What was the last song Rush ever played live?
Just a hair over a decade now, on August 1st, 2015, Rush took the stage at the Forum in Inglewood, California, for what would be their final live performance.
The concert was the closing date of their R40 Live Tour, a 40th anniversary celebration of the Canadian rock trio’s recording career, which had technically spanned 41 years: “But 40 had a nicer ring to it,” frontman Geddy Lee said at the time. Though no one in the building that night could say for certain it was the end, the show carried the unmistakable weight of a farewell.
The R40 tour was structured like a living time machine. Each set moved backward through the band’s catalogue, starting with recent material from Clockwork Angels and Snakes & Arrows, then winding all the way back through the 1980s and ‘70s, until Rush arrived at the gritty, hard-rocking roots of their 1974 self-titled debut. The concept wasn’t just chronological—it was emotional, stripping away years of complexity and production to rediscover the raw sound that first put them on the map.
Despite some lingering health problems and a somewhat gruelling schedule on the second leg of their tour, the line-up of singer/bassist Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer Neil Peart was in fine form, delivering a predictably epic 26-song set to the SoCal faithful. Fans were treated to deep cuts and beloved classics in equal measure. Still, there was a sense of an ending in the air, even if no one wanted to admit it.
In interviews leading up to the tour, the band had remained vague about what might come next. “It does give one pause to soak in everything we’ve done over the last 40 years,” Lee told the Montreal Gazette in July 2015, “But I still feel like we’ve got some mojo. And even though we have no idea what the future holds for us, I remain optimistic.”
Lee also described the surprising pleasure of reconnecting with older songs and how the years affect the mindset behind them. “Once you start playing, it’s amazing how you can put yourself back into the mindset of how you felt when you wrote the song,” he said. “You can reignite a point of view and a good feeling about playing it, even though initially your instincts said: ‘Oh, I can’t play that song anymore; that’s too dated’. But you can. You can go home again.”
That idea of going home again turned out to be the perfect metaphor for how that final concert concluded, even if it was in LA rather than Toronto.
After a powerful main set, the band returned for a four-song encore. The final stretch included vintage Rush: ‘Lakeside Park’, ‘Anthem’, and ‘What You’re Doing’. And then, for the last song of the night, and, as it turns out, of their career, Rush chose ‘Working Man’.
It was a poignant decision. ‘Working Man’ was the song that first earned them airplay in the US, thanks to a Cleveland DJ who spotted their potential in 1974. With its blue-collar stomp and soaring instrumental passages, it introduced the world to an outfit that would go on to redefine hard rock and progressive music, building one of the most loyal followings this side of the Grateful Dead.
Ending their final show with the same track that launched their journey brought their story full circle—a subtle goodbye, with no curtain call required.
At the time, there was still hope among fans that Rush might return in some form, even if large-scale touring was off the table. But the death of drummer and lyricist Neil Peart in January 2020 from brain cancer confirmed what many had suspected: August 1st, 2015, was the final chapter.
And so ‘Working Man’ wasn’t just a song to close a show. It was a career epilogue, a pretty fitting nod to who Rush were, where they came from, and what they stood for.
