Tim. It was like reunion day at the old folks home. All the homies were there. Not only that, we had all the Embers heads show up: Charles and Cyndy, Lisa G and her husband, Lisette, Stephanie P, maybe some others. Tim had Kim and Chris show up, Rebecca Young, Kay, probably more than that. I got to talk to Cathy Pants (I don't know her real last name!), Jonathan Plum, Bob and Tina Lang, Steve Reeves, Alan W and Dan, Jan Fox from Model Shop (who was just walking by), Elizabeth, Jose and his family. It was all so great.

I got the little baby rig on stage and of course I forgot to take any pictures. It powered up and Ben got his bass plugged in, a hollow body Washburn and it sounded round and full. Pretend this picture is from sound check instead of the show:

Check out the cool Ashdown VU meter!

After I set up, Marci and I went to grab a quick bite. We went to a place called Situ Tacos. I had a taco salad bowl of some sort and it was tasty. And not a comment on the food, but I noticed afterward that a tooth that had been intermittently painful for months had broken. Don't know where the rest of it went, but luckily it doesn't hurt and a call has been made to the dentist. I'm guessing a crown is in my near future.

Dinner before my tooth broke.

We walked back to Conor Byrne, but not before stopping in a doorway to have Marci look into my mouth. Surely we didn't look any weirder than the other people walking around in Ballard, right?

Back at the club, it was just a nice party. I socialized with as many people as I could, like I mentioned. I helped set up our merch table. I spent some time this week creating a QR code and price sheet for stuff. I guess it helped, we generated about $200 in Venmo purchases, so that was quite cool.

Gotta take some lessons from the Rallies on how to do merch

A sweet woman named Dineen (don't know the spelling), who is a friend of Stag's, ran merch for us all and she was fantastic. It was nice to not have to worry about running merch. My only regret is not getting a Rallies record and some more Stag stuff. And after seeing all their stuff, we should look into more swag. Or maybe after recording again.

Enough small talk. Rallies took the stage and show us all how a real tight, professional, harmonic band plays. They are just fine gentlemen and musicians and they played to a very appreciative audience. Check out the crowd!

The Rallies!

I regret to say I didn't see much of their set due to getting my social on. But what I heard did sound excellent. Bradford, the sound tech at Conor Byrne, is so good and the room just sounds great.

Stag took the stage next and of course, they just destroyed. And they are fine folks, each one of them. I've said things about them before and it's still true. Nice dudes and wonderful performers!

STAG. And the club was packed, just not from this picture.

Once Stag got off the stage, we got the ball rolling. We decided to play all the songs from the record, including Darla's Song, which meant Robb had to get his keys setup. Which was fine, but there were problems. He had no sound, so that meant I got to get on the mic and be stupid. Did a bunch of talking because he couldn't figure out what was going on. I thanked people, the bands, a bunch of nonsense. Sad thing is, I sort of love the attention. Doh! We finally played and then he had to switch to his guitar rig. And of course, something went weird. His guitar didn't sound right, so I jumped back on the mic. A few minutes of that and he finally got things up and running.

Cass did up the setlist and had us starting with The Loud Silence, which is a nice, chill way to get into things. I tried warming up a little, mainly by stretching my hands and arms, and not starting with something like Nomenclature helped.

Audio on stage sounded great! The Ashdown/Orange baby amp was fantastic. I could hear my bass and it was lovely. Robb's amp was to his left and leaned back 45°, pointed right at his ear, which also meant it pointed right at me. It was ok, loud, but not too terrible.

We worked our way through the set, there was a full house, and it was fucking awesome. I wish I took some pics from the stage, but I didn't. We had Derrick Miller and Devin Creisler in the house and they always shoot full vids, so those should be upcoming. But Mike Mitchell was there taking pics, as were a bunch of others, so here's some of those. All the PITO pix are a bit too red so imma fix those before posting.

Full house!

Mike Mitchell with me and Tim

The set was fine. I could've been tighter on stuff I did. I felt sloppy. Monitors were better last month but still good; I could hear myself pretty good. I think we all had some awkward moments, but overall went well. People loved it, they really did and it felt so good.

They especially went nuts when Timmy jumped up there. We started with All Amounts to Something and it hit when he started the riff. Really fun to play that with him and get the Embers train back on the track. The cheers were loud and a pretty good preview of what to expect when we play at the Sunset in September. Should be great and well attended.

Next up is Planets with our pals Square Peg, Royal Blunder, The Rallies and Full Life Crisis at Hidden Hall on a Saturday afternoon. Will be a great time!