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Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson Make Surprise Performance at Gordon Lightfoot Tribute Concert in Toronto
Rush's Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson made a surprise performance at Thursday's Gordon Lightfoot tribute concert — just their fourth since the band split.
The sold-out crowd of 2,750 — most of whom, to hazard a guess, might never have seen a show by Rush despite the musically ambitious trio’s 40-year-plus run — nonetheless responded ecstatically to the unexpected addition of the national heroes, who have sold 45 million albums worldwide, as did the beaming members of Blue Rodeo. Lee and Lifeson also came out for the ensemble finale, “Summerside of Life,” featuring all of the evening’s performers, including Moon, Burton Cummings, Tom Cochrane, Sylvia Tyson, Allison Russell, Murray McLauchlin, City and Colour, William Prince, the Good Brothers with Travis Good of the Sadies, Serena Ryder (also unbilled), Aysanabee, Tom Wilson, Kathleen Edwards, Julian Taylor, Damnhait Doyle (the evening’s host), Carolyn Wiles, Bob Doige, and the Lightfoot Band (Rick Haynes, Barry Keane, Mike Heffernan and Carter Lancaster), which played with their eponymous leader for decades and served as the house band for the first half of the tribute concert. Since Rush stopped touring in 2015 — drummer Neil Peart died from cancer in 2020 — Lee and Lifeson have played together in public just four times: the 2017 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction of progressive-rock legends Yes, for which they also gave the induction speech; both 2022 tribute concerts for late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, a massive Rush fan, in London and Los Angeles; and a cool surprise for South Park co-creator Matt Stone, also in 2022, when they showed up to jam with him and Primus for the animated series’ 25 th anniversary concert in Colorado.
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