Rush expands 2026 Fifty Something tour with 17 dates, Nilles joins

Legendary Canadian rockers Rush expanded their 2026 Fifty Something reunion tour on Wednesday, adding 17 more North American cities and extending the itinerary into late fall and early winter. The surviving cofounders, bassist-vocalist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson, will be joined by German drummer and composer Anika Nilles on the dates, which push the run to roughly 40 shows beginning in June and now finishing in mid-December in Vancouver and Edmonton.

Lee and Lifeson said the expansion responds to overwhelming fan demand after the initial announcement and rapid sellouts in several markets. “I’m a bit overwhelmed right now, to be honest,” Lee said in a video message to fans, describing the reaction to the reunion. Many of the first announced dates, including multi-night runs in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Toronto, sold out immediately, prompting the additional stops in cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston, Seattle, Montreal, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Denver, San Jose, San Antonio, Charlotte, Tampa and Hollywood, Florida.

The tour marks Rush’s first full-scale outing since 2015 and their first without longtime drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, who died in...