Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson Perform at “Celebrating Gordon Lightfoot” Concert
Rush members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson reunited for a surprise performance on Thursday, May 23rd during a concert celebrating the late Gordon Lightfoot. The duo kept it a secret and were billed on the performer rundown only as “L+L.” They were backed by Blue Rodeo, who served as the house band for the evening.
“On Thursday evening at Massey Hall in Toronto, both Alex and myself had the profound pleasure of paying tribute to a true Canadian musical legend, Gordon Lightfoot,” Lee wrote on Instagram. “A huge thank you to the gracious members of Blue Rodeo for sharing their stage and prodigious talents with us both- a tremendous evening full of compelling performances and warm remembrances. An honour to be there.”
“L+L” covered the Lightfoot song “The Way I Feel,” which appeared on his 1966 debut album Lightfoot!. In an interview with Variety, Lee explained the song choice.
“It was important for us to pay tribute to Gordon,” he said. “Not being folk or pop artists, Alex and I were looking for one of Gordon’s songs that might better suit our style of play, and we found that in ‘The Way I Feel.’ Its structure was loose and more open to interpretation than many of his more popular tunes.”
They also came out for the final number, “Summerside of Life,” which had all the evening’s performers.
Check out their rendition of “The Way I Feel”:
The last time Lifeson and Lee shared the stage was also at Massey Hall back in early December during Lee’s book tour. We’re hoping to see more of this iconic duo on stage soon!
Approximately a million years ago, when I was on the Concert Committee of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, we produced Gordon Lightfoot. In his contract, he demanded a backup sound system, and I provided that. After the concert, we invited Gordon to the after party and he accepted. Man, could that guy drink beer. The other thing I remember is him hitting on my very well developed date for the evening. She was 19, and he must have been in his late 40s. She kept calling him Gordy (since she was even more drunk than he was) but he didn’t seem to mind. Regardless of all that, the concert was great.