Epic Rush rocks Town Park with majestic musicianship and spot-on renditions of seventeen progressive-rock gems

August 20, 2026 · 0 Comments

Despite an ominous forecast, Wednesday’s Epic Rush Concert in the Park dodged a climate change bullet.

No wildfire smoke. No microburst. No freakish thunderstorm or deluge.

The intrepid audience members who uttered “Damn the Torpedoes” and set up their lawn chair with a Slabtown Armoury libation in hand were treated to a stirring evening of 17 Canadian progressive rock classics.

Remarkably, the thunder, lightning, or sideways rain never arrived, but a hurricane of hits rolled out by a Rush tribute band made the trip to Town Park a midweek treat.

Set One opened with “Subdivisions,” then Epic Rush rolled through a whirlwind of Lee, Lifeson, and Peart’s complex compositions – the range of which appealed to both casual Rush fans and hard-core aficionados of the prog-rock triumvirate.

“Distant Early Warning,” “Freewill,” “Time Stands Still,” “Digital Man,” “Hemixan,” and “YYZ” featured Alex Kuthy scaling the heights of Geddy Lee’s vocals and replicating his bass guitar magic; Don Dewulf’s perfect representation of Alex Lifeson’s smoldering lead guitar work; and Eric Kuthy’s rapid-fire drums and percussion as homage to Neil “The Professor” Peart.

All three caught the eyes and ears of the assembly.

Set One ended with Kuthy’s rousing rendition of “The Spirit of Radio” and the layered song inspired an obligatory trip by many to the Slabtown tent for second half reinforcements on a beautiful summer evening.

Set Two featured a costume change for the guitarists as Kuthy donned a red tie and Dewulf donned a red blazer, perhaps in homage to the mid-point song of the second half: a hard-driving delivery of “Red Barchetta.”

The second set exploded into the Town Park air with two of Rush’s commercial hits which receive regular rotation on FM classic rock stations: “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight.” Peart’s lyrics—a nod to The Bard—were delivered with sterling clarity by Kuthy: “All the world’s indeed a stage / And we are merely players / Performers and portrayers / Each another’s audience / Outside the gilded cage.”

Epic Rush excelled as “performers and portrayers” in the second set. They plunged headlong into an acoustic delight entitled “Broon’s Bane” delivered by the debonair Dewulf who had his electric guitar strung over his shoulder in readiness for a smooth transition into the classic ballad “The Trees.”

The parable, penned by Peart in 1978 for the Hemispheres album, has even more relevance today as a cautionary tale, given the impact of far-right forces on our politically-polarized continent.

Following the band’s full-throttle rendering of “that song about a red car,” Epic Rush took us back to the soaring lyrics and falsetto notes featured in “Closer to the Heart” with its unique use of Peart’s bells and Lee imploring the audience to “mold a new reality closer to the heart” – more timely words for folks that has fallen into heartless echo chambers to seek day-to-day meaning.

Hard core Rush fans fell into the tribute band’s climactic combo of “Overture—2112” and “Grand Finale” and clamoured for one more song.

The Kuthy brothers and Dewulf obliged with the pulsating “Working Man” as an encore. Their tight, concert-ending rendition reinforced the sad reality that such a range of vocals could only be delivered by a Rush Tribute Band in 2026.

Coincidently, Rush was performing on Wednesday night—their third of four concerts at Scotiabank Arena as part of the revamped band’s comeback tour featuring two 73-year-olds and a new on-stage supporting cast that has enabled them to be back on the road after an 11-year hiatus.

Here’s why the savvy audience at Aurora’s Town Park got a better deal.

The hundreds who surrounded the bandshell on a perfect summer night enjoyed a free outdoor concert rather than dropping between $400 to $960 for lower bowl seats to take in Lifeson and Lee at The Bank.

