Remembering Rush Drummer Neil Peart: Final Show At The Forum

The pantheon of rock drummers might include names like John Bonham, Keith Moon, Ginger Baker and undoubtedly Rush’s Neil Peart. Peart was beloved by musicians from across genres but especially by percussionists of all kinds. He truly was a drummer’s drummer.

With Peart’s recent death from brain cancer, an outpouring of sentiment from musicians around the world and transcending genre has proved just how respected Peart was as a percussionist and also as Rush’s primary lyricist. To remember Neil, JamBase takes a look at video from Rush’s final show at The Forum in Inglewood, California on August 1, 2015.

Rush had signaled in the press release for their R40 tour that it very well could be their last major tour. But the Forum show would indeed be their last concert. Rush, as they had done the entire tour, played music from throughout their career in reverse chronological order. The legendary band kicked things off with “The Anarchist” and “Headlong Flight,” two songs from their 2012 album Clockwork Angels. The latter song included a drum solo from Peart that Setlist.FM calls “Drumbastica.” Even at 62, Peart plays with power and precision. The rarity “Losing It,” from 1982’s Signals, clocked in as the penultimate song of the first set and marked just the fifth time the song appeared live. It featured violinist Jonathan Dinklage, brother of Game Of Thrones star Peter Dinklage. Rush closed out the first set with Signals opening track “Subdivisions.”

The second set kicked off with the 1981 Moving Pictures classic “Tom Sawyer” followed by “Red Barchetta.” “The Spirit Of The Radio” and “Jacobs Ladder” from 1980’s Permanent Waves came next ahead of the prog-rock pioneers’ “Cygnus X-1” suite that spanned two of the band’s landmark albums: 1978’s Hemispheres and 1977’s A Farewell To Kings. The performance of “Cygnus X-1 Book One: The Voyage Parts 1 And 3” included another bombastic solo from Peart. Rush would close out the second set with four movements from the first side of their 1976 prog-rock masterpiece 2112.

Rush would reemerge for a four-song encore of early material with “Lakeside,” “Anthem,” “What You’re Doing” and fittingly Rush’s final live song, “Working Man.” The tune saw Peart taking pictures of his bandmates to document the poignant occasion. Check out video from the show via Cal Vid below:

The Anarchist/Headlong Flight

Far Cry/The Main Monkey Business

One Little Victory/Animate

Roll The Bones

Tom Sawyer/Red Barchetta

Cygnus X-1

Closer To The Heart/Xanadu

2121

Encore

Final Farewell

Setlist

Source: JamBase.com