Rush Night Four: A Farewell to Kings Returns After 47 Years

Rush had more surprises in store on their fourth night at Los Angeles' Kia Forum, finishing the first run of their Fifty Something Tour. As they completed their triumphant run in Los Angeles, playing a different set of songs each night, they laid out the blueprint for the rest of the tour - going forward, it appears that the band's current plan is to choose from one of those four setlists each evening.

After a mere 47-year absence from the stage, 'A Farewell to Kings' sounded like it never left. Near the end of the second set, following an ecstatic 'YYZ,' Rush debuted the deepest cut of the whole tour without warning. As with the studio version, the track began with Lifeson plucking out a delicate intro on a nylon-string guitar before blasting into monster electric riffs.

A deeply felt version of 'The Pass' was another reminder of how deep Rush's music - and Peart's lyrics - can cut. Among non-fans, the band somehow gained a reputation as cerebral and chilly, but that's far from the truth. 'This is one of those songs that goes straight to your heart,' Lee said, introducing 'The Pass,' after noting the evolution of Peart's writing over the years, and he wasn't kidding.

Anika Nilles has become a Rush fan. The German drum virtuoso wasn't deeply familiar with the band's repertoire when Lee and Lifeson first brought her to Toronto to jam. But over the course of a year or so, she took on the seemingly impossible task of not just learning hours worth of Neil Peart's parts, but attempting to absorb his overall approach.

Rush playing 'The Spirit of Radio' remains the absolute definition of arena rock. When the last vestiges of the classic-rock era finally fade, many of the moments that made up its truest essence will be impossible to explain to those who missed it.

The encore's double-pack of songs from Rush's debut was a reminder of a path not taken. With original drummer John Rutsey, the earliest, pre-prog, heavily Zeppelin-influenced incarnation of Rush was already great, albeit in a more primal manner. Lee's gleeful, life-affirming 'yeah, oh yeah' at the beginning of 'Finding My Way' was somehow nearly as profound as many of the evening's most philosophical lyrics.

Setlist: Xanadu, Limelight, Subdivisions, The Pass, Freewill, Bravado, The Camera Eye, The Trees, The Anarchist, The Spirit of Radio, 2112 Part I: Overture, 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx, 2112 Part III: Discovery, 2112 Part IV: Presentation, 2112 Part V: Oracle: The Dream, 2112 Part VI: Soliloquy, 2112 Part VII: Grand Finale, Far Cry, Distant Early Warning, New World Man, Vital Signs, Time Stand Still, YYZ, A Farewell to Kings, The Garden, Tom Sawyer, Finding My Way, Working Man