50 years of Rush in Chicago: A local history of the band in 10 concerts
When Rush settles in for a sold-out four-night stand at United Center beginning Thursday, July 16, it will mark the first time the band plays Chicagoland without long-standing anchor Neil Peart. The drummer died at age 67 from brain cancer in early 2020, less than five years after the group’s last area appearance.
Though many fans believed Peart’s death spelled the end for Rush, whose most recent studio album (“Clockwork Angels”) was in 2012, co-founding members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson shocked nearly everyone last fall when they announced the “Fifty Something Tour.” Anika Nilles accepted the challenge of manning the drum kit. Rush is also bucking tradition by employing an auxiliary musician, Loren Gold, on keyboards and backing vocals.
Personnel changes aside, the upcoming shows build on a local legacy equaled by few artists. Since performing in early October 1974 as an opener for the bands Steppenwolf and Canned Heat at the long-forgotten Oak Brook Forum, Rush has logged upward of four dozen concerts spanning the city, suburbs, Elgin and Rockford. The frequency speaks to the trio’s consistency, popularity and deep ties to the blue-collar Midwest — the region responsible for helping the Toronto-based collective break through outside its native Canada and land a major-label deal.
Here’s a deeper dive into some of Rush’s rich regional history, in 10 concerts.
Fremd High School in Palatine (April 19, 1975)
Rush evolved from an underage covers act into an original band by woodshedding on school campuses around Toronto during its formative 1968-1974 era. Fittingly, the trio supported Kiss (promoting its “Dressed to Kill” LP) at a northwestern suburban high school. Sponsored by the Vikings Booster Club as a fundraiser, the somewhat unorthodox gig cost $4.50 and ran from 7:30-11 p.m. Fresh off making “Fly by Night,” its sophomore album and first effort with Peart, Rush was already acclimated with the area. The trio had opened for Aerosmith three weeks earlier at Aragon, a venue it first visited with Rory Gallagher the previous November. Seizing every opportunity to expand its reach, Rush circled back with Kiss in May for a concert at a sports gym at Lewis University in Romeoville.
Armory in Rockford (Nov. 15, 1975)
As was typical of burgeoning rock bands in the mid-1970s, Rush pumped out its second LP (“Caress of Steel”) in the same calendar year and headed right back on the road. Kiss paired with Rush again in fall 1975. The Illinois National Guard Armory in Rockford (now listed on the National Registry of Historic Places) then doubled as a music venue and advance tickets ($6.50) were hawked at independent outlets such Co-op Tapes & Records with locations in Beloit, DeKalb and Rockford. An Auditorium Theatre show with Rainbow the following week got nixed due to Rush not being given enough room onstage, as well uncertainty over payment. After the band decided not to play, Lee and company trekked to the International Amphitheatre to watch Kiss. Two other confirmed Illinois dates followed in late 1975 — in Quincy, and at the Aragon with Blue Oyster Cult the day after Christmas. Next was a March 5, 1976, engagement at Randhurst Twin Ice Arena in Mount Prospect that went ahead despite an alleged ordinance prohibiting hard rock.
Auditorium Theatre in Chicago (Dec. 16, 1976)
After paying dues for almost a decade, Rush exploded with the sci-fi concept album “2112.” The band headlined a May 28, 1976, date that was cobbled together with little advance at Riviera Theatre, where an enthusiastic crowd spurred three encores. Rush was already too big for the Schaumburg nightclub B’Ginnings when it stopped there in late August, while a return to the Rockford Armory in November with hometown heroes Cheap Trick witnessed Lee and Lifeson whisked around the stage on a gurney. By the time Rush celebrated its widespread fame at a sold-out Auditorium Theatre concert — whose finale witnessed Lifeson sit atop the shoulders of nearly 7-foot-tall tour manager Michael “Lurch” Hirsh — the mainstream press picked up on the momentum. The reward? Another trip to Uptown on May 20-21, 1977, causing police to shut down Lawrence Avenue in both directions because of such commotion outside the Aragon Ballroom entrance.
International Amphitheatre in Chicago (Dec. 14-16, 1978)
Rush helped usher in 1978 with a trio of January shows that established a new attendance record at the Aragon Ballroom. Underlining how big it had become, the group closed the year with a jam-packed docket that involved three sold-out gigs at the International Amphitheatre. A mere $9.50 (or about $34 today) admitted you into the bygone Union Stock Yards building to hear Rush navigate some of its most complex fare, including the “Hemispheres” LP in its entirety, the complete “Cygnus X-1” and all but one part of the epic “2112” suite. Lee and Lifeson’s signature double-necked guitars, a percussive arsenal equipped with 23 microphones, more than 200 high-wattage lights and a cutting-edge sound system fueled the prog-rock excursions. Record-label executives even presented the band gold-record awards for “Hemispheres” on the second night.
Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont (Nov. 19-21, 1982)
New era, new venue, new album (“Signals”), “New World Tour.” The first of Rush’s cumulative total of four multinight engagements during the ’80s at the bunker now known as Allstate Arena succeeded a “Chicago Jam II” festival appearance in August 1979 at a half-empty Comiskey Park, and a last hurrah at International Amphitheatre in 1981. Sandwiched in between: An early April 1980 residency at which the band became the first artist to sell out the latter facility for four nights. Promoting its Billboard Top 10 “Permanent Waves” record, Rush reigned amid a smoke-choked environment festooned with homemade banners strewn from balcony overhangs and held aloft by fans, who created them for a contest sponsored by WLUP-FM. Shiny and suburban, the atmosphere at Rosemont Horizon differed — with the group’s clean-cut looks, shortened locks and spiffy outfits mirroring the flair of its recent synth-dominant material.
World Music Theatre in Tinley Park (June 28, 1992)
The 101st and final concert of the “Roll the Bones Tour” occurred nearly eight months after Rush’s initial area stop at Rosemont Horizon. Renowned for their willingness to poke fun at themselves, the band members prompted laughter whether sending up their sentimental feelings or, in Peart’s case, surprising everyone by ripping off the bandana on his head to reveal a mohawk haircut he’d gotten shortly before the band hit the stage. During the encore, Lifeson fired a foam arrow at Peart and the drummer grabbed it and stuffed it in his mouth. Rollicking stuff from veterans who, on their next trip to the Chicago area in 1994, got slammed in a Tribune review for being “stuck in a time warp.”
World Music Theatre in Tinley Park (June 14, 1997)
No matter its name, the Tinley Park shed currently called the Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre has never been praised for its acoustics. The venue nevertheless was where Rush recorded most of its live album “Different Stages,” which almost functioned as the band’s coda. When Peart’s daughter died less than five weeks after the conclusion of the 1996-97 “Test for Echoes Tour,” the drummer told colleagues to consider him retired. (His wife died less than a year later.) A sad epitaph to outings at which Rush performed without an opener and staged the complete “2112” LP for the first time in its career. Fans here (and at the United Center on Oct. 28, 1996) were also treated to a whimsical array of kitchen implements — a refrigerator, toaster, blender and meat grinder included — standing in for Lee’s equipment backline. So began a clever tradition in which clothes dryers, rotisserie ovens, popcorn machines and other gadgets replaced the bassist’s conventional amp stacks.
Tweeter Center in Tinley Park (June 5, 2004)
An extended introduction starring comedian Jerry Stiller as a Rush superfan set the tone for the seventh stop of the “R30 Tour,” which commemorated the 30th anniversary of the group dating to the release of its debut. Rush further acknowledged its roots with tunes that the teenage Lee and Lifeson used to study by listening to records on a turntable and following along on their instruments. The Who’s “The Seeker,” the Yardbirds’ “Heart Full of Soul,” Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” and the Robert Johnson staple “Crossroads” peppered a three-hour-plus set that touched on all but one of Rush’s albums and witnessed Peart nod to legendary jazz drummer Buddy Rich during an animated solo. The Tribune wrote that Rush had survived “the arrivals of punk, new wave, rap and grunge with its integrity, creativity and rabid fan base intact.”
Charter One Pavilion on Northerly Island (July 5 and Aug. 23, 2010)
Originally slated for early July, both area stops on the steampunk-oriented “Time Machine Tour” focused on the band playing its milestone “Moving Pictures” LP from start to finish. However, weather intervened at the outdoor venue, with strong winds on opening night scrapping pyrotechnic detonations and freezing the mobile “Spider” lighting rig in its tracks. The group nonetheless earned a rave from the Tribune, which lauded Lee, Lifeson and Peart for finding “space for new flourishes in their formidable arrangements.” A steady mix of breezy showers two days later created safety hazards, and though patrons were already huddled inside the gates and handed free ponchos, promoters postponed on short notice and issued rainchecks for late August.
First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park (June 28, 2013)
The Monday before Rush regaled Tinley Park with its string-ensemble-accompanied “Clockwork Angels Tour,” the Chicago Blackhawks scored two goals in 17 seconds toward the end of the third period en route to stunning the Boston Bruins and earning their second Stanley Cup in three seasons. On the following Friday, the team attracted more than 2 million people downtown for a blow-out celebration. Several hours later and about 30 miles to the south, Rush extended the hockey-themed revelry. Peart wore a hat adorned with logos of the NHL’s “original six” teams. Lee ribbed the audience and watched as a case opened to reveal a miniature Cup. The joke having landed as designed, the real Cup then emerged, with Blackhawks left winger Daniel Carcillo hoisting the trophy and inviting Lee and Lifeson to lay hands on it. As Peart, who rapped the Cup with his drumsticks, doubtlessly understood: timing is everything.
• Bob Gendron is a freelance critic.