Rush 2026

[alantig]

Our first look at Rush with Anika Nilles.

 

Edited March 30 by alantig
spelling

[alantig]

 

[Steve Haynie]

So the new Rush drummer can play John Rutsey's part.  OK.  

[velorush]

Premise: Rush is my favorite band. Period.

With that, I saw the OP video last night and was planning to come here this morning and post it in the "vocalists who need to hang it up" thread from a few months ago.

Painful. 

There's no shame in tuning down. Please. And I love Ged. He can still sing (ref: Clockwork Angels album), just in a (much) different register. Robin Zander notwithstanding, a man in his 70's can't be expected to sing in the same register as in his twenties (again, unless you're Robin Zander).

No comment on Ms. Nilles as "Finding My Way" (or most any Rutsey-era / first album song) isn't an adequate vehicle for demonstration of true Rush competency (Peartuosity?). I'll reserve comment - not that it carries any weight - until I hear Strangiato or Natural Science or YYZ or...

That said, they do appear to be having a blast.

[Dave Scepter]

I saw a photo of her and at first thought it was Madonna 🤣

[Steve Haynie]

8 minutes ago, Dave Scepter said:

I saw a photo of her and at first thought it was Madonna 🤣

Oh, what an insult!!!

[Dave Scepter]

1 hour ago, Steve Haynie said:

Oh, what an insult!!!

It wasn't meant as a dig... I was just expressing that she looked just like her "to me" in that photo

[ZR]

Agree, Madonna has a hard time drumming asymmetrical, irrational and/ or composite time signatures. When she subbed for Mike Portnoy in Dream Theater she also was lagging behind the beat constantly having the band members look at each other while playing, wondering if the material girl was the correct choice! 

😉 😁😃

[hamerhead]

I thought The Girl drummer was great and they all looked like they were having fun. Isn't that the whole point?

You can't honestly expect her - or anyone - to cover Neil's parts.

[Dave Scepter]

4 minutes ago, hamerhead said:

 they all looked like they were having fun. Isn't that the whole point?

No, the whole point is to bang the drummer without the other members knowing it 🤷

[RobB]

17 minutes ago, hamerhead said:

You can't honestly expect her - or anyone - to cover Neil's parts.

Of course I expect her to cover Peart's drumming. This is why she was hired.

I saw her with Jeff Beck. Trust me, she is more than capable of playing any Rush song.

[Disturber]

I just feel love.

[LucSulla]

1 hour ago, RobB said:

Of course I expect her to cover Peart's drumming. This is why she was hired.

I saw her with Jeff Beck. Trust me, she is more than capable of playing any Rush song.

I would assume so. There's this "Roger Bannister" thing in music, in that Bannister was the first person to officially run a 4-minute-mile in 1954, which a lot of people thought was impossible. Six weeks later, his record was broken, and by the end of the 1950s, there were a number of people who had done it. 

Hendrix, Peart, EVH - they are all kinda Bannisters. There are plenty of people today who can do everything they did and heaps more. Despite that, there's something clearly psychological about being the first person to step through that door. I have to imagine there are a lot of players today who can play these people under the table but would have, for whatever reason, never been anywhere in the same realm had not someone else shown them there was no real barrier but creativity and desire. 

[Dave Scepter]

[Steve Haynie]

11 hours ago, LucSulla said:

Hendrix, Peart, EVH - they are all kinda Bannisters. There are plenty of people today who can do everything they did and heaps more. Despite that, there's something clearly psychological about being the first person to step through that door. I have to imagine there are a lot of players today who can play these people under the table but would have, for whatever reason, never been anywhere in the same realm had not someone else shown them there was no real barrier but creativity and desire. 

For years I joked that there were a million guys who could play just like Eddie Van Halen, but they could not play anything new until Van Halen put out another album.  

[Jakeboy]

I am not a Rush fan. But the first album is by far my fave and it just rocks. 1st album, side 1, cut 1…hell yes!  Miles played it fantastically and I saw her with Jeff Beck as well. She will tear the roof off the sucker on this tour. I wish they were coming to KC.  They look like they are enjoying just rocking out and that is contagious.

[tommy p]

On 3/31/2026 at 9:45 AM, Steve Haynie said:

For years I joked that there were a million guys who could play just like Eddie Van Halen, but they could not play anything new until Van Halen put out another album.  

I saw a video of Phil X (I think) ripping the hell out of some Eddie song and he got every tiny bit perfect.  When the solo came around he played Eddie's solo perfectly but then looped the solo section and played his own Eddie-style solo right behind it and something just felt...off.  It was like AI or a copy of a copy of a copy.  He's a great player and one of the best I've seen at copying Eddie, but there was only one Eddie.

Edited April 3 by tommy p

[veatch]

That's interesting. I'm no Phil X (duh...), but I find the opposite for me. When I stop trying to sound like Eddie, Billy, George, Mark, or Joe,  that's when I stop sounding like a copy of a copy and things start to lock.  My best solos are ones where I F something up ("Jef" something up? : ), and just "go."