"You've never seen so much air-drumming"

On Monday morning, I had to read music critic Chris Riemenschneider's review of the Rush concert in the Star Tribune, not so much because I care what he thinks but because I fell asleep at the concert and I was dying to find out how it ended.

Now that I have your attention—for the record, I did not fall asleep, but I may as well have for the concert was l-o-n-g, and I didn't recognize enough of the songs to stay invested. Sorry, but it's true.

The show wasn't boring by any means. In fact, this may have been the most electrically charged concert I have ever attended, with over 12,000 fans ON THEIR FEET for the better part of three hours. The Police, whom I saw in concert in July, and their fans, were comatose by comparison. I know it's not fair to compare Rush to the Police—there is a certain blasphemy to that—but let's just say every member of Rush was "on" and seemed happy to playing together. And their fans rewarded them for that.

Here is a true confession—John and I left during intermission. Yes, intermission. There was no opening band. Rush went on stage at about 7:45 and played until about 9:15, then took a break. During the intermission, John and I started listing all the things we needed to do before we went to bed, stuff like signing a bunch of school forms for the boys, picking up milk at the grocery store, and so on. At some point, John said, "Why don't we go?" Really, we can do that? Just leave in the middle of a rock concert? Won't we lose our credibility among our friends who would never go to a rock concert let alone go to a rock concert on a school night? John said, "Yes, really it would be alright if we left now." So, after assuring security that we were leaving for the evening, not just going outside to smoke pot, we left the building.

What if we had stayed?

Of the twelve songs Rush played in the first set, I knew two. Admittedly, those two songs—"Limelight" and "Free Will"—rocked hard even if Geddy Lee did not hit the high notes. John and I knew we both ran the risk of missing a classic-laden second set. Imagine my relief when I learned in Riemenschneider's review that the twenty-seven songs played left out many of the "radio-familiar" hits.

Another true confession: I'm not much of a Rush fan but I do love disc one of Retrospective, which covers the bands greatest hits from, oh, 1974-1980. If we had stayed, we would have heard an "insanely elaborate" drum solo on "Tom Sawyer," which I would have loved to have seen and heard. But, to be honest, we likely wouldn't have made it that far into the show.

Here's what I liked about the show: exceptionally tight band, spectacular lighting (even the circa 1980s laser show), dedicated fans (especially the Wayne and Garth-ish duo a few rows down who wer out-of-their-minds excited), air-drumming (Neal Peart is a god, what can I say?), and the music from the band's new album.

I still have a few burning questions.

1. Can someone explain to me the large ovens and the rotisserie chickens that roadies would occasionally baste? Was it an inside joke? Did the chickens feed the hungry crew after the show? Were the chickens raffled to audience members after the concert?

2. How can you not play "Xanadu"?

3. What kind of a name is Geddy?