Anika Nilles’ Hilarious Onstage Pranks Show Just How at Home She Has Become With Rush After a Grueling Year of Rehearsals

Stepping behind the drum kit for Rush was always going to come with enormous pressure for Anika Nilles. Now, after spending a year learning dozens of notoriously demanding songs, she appears comfortable enough with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson to make them the targets of an increasingly elaborate running joke.

Throughout Rush’s Fifty Something tour, Nilles has been turning the ending of “Working Man” into her own nightly comedy routine.

While Lee and Lifeson hold the song’s final chord and wait for their drummer to deliver the closing notes, Nilles keeps finding new ways to make them wait.

She has taken selfies. She has stopped to read a newspaper. She has pulled faces at her bandmates. She has even appeared wearing a replica of a familiar character from Rush history.

In Detroit on Aug. 26, however, she apparently decided the end of “Working Man” was the perfect time for a snack.

Anika Nilles leaves Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson waiting

During the performance at Little Caesars Arena, Lee and Lifeson reached the familiar finale of “Working Man” and held the final chord.

Normally, Nilles’ closing drum hits would bring everything to an end.

Instead, she reached for a bag of chips.

With Lee and Lifeson still waiting, Nilles casually ate a few before offering the bag to her bandmates.

Both declined.

Only then did she put the chips away and prepare to finish the song.

Nilles attempted to catch the pair off guard by suddenly striking the final notes, but by this point Lee and Lifeson apparently knew her routine too well.

They were ready.

The entire exchange lasted only moments, but it offered another glimpse of the chemistry that has developed between Rush’s veteran members and their new drummer.

‘Working Man’ has become a nightly comedy routine

The Detroit snack break was far from an isolated incident.

Nilles has developed a collection of different gags around the ending of “Working Man,” with fan videos documenting at least 10 variations.

One of the simplest involved doing almost nothing.

As Lee and Lifeson exchanged exaggerated expressions while holding the final chord, Nilles watched them with a confused look, shrugged and appeared to mouth “okay” before eventually bringing the song to its conclusion.

Another night, she decided the prolonged ending offered enough time for a photograph.

Nilles pulled out her phone and took a selfie with Lee and Lifeson before finally finishing the number.

At another concert, she produced a newspaper and began reading while the two musicians continued waiting for her.

The joke changes, but the setup remains the same: Lee and Lifeson have no choice but to hold on until Nilles decides everyone has waited long enough.

Rush history has become part of the joke

Nilles has also demonstrated that she has been paying attention to the more eccentric corners of Rush history.

During another performance, she appeared wearing a replica of The Bag, one of the band’s memorable characters.

The moment added another layer to the running gag.

Nilles isn’t merely playing the technically demanding drum parts required for the tour. She has become comfortable enough within the world surrounding Rush to play with its history and sense of humor.

That ease is especially notable considering the circumstances under which she entered the band.

For years, the possibility of seeing Rush performing again appeared remote.

Rush’s return came 11 years after Neil Peart’s retirement

The Fifty Something tour represents a new chapter for a band many believed had already reached the end of its live career.

Neil Peart’s retirement 11 years earlier appeared to signal the conclusion of Rush as a touring act.

Peart’s role was never going to be an ordinary position to fill.

His intricate playing was fundamental to Rush’s sound, while his status among rock drummers meant that anyone sitting behind the kit alongside Lee and Lifeson would face extraordinary expectations.

Nilles therefore wasn’t simply learning a catalog.

She was stepping into a musical space permanently associated with one of rock’s most revered drummers.

The preparation required to get there was immense.

Nilles had to learn around 43 Rush songs

Lee recently offered some perspective on just how demanding Nilles’ preparation had been.

According to him, she spent approximately a year learning around 43 songs.

“She had to learn something like 43 songs in the course of a year, and those are not easy drum parts to learn,” Lee said.

He described the workload as possibly the hardest Nilles had ever pushed herself on a musical project.

Much of that preparation initially happened away from Lee and Lifeson.

Nilles would work intensely on her own before periodically traveling to Toronto to rehearse with them.

Those in-person sessions proved particularly valuable.

Playing together helped the chemistry develop

Lee explained that rehearsing face-to-face allowed Nilles to better understand the details of Rush’s music while also building chemistry with the musicians themselves.

“I think she found it much easier to work with us in person, because there’s a chemistry that we have,” he said.

Those rehearsals also allowed Lee and Lifeson to reassure her when she had mastered a section and correct the details when necessary.

“This part is right, this part is this long, and no, you have to play this part this way,” Lee recalled of the process.

For material as intricate as Rush’s, those details mattered.

So did repetition.

The group ultimately subjected itself to an exhausting rehearsal schedule before opening night.

Rush rehearsed harder than Lee could remember

Lee said the musicians performed a complete show on 24 out of 27 days during their final stretch of preparation.

“We’ve never worked that hard in our entire lives,” he admitted.

That workload was demanding for everyone, not only Nilles.

But Lee believes it was necessary.

When opening night finally arrived, nerves remained high despite all those months of preparation.

“We were all a bit of a nervous wreck,” he said.

The rehearsal schedule ultimately did what it was supposed to do.

“All that rehearsal paid off.”

The performances became more comfortable, and the new version of Rush began establishing its own chemistry.

Nilles’ “Working Man” antics may be one of the clearest signs of that development.

Loren Gold also helps Rush begin a new chapter

Nilles isn’t the only addition helping Lee and Lifeson reshape Rush for the Fifty Something tour.

Keyboardist Loren Gold has also joined the lineup, giving the veteran musicians additional support as they revisit a catalog developed across decades.

The result is not an attempt to erase what came before.

Peart’s place in Rush history remains singular.

Instead, the current tour has allowed Lee and Lifeson to return to the music with a different configuration and, increasingly, a sense that they are enjoying themselves again.

That sense of fun is especially visible whenever “Working Man” reaches its ending.

The jokes say almost as much as the performances

Learning approximately 43 Rush songs in a year was a formidable task.

Performing them alongside the two surviving members of the band brought another kind of pressure.

Doing it while inevitably facing comparisons with Neil Peart made Nilles’ position even more challenging.

But the drummer now looks comfortable enough to make Lee and Lifeson wonder what she is going to do next.

A newspaper?

A selfie?

A piece of Rush history?

Or simply a bag of chips while two rock legends patiently hold a chord?

Those few playful seconds at the end of “Working Man” reveal something all the technical preparation cannot.

After a year spent working relentlessly to earn her place behind the kit, Anika Nilles no longer looks like someone trying to find her footing with Rush.

She looks like a bandmate having fun with the other guys onstage.