Have you ever gotten into a debate about music with a hardcore Rush (MySpace) fan? If not, here's what you need to do. Next time you feel compelled to take your life in your hands, try to convince a Rush fan that Rush is not the greatest band ever. The loyalty they engender in their fans is something unmatched by, well, anyone. We'd always looked on Rush fans' fervor with a grain of salt, no more or less justified than any other person's love of their favorite band. We're just going to come out and say it: we were dead wrong.

To think, we almost didn't make it to Saturday night's Rush concert at the Wachovia Center. We were still in Atlantic City on Saturday from the Bret Michaels show on Friday night, and planned on spending the day playing poker. But once we got playing, it was clear that the table was not going to be good for us, so we decided to try and get our gear together and get back to Philadelphia in time for the Rush show. After all, how many chances were we really going to get to see Rush? So we decided to cut away from the poker table a bit early and high-tail it back to Philly. And when we crossed the Walt Whitman and turned off to get to the Wachovia Center...

Okay, seriously, what MENSA card-carrying brain trust decided to schedule Rush at the Wachovia Center and Jimmy Buffett at Citizens Bank Park on the same night? Oh, and there was a Philadelphia Soul game going on at the Spectrum that night as well. In the words of those Guinness commercials, "Brilliant!" We're pretty sure the resulting clusterfuck was Rush's people's fault, because Jimmy Buffett had been scheduled for a while, whereas this most recent Rush show was only announced a few months ago, after the fall 2007 Snakes & Arrows tour dates sold so well. So trying to find parking around the sports complex was a complete and utter clusterfuck. We ended up parking about a mile away (literally) and having to tramp through a half dozen parking lots that had been completely trashed by the Parrotheads. As a result, what we thought would be more than enough time to get to the show—we'd crossed the Walt at just before 7:00 p.m., for a 7:30 p.m. start (and Rush doesn't use opening acts)—turned out to not even be close to enough time to get into the venue before the concert started. We ended up walking in in the middle of Rush's second song, "Digital Man," and we were immediately hit with disappointment when we heard that they'd opened with "Limelight," one of our favorites. Fortunately, that was the only disappointment we'd have at the show.

Rush ripped through two blistering 80-minute sets with a 20-minute intermission in between them, a concert format that we really enjoyed. Naturally, there was a healthy dose of songs from Snakes & Arrows, which might ordinarily be disappointing to people who aren't really familiar with the newer material. But when the concert includes 28 songs, no one is really going to complain about six or eight being from the newest album. Especially when the newer material is damn good. Standout songs from S&A were "The Larger Bowl" (a song about the global poverty divide which inexplicably had a humorous intro video featuring Bob and Doug McKenzie) and "Workin' Them Angels."

One of the things we always think about when we go to a concert is, "Does this band give me anything when I see them live that makes it worthwhile to spend the extra money to go see them, or would I be just as satisfied cranking up their CD on my stereo?" With Rush, the answer to that question is an absolute, unequivocal "Yes." Unfortunately, we didn't have our camera with us on Saturday night, but take our word for it: Rush puts the money it gets from the ticket prices right on the stage. The lighting and video displays they use are top-notch—and in the live show, the lighting is the fourth member of Rush. (Maybe the fifth; the rabid Rush fans in the crowd might be the fourth.) And the band's quirky sense of humor is on display for one and all to see, both in their intro/outro videos, and in Geddy Lee's Henhouse "amps" on stage. A few years ago, Geddy Lee switched to an IEM system that did away with the need for him to have massive amplifier stacks on stage. But Alex Lifeson still has stacks, and Geddy didn't want to the stage to look imbalanced, so he's taken to putting appliances on his side of the stage to balance things out. On one tour, it was a large washer and dryer. For the Snakes & Arrows shows, he had three industrial-size chicken rotisseries. With chickens cooking in them. And twice during the show, a crew member came on stage (first dressed as a chef, later dressed as a chicken) to baste the cooking birds. We don't know what happens to the chickens after the show is over, but in a city with a serious hunger/homeless problem, we really hope they don't go to waste. It's either a really funny or really offensive gesture on the band's part, and we're not quite sure how we felt about it.

But when it comes to the music, we know exactly how we felt about it. We finally understand how Rush fans can be so devoted. The musicianship that was on display at the Wachovia Center was nothing short of jaw-dropping. When you listen to a Rush album, you can tell that the songs are extremely intricate and require a lot of skill to play; but you don't get the full appreciation for the degree of difficulty in Rush's music until you actually see it on display. And all those sounds are made by just three guys.

And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that the drum solo, that basest of concert gimmicks that normally sends fans running for the bathrooms, is absolutely brilliant and mesmerizing when performed by Neil Peart.

Our feelings about our experience at the concert can be summed up pretty simply: If you're a rock fan, you really must see Rush at least once before you die.