Rush @ Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, CT 11-1-26

Once Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Rush announced they would be reuniting to tour back in October of 2025, it instantly became one of the most anticipated tours of 2026. Let’s rewind and give a brief glimpse into Rush last decade plus. It was noted that back in 2015, then drummer Neil Peart didn’t want to tour anymore. He wanted to spend more time at home with his family. Things unfortunately changed as Peart got diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2016. Unfortunately, he ended up passing way in 2020. Original bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson took a considerable amount of time to grieve and decide what they would like to do with Rush moving forward. After an impromptu discussion with Sir Paul McCartney back in 2022, they decided to get the band back together. They recruited drummer Annika Niles to fill Peart’s seat behind the kit. It was lot of pressure for anyone to take that responsibility on. Peart was considered one the most accomplished rock drummers in history. Would Niles be up to the task? How would the band sound after 10 years off the road? There were a lot of questions surrounding if Rush can pull this off.

Many videos have circulated since the band started their tour back in Los Angeles in early June of 2026. From what I have seen, the feedback has been very positive from videos and reviews that have circulated online. Of course, to get answers one must see the band for themselves to make their own conclusions. We took in the 2^nd show of a 2 night stay at the beautiful Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, CT.

At 7:40pm, a short video of actors Paul Rudd and Jason Segal was shown. The gist of the clip was these “want to be” rockstars were searching for the searching for the long-lost Rush robes until they found them. Once found, the stage bellowed with dry ice while both Lee and Lifeson appeared with their double neck bass and guitar (respectively) in hand. The opening chords to my favorite Rush song in “Xanadu” started. Niles added the percussion parts to help open the song. Right off the bat Lee was making funny faces to Lifeson while they came together to play some of the parts of the song. Yes, it was going to be one of those magical nights. You can feel it! The band was in great spirits and that lasted throughout the entire 2-hour and 40-minute performance. That does include a 20-minute intermission. Before the 2^nd song “Dreamline,” Lee introduced the rest of the band. That also included keyboardist/vocalist Loren Gold. During the 1^st set, my highlight was on “Headlong Flight.” Lee showed he still has the range and power as he hit the high notes during the song. The overall musicianship was just so, so good. They did their first tribute to Peart by playing some old voice clips from past interviews along with photos of him and the band together on the video screen backdrop. They did dust off “Bravado,” which was nice surprise from the ‘Roll the Bones’ album to add to the setlist. Rush closed the first set with one of their biggest songs in “Spirit of Radio.”

For each show, Rush plays a different album in its entirety. So far, those albums that they are doing this is either ‘2112’ or ‘Moving Pictures.’ We got the latter ‘Moving Pictures’ for our show. ‘2112′ was played in its entirety for the lucky concert goers who attended the 1^st night of the 2 nightstand at Mohegan Sun.

Before the 2^nd set started, a short video clip of the South Park characters was played depicting them as “Lil’ Rush.” That segued into “Tom Sawyer.” The iconic drum solo within the song was handled with dignity by Niles. Lee changed his shirt and had a photo of what looked like a photo of Alex Lifeson was sword swallowing. Lifeson (and the crowd) got a kick out of it. For “Witch Hunt,” the pyro went off in unison to the sound of Niles drumbeat. The second Peart tribute was played. Again, with various live videos and an interview clip of him talking about being out on the road. Lifeson played a 14-string acoustic guitar for the beginning of “Closer to the Heart.” Lifeson and Lee came together at the end of “2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx” and did a little shaking and grooving to the song. Again, I keep mentioning these little moments to show how much the guys appreciated being up there and playing live again. It translates into their playing and the overall quality of the show. Another song that Niles shined on was “By-Tor & The Snow Dog.”

The last thing that may have got passed the casual fan, but not the absolute die hard who loves this band since the beginning was that Rush finally paid tribute to their first drummer John Rutsey. He passed away back in 2008 and played on the band’s first record titled ‘Rush.’ They showed the original band of Lee, Lifeson and Rutsey as various caricature’s during “Working Man.” Kudos to Rush for paying tribute to him.

This show had everything, bombs, lasers, pyro, a cool video screen that went up and down throughout the show. The stage set up had a New York City backdrop theme to it with high-rises and an industrial type of look to it as well. The most important things this show had were camaraderie and musicianship. I went into detail the love the band members had for each other, and you can feel it. Rush has always been a top musical outfit. This may be sacrilege to say, but I believe this may have been the best I ever heard them sound. I thought I was the only one feeling this way but in speaking with fans who have seen them since the 70’s, a lot of them echoed these same sentiments as well.

Setlist:

Set 1

Xanadu

Dreamline

Subdivisions

Headlong Flight

Neil Peart Tribute Collage 1

Bravado

La Villa Strangiato

Red Sector A

A Farewell to Kings

New World Man