SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Rush reunion appears to have legs.

What many believed would be a one-off reunion show to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Canadian band and honor the late great drummer Neil Peart showed all the makings of something that could go on for years and years during the first of two Rush shows at SAP Center on Thursday night (Oct. 15).

Rush, which also performs at the downtown San Jose venue on Oct. 17, sounded absolutely revitalized and pretty much as powerful as ever as it performed 26 songs over the course of two sets for a sold-out crowd of some 11,500 fans.

The group currently consists of two-thirds of Rush’s classic power trio foundation — guitarist/founding member Alex Lifeson and vocalist-bassist Geddy Lee. The third part in that original equation, of course, was Peart — arguably the most highly acclaimed rock drummer of all time — who died from cancer in 2020 at the age of 67. Filling in for “The Professor” on drums is Anika Nilles, a former YouTube sensation with a number of her own albums, while prominent sideman Loren Gold is handling keyboards on this trek.

I just can’t get over how great the whole ensemble sounded in San Jose — not at all like a band that hadn’t toured in well over a decade. This was not a shadow of Rush’s former self — or, as we’ve seen too often in the classic rock world, a lesser version of a once-great band trying to make a big cash grab — but rather an entity that is worth seeing again and again.

With no opening act on the Fifty Something Tour bill, the house lights dimmed right around 7:45 p.m. and a fun intro video — dubbed “Xanadudes” — began to play on the big screens. It featured three actors, representing much younger versions of Lifeson, Lee and Nilles, searching through a haunted castle for the real Rush. They’d come across comedians Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, who had been trapped in this eerie abode for years as they played Rush cover songs, and then ran into the animated “Lil Rush” from “South Park” fame.

Finally, they’d find ancient versions of Lee and Lifeson, who were covered in cobwebs and playing a challenging game of “Go Fish.” From there the storyline got even fuzzier, but the result was that the older Rush men were magically transported back to “jam” — and then, suddenly, the real-life versions appeared on the stage in San Jose with Nilles and Gold.

These prog-rock heroes went right into “Xanadu,” the lengthy and mystical instrumental from the 1977 album “A Farewell to Kings” that has surely served as the soundtrack for countless Dungeons & Dragons contests. Both the guitarist and the bassist performed on double-neck instruments to start, a sure sign that this was not going to be a night of musicality for the faint of heart, while Nilles worked a huge kit that would have a hard time fitting inside a haunted castle.

From “Xanadu” — which is not quite as good as Olivia Newton-John/ELO number of the same name — Lee immediately greeted the crowd, introducing listeners to band members both old and new, while expressing his gratitude for the chance to be back playing music in San Jose.

“You look (expletive) awesome,” Lee exclaimed to the audience. “Its so nice to be back in the Bay Area.”

“We have a lot of things on our agenda tonight. First of all, we need to celebrate. We need to celebrate 50 years of making music.”

The band and its highly loving, loyal fans would do just that as we dove headfirst into 1981’s “Moving Pictures” for the classic-rock staple “Limelight,” a work that balances Rush’s intense prog musicality with radio-friendly accessibility as well as anything in its catalog, and then stepped ahead one year (and album) to 1982’s “Signals” for the equally crowd-pleasing “Subdivisions.”

Lee then took the time to once again speak with the crowd, sharing his thoughts on how special it is to share such intense musical with two people —in his case, Lifeson and Peart — over so many decades.

“And if you are really lucky you get to see those dreams prosper,” he said.

The show continued with “The Pass,” an amazingly crafted tune from 1989 album “Presto” that highlights Peart’s continued growth as a songwriter, and then rocked into the well-known rocker “Freewill” from 1980’s “Permanent Waves.” There was also a touching tribute video to Peart in the first half, followed by a second one in the nightcap.

The music was so richly textured and finely performed, with Lifeson — one of the top rock guitarists on the planet — adding such amazing guitar leads and parts throughout the night. Both Lifeson and Lee shone equally on their instruments during “Freewill,” with the latter also using the occasion to push his countertenor voice about as sky-high as it can go. Then the two players took their instrumental games to an even more stunning level on 1991’s “Roll the Bones” standout “Bravado” — and, thankfully, did not follow up by playing the rap-rock title track from that same album.

The group has been changing up the setlist on a nightly basis, even going so far as to spotlight different albums. This time around, fans got the massive treat of hearing the best parts of Rush’s legendary “2112” as the band played all of Side 1 — which consists of the massive seven-part sci-fi title track, going from “Overture” to “Grand Finale” — at the start of the second set. (Judging from previous setlists, fans will likely hear the band spotlight “Moving Pictures” on Night 2 at SAP Center — which, of course, means that the Night 1 folks got the much better deal in the equation.)

Nilles was on top of her game throughout the show, with perhaps the best compliment that one could give her being that you never felt like anything was musically missing from the songs. It’s unfair to directly compare her to Peart — who tastemakers and historians have held up as being the pinnacle of rock drumming in the same way they have collectively chosen Jimi Hendrix as the greatest guitarist of all time. Yet. in every way shape and form, Nilles came across as the right person to be in the drum throne as Rush moves forward from its past to its future.

And as the concert came neared its conclusion with the the likes of “Red Barchetta,” “The Garden” and “Tom Sawyer,” Rush very much sounded like a band that could indeed have a very bright future in front of it. I could see them recording a new album, if not several new albums, and further building upon a legacy that already has landed Rush in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Setlist

1. “Xanadu”

2. “Limelight”

3. “Subdivisions”

4. “The Pass”

5. “Freewill”

6. “Bravado”

7. “La Villa Strangiato”

8. “Natural Science”

9. “The Spirit of Radio”

Set 2

10. “2112 Part I: Overture”

11. “2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx”

12. “2112 Part III: Discovery”

13. “2112 Part IV: Presentation”

14. “2112 Part V: Oracle: The Dream”

15. “2112 Part VI: Soliloquy”

16. “2112 Part VII: Grand Finale”

17. “Closer to the Heart”

18. “A Passage to Bangkok”

19. “Time Stand Still”20. “YYZ”

21. “Anthem”

22. “Red Barchetta”

23. “The Garden”

24. “Tom Sawyer”

Encore

25. “Finding My Way”

26. “Working Man”

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