A wise man once said, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” When it comes to Rush’s concert at Hilton Coliseum, the same could be said for “the rock.” The verdict for Friday night’s show depends on who you ask.

Lines were drawn even across groups of die-hard fans. Some say it was one of the best shows they’ve seen. Others were just disappointed.

Jim Schloemer, senior in architecture, and Mike Britson, senior in journalism and mass communication, both members of the Ames band Lesser Known Saint, came to Hilton for the show, but left at the intermission between the two main sets.

“I’d been wanting to see Rush for years. But this screen is giving me epileptic seizures,” said Schloemer, referring to the huge LCD display at the back of the stage. “It’s ripping my retinas out.”

The monitor was a point of contention for many fans, displaying various computer graphics in a failed attempt to add an appropriate visual element to the show. While Rush jammed onstage during one song, blue figures appeared to perform calisthenics and the choreography from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video.

During “Roll the Bones,” a skeleton with a red mohawk appeared on the screen and rapped along to the song. Britson did not approve.

“The skeleton was probably the stupidest thing I have ever seen,” he said. “That was just kind of the point of no return. That’s when I knew absolutely nothing could redeem what I had just watched.”

Schloemer credits the first set’s content of lengthy songs as most of their reason for leaving.

“I’d much rather have a short intense set than just long drawn-out song after long drawn-out song,” he said. “I was here to see a lot more than that.”

“I was looking over at Jim and he was almost falling asleep and we both kind of thought at the same time that we should just go. If they had opened up with “Spirit of Radio,” I could have left right then,” Britson said.

Ronnie Sidharta, bass player for Ames band Mechanistry and graduate student in computer science, is also filling in with Lesser Known Saint. He said he couldn’t have disagreed with his temporary bandmates more.

“When I go see bands like Linkin Park and Incubus, they just play their songs,” he said. “This was a show.”

“It doesn’t ruin the fact that they’re amazing musicians,” Schloemer said. “[The show] is just wearing on me.”

Robb Vallier, a Grammy-nominated record producer and former ISU student, flew in from Los Angeles specifically for the show.

“The reason that we do what we do now is because of those guys,” he said. The “we” to which Vallier refers just happens to be his fellow concert-goers: his brother Jeff Vallier, engineer at Gibson Guitars, and Eric Fawcett, of Spymob and N.E.R.D. Vallier said that he felt Rush’s performance as a band was definitely lacking.

“There’s a reason why that place was only half full. I just kind of had a weird feeling that they didn’t care too much about the show. They played OK,” he said, “but they didn’t have the energy if they were playing at Madison Square Garden or something like that.”

Vallier said that the second half of the show stepped it up a notch, partially due to the set’s content and partially to the pyrotechnics used to kick it off.

“I thought the fire and all that would have been great on an old song. I’m the last person in the world to go hear a show only for the hits, but I didn’t even know they had a new record out,” he said.

“The second half was way better. That’s because they were playing their older stuff. They still have an energy to their older stuff even though they’ve played it a million times. The new stuff just sounds like it’s laboring — just trying to get through the song.”

Vallier said that most of the audience seemed to have the same low level of enthusiasm for the new material. During older songs, spectators everywhere were playing air instruments and high-fiving each other. But Vallier said he noticed them doing other things during more recent material.

“Eric looked around when they were doing their new stuff and he was shocked to see that people were reading their programs instead of actually watching the show,” Vallier said.

As hard as Rush tried to infuse the concert with some energy by way of laser lights and LCD screens, it just didn’t do the job. They even went as far as to replace Lee’s bass amps with actual spinning Laundromat dryers