Rush Perform Moving Pictures in Full and Revive the 2112 Suite on Reunion Tour

Rush have turned the opening stand of their Fifty Something reunion tour into a showcase for their most celebrated albums, performing the complete seven-part 2112 suite at their second show on June 9 and following it two nights later with a front-to-back performance of 1981’s Moving Pictures. Both performances came during the band’s four-night run at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, which marks the first Rush shows since the conclusion of the R40 tour in 2015 and the first time Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson have performed together in 11 years.

The 2112 Suite Returns After 29 Years

The complete 2112 suite opened the second set on June 9, marking the first time Rush had performed the 20-minute piece in its entirety since the Test for Echo tour in 1997. Part III: Discovery, Part V: Oracle: The Dream, and Part VI: Soliloquy had not been played as part of the full suite in 29 years. Opening night on June 7 had featured three of the seven movements in the same second-set slot, making the full performance two nights later one of the tour’s first major surprises.

The suite returned in abbreviated form on June 11, when a bass failure at the start of the Overture forced the band to stop and restart. That night’s version included three movements, closing the second set with the Overture, The Temples of Syrinx, and the Grand Finale.

Moving Pictures, Front to Back

The full Moving Pictures performance came on Thursday, June 11, the third show of the tour. The album opened the second set, with Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, YYZ, Limelight, The Camera Eye, Witch Hunt, and Vital Signs played in sequential order. The Camera Eye was the night’s centerpiece surprise, performed live for the first time since 2015 and featuring a new piano introduction from touring keyboardist Loren Gold.

Six of the album’s seven songs had already appeared across the first two shows, but Thursday marked the first time the band assembled the complete record in order. Moving Pictures remains Rush’s best-selling studio album and the source of several of their most enduring songs.

A Setlist Built to Surprise

The band, which features founding members Lee and Lifeson alongside drummer Anika Nilles and keyboardist Loren Gold, has rotated the setlist heavily across the opening run. Night two alone featured 14 tour debuts. Thursday brought debuts of New World Man, played for the first time since the 2002 Vapor Trails tour, and Red Sector A. Aimee Mann has joined Lee to duet on Time Stand Still at each of the first three shows.

Across the first three nights, Rush have performed 34 different songs, counting 2112 as a single piece. Lee has said the band prepared a pool of 38 songs for the tour, suggesting more debuts are still to come.

Setlist: June 7, Kia Forum (Opening Night)

Set One

1. Xanadu (first time as show opener)
2. Limelight (first time since 2013)
3. Far Cry
4. Subdivisions
5. Freewill (first time since 2011)
6. Bravado (first time since 2013, dedicated to Neil Peart)
7. Caravan (first time since 2013)
8. La Villa Strangiato (first time since 2011)
9. Vital Signs (first time since 2011)
10. The Spirit of Radio

Set Two 11. 2112 Part I: Overture 12. 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx 13. 2112 Part VII: Grand Finale 14. Distant Early Warning 15. Red Barchetta 16. Dreamline 17. Natural Science 18. Time Stand Still (with Aimee Mann) 19. Red Sector A 20. YYZ 21. The Garden 22. Tom Sawyer

Encore 23. By-Tor & The Snow Dog 24. Working Man

Setlist: June 9, Kia Forum (Night Two, Full 2112 Suite)

Set One

1. Xanadu
2. The Spirit of Radio
3. The Analog Kid (first time since 2013)
4. Freewill
5. Subdivisions
6. Bravado (dedicated to Neil Peart)
7. Leave That Thing Alone (first time since 2011)
8. The Trees (first time since 2008)
9. Headlong Flight (first time since 2015)
10. Limelight

Set Two 11. 2112 Part I: Overture 12. 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx 13. 2112 Part III: Discovery (first time since 1997) 14. 2112 Part IV: Presentation (first time since 2015) 15. 2112 Part V: Oracle: The Dream (first time since 1997) 16. 2112 Part VI: Soliloquy (first time since 1997) 17. 2112 Part VII: Grand Finale 18. Animate (first time since 2015) 19. Closer to the Heart (first time since 2015) 20. A Passage to Bangkok 21. Time Stand Still (with Aimee Mann) 22. YYZ 23. Anthem 24. Red Barchetta 25. Witch Hunt 26. Tom Sawyer

Encore 27. Finding My Way 28. Working Man

Setlist: June 11, Kia Forum (Night Three, Moving Pictures in Full)

Set One

1. Xanadu
2. Dreamline
3. Subdivisions
4. Headlong Flight
5. Bravado
6. Red Sector A
7. La Villa Strangiato
8. Anthem
9. New World Man (first time since 2002)
10. The Spirit of Radio

Set Two (Moving Pictures performed in full) 11. Tom Sawyer 12. Red Barchetta 13. YYZ 14. Limelight 15. The Camera Eye (first time since 2015) 16. Witch Hunt 17. Vital Signs 18. Time Stand Still (with Aimee Mann) 19. Closer to the Heart 20. 2112 Part I: Overture 21. 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx 22. 2112 Part VII: Grand Finale

Encore 23. By-Tor & The Snow Dog 24. Working Man

What we know

• Rush performed the complete 2112 suite on June 9 at the Kia Forum, the first full performance of the piece since the 1997 Test for Echo tour.
• The band played Moving Pictures in its entirety, in sequence, at the third show on June 11.
• The Camera Eye returned for the first time since 2015 with a new piano intro by Loren Gold.
• New World Man was performed for the first time since 2002, and Red Sector A also made its tour debut on June 11.
• A bass failure forced a restart of the 2112 Overture on June 11; the band played three of the suite’s seven movements that night.
• The lineup features Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, drummer Anika Nilles, and keyboardist Loren Gold.
• The four-night Kia Forum stand concludes June 13, with the tour continuing to Mexico City and Fort Worth, Texas, and currently scheduled to end April 10, 2027 in Helsinki.

The take

Performing 2112 and Moving Pictures in full within the first three shows reads as a deliberate statement about what this reunion is for. These are the two albums most responsible for Rush’s place in the rock canon, the breakthrough that saved the band’s career in 1976 and the commercial peak that defined it in 1981, and putting both on the table immediately signals that the Fifty Something tour is a full engagement with the catalog rather than a victory lap of radio staples. The constantly rotating setlist reinforces that. Thirty-four songs in three nights, with rarities like The Camera Eye, The Trees, and New World Man surfacing alongside the album performances, rewards fans attending multiple shows and gives each night its own identity. The approach also reflects how carefully Lee and Lifeson have handled the question of continuing without Neil Peart. Anika Nilles has the unenviable task of occupying Peart’s chair, and framing the shows around complete album performances puts the emphasis on the body of work rather than on direct comparison. The bass failure during the 2112 restart, handled with a simple stop and do-over, suggests a band comfortable enough to let the seams show.

Why it matters

For Rush fans, full performances of 2112 and Moving Pictures represent something the band never did even at its touring peak: both of its landmark albums presented complete within a single tour’s opening week. With the tour running through April 2027 and the song pool still expanding, the Fifty Something shows are shaping up as the most setlist-adventurous run of the band’s career.

What’s next

Rush close out the four-night Kia Forum stand on June 13 before taking the Fifty Something tour to Mexico City and Fort Worth, Texas. The tour is currently scheduled to conclude April 10, 2027 in Helsinki.