When the surviving members of RUSH announced late last year that they were thinking about touring again, and had hired a new drummer to fill the shoes of the late, LEGENDARY, dearly missed Neil Peart, most of us fans – “Rushians”, as Peart himself once affectionately called us in one of his books – would have been forgiven for wondering what kind of lunatic would want to step into that spot.

After all, this is NEIL FREAKIN’ PEART we are talking about:

The man whose relentless perfectionism and constant drive for self-improvement as a drummer was stuff of legend:

The man whose metronomic precision, astounding power, and incredible technicality, made him perhaps the most respected drummer of his lifetime:

The drummer whose parts sometimes defied comprehension – not because of their speed, but because of their intricacy and compositional prowess:

Who in his – or her – right mind would want to take on that role?

At the time, I thought Danny Carey from TOOL was the only one who could possibly take on that job – and, I would like to make it clear, I am NOT a fan of TOOL, at all, though I listen to “Pneuma” a lot. But, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson settled on one Anika Nilles, who has played with the great Jeff Beck for many years, and has some serious chops of her own.

Well, the reconstituted, revitalised RUSH hit the stage at Madison Square Garden – where I personally have seen them live at least… oh, twice that I can remember, and I’ve seen them live at least 6 times – and by all accounts, Anika did a phenomenal job as the drummer for one of the greatest bands in history:

The challenge is far greater than you might think. Rushians are absolutely rabid in terms of our devotion to the band and its catalogue. You could easily find RUSH fans who have never drummed in our lives – like me – air-drumming wildly to the intro to “One Little Victory”, or “Spirit of Radio”, or “Tom Sawyer”, every time they played live. If Anika missed so much as a single note, we would notice and criticise it.

On the other hand, simply having a clone of Neil in the drummer seat would be… well, pointless.

You have to be a god-tier drummer just to have a hope of playing Neil’s parts – but drummers like that always and everywhere have their own styles and special flourishes, that make them unique. Anyone who listens to Mike Portnoy’s drumming with DREAM THEATER, can tell immediately the differences between his playing style, and Mike Mangini’s. Similarly, anyone who knows thrash metal, can immediately recognise the differences between Dave Lombardo, Paul Bostaph, and Gene Hoglan – even though all three played in the same bands.

So Anika truly had a huge challenge ahead of her, and she knew it:

She has very evidently succeeded.

All I can say is that I am delighted to see a band that really defined my teenage and early adult years, back in action. Their back-catalogue is incredibly rich and deep, and many of those songs deserve to be played live again, as a tribute to and in honour of one of the greatest drummers and lyricists who ever picked up a pair of sticks.

On that note, I am pleased to say that I did get a ticket to see RUSH, and I hope to be able to see them play in the spring next year. It should be great fun.