Epic Rush’s lead vocalist, bass player, and keyboard player Alex Kuthy covered ALL of the canonical songs in Lee’s former vocal range—alas, Geddy’s husky 73-year-old pipes won’t allow the performance of many of Rush’s signature songs in 2026.

I found these omissions disappointing and Lee’s cracking voice was tough to listen to back in 2015 at the ACC when the fabulous trio of Lee, Lifeson, and Peart took their final bows on Bay Street.

I can’t imagine what the legendary Lee offers in vocals eleven years later, but Wednesday night’s vocal performance in Aurora by Kuthy was advantage Epic Rush.

Eric Kuthy, Epic Rush’s drummer and Alex’s brother, could be heard amid an array of percussion instruments nearing Peart’s complex, 40-piece kit.

He donned Peart’s head gear and, most importantly, provided the other-worldly rhythms and rapid-fire percussion to impel his Tribute Band along all night.

Peart passed away tragically in 2020 and although Rush has brought in a very talented drummer from Germany to perform Peart’s technically-challenging beats, Rush purists at Town Park listened in abject amazement at Kuthy’s brilliant percussive acumen.

Epic Rush’s lead guitarist Don Dewulf showed off his outstanding skills from the opening chords of “Subdivisions”—complementing the introductory keyboard tones in Rush’s most popular and commercial song. It was a great choice to open a concert and show off Dewulf’s considerable skills. Dewulf performed with the same steady and understated performance style of Alex Lifeson who has always allowed his guitar to do most of his talking on-stage. Lead guitarist Dewulf and bass player Kuthy were in perfect unison all evening—displaying the kind of chemistry that the two Rush legends, Lifeson and Lee, have demonstrated on stage for decades.

In addition to enjoying these three masterful musicians render the complex Rush catalogue with seeming ease, Concert in the Park denizens enjoyed Slabtown Armoury ciders and beers for $8 rather than paying $25 for a libation at Scotiabank. The same Town Park fans also enjoyed the gustatory pleasures of a “Grabby Meal”—2 x 4-ounce beef patties, cheese, onions, pickles, and Smash Sauce complemented by a bag of kettle chips and a cold drink for $16.99– from the Smash & Grab Burger Co. Food Truck. The same combo meal is over $35 at The Bank on Bay.

Lead guitarist Don Dewulf, in our on-stage post-concert interview, noted the most satisfying aspect of performing all the amazing guitar solos that Lifeson has created: “It’s fun to play and it’s challenging, too. I could play ‘Tom Sawyer’ a thousand times and never grow tired of it.”

When asked what it was like to watch a Rush concert on Tuesday night in Toronto and play their music on Wednesday night in Aurora, Dewulf differentiated the concerts: “They’re separate events. We loved their songs so when they retired after the Final Tour in 2015, we thought we should try this. We wanted to fill a gap in the market. Tonight, we have communion with the 18,000 fans that were at Scotiabank this week.”

Dewulf was pleased with his band’s performance on Wednesday night and when asked which song was his favourite to perform in the Town Park Bandshell, he answer was swift and deferential: “YYZ—it’s got such a hard base line and Alex was great tonight performing it.”

He praised the great music that Lee, Lifeson, and Peart have provided for generations and acknowledged that “We’re not Rush—we don’t pretend to be.”

Perhaps the die-hard Rush fans in attendance at Town Park would disagree with Dewulf’s self-effacing remark. For two hours on Wednesday night, Epic Rush’s masterful performance might as well have been Rush and captured an era when the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers were at their physical peak as performers. Wednesday night was not about nostalgia or genuflecting to Canadian progressive legends as folks did during their pilgrimage to Scotiabank Arena this week.

Instead, the hundreds who air-drummed, played air guitar, and bobbed in their chairs with the best of them – and judiciously avoided the dance floor – enjoyed a rich playlist performed note for note by a full range vocalist, a sublimely-talented lead guitarist, and a fully-committed drummer who conjured up collectively many fond memories of three of the greatest musicians in Canadian history.

By Jim Stewart