Rush Returns To Cleveland, The City That Helped Break The Band: Review

Fifty-something years ago, Cleveland fans showed up for Rush. And 50-something years after that, the iconic Canadian prog-rock band returned to rock in the city, bringing its latest tour to Rocket Arena for one of the biggest rock events of the year.

Night 1 of Rush’s two-concert stand kicked off on Thursday night, to be followed by Night 2 on Saturday. The three-hour marathon performance featured original band founders Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson performing with the talented Anika Nilles, who has filled in on drums since powerhouse drummer Neil Peart died in 2020.

It’s the first time Rush has played in Cleveland since 2012, and the first time without Peart slamming out intricate fills behind his 360-degree drum kit. The Thursday night concert served as a tribute to the late drummer, with numerous tributes, stories and notes shared about his virtuosic skill.

“Tonight we will pay homage to him,” Lee said in a short break, addressing the audience. “A long overdue tribute.”

He also thanked the city for its longstanding support of the band.

“Cleveland, Ohio: where it sort of all began for us. Right here, in Cleveland,” Lee said. "Thank you for that, and thank you for this.”

Cleveland played a big part in Rush’s come up. In the 2010 documentary Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage, former WMMS music director Donna Halper reflected on how she broke the Canadian band in the U.S. in 1974.

“We were deciding what we were going to play that week, and suddenly I get this thing from Canada,” she says in the documentary. “I start listening to the song, and I’m just like, ‘Oh my God, this is a perfect record for Cleveland.’ Back then, it was a factory town. The song, ‘Working Man’ — every listener in the audience felt like that.”

Over the following five decades, the band’s fanbase quickly grew. Rush embarked on 26 tours, including its current “Fifty Something” trip, and 24 of its albums were certified gold and 14 certified platinum. In 2009, the band resurged in pop culture, when it was a central figure in Paul Rudd and Jason Segal’s buddy-comedy movie I Love You, Man.

Rudd and Segal even made an appearance as their movie characters at Rocket Arena on Thursday night, in opening and closing video skits that reimagined Rush as characters in a haunted house world. 

If I Love You, Man is any indication, Rush fans are something else. 

It took a massive fan effort to get the band inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, despite being eligible for 15 years. Once a critical punching bag of major publications, critical consensus, for the most part, has shifted to a new conclusion: Rush is good! As Foo Fighters founder Dave Grohl said in his Rock Hall induction speech for the band: “Their legacy is that of a band that stayed true to themselves, no matter how uncool they may have seemed to anyone.”

This weekend, the very same Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is celebrating Rush, opening its doors to many of the band's fans who are in town for the concerts during a series of “Rush the Rock Hall’ fan events.

Those fans were always the key to Rush’s success. Thousands of them descended upon Rocket Arena on Thursday, many of them wearing vintage band T-shirts and shouting along to the complicated, orchestral songs, trying their best to match the range that Geddy Lee, 73, mostly managed to hit. 

Lee and Lifeson shredded their layered, technical guitar parts and solos, while Nilles pounded away at every snare, cymbal, tom, bass drum in her kit. The trio sounded polished on everything they whipped into the setlist, especially crowd-pleasers like “Limelight,” “The Spirit of Radio,” “YYZ” and “Tom Sawyer.” The full 2112 suite was met with whoops from especially dedicated fans, who swayed to the philosophical, sci-fi-inspired project.

Rush saved the best for last, wrapping up with “Working Man” to the excitement of the audience. Here was a flashback 50-something years in the making: the very song that made Rush become the global phenomenon that it is today.

And it started here, with its Cleveland fans.

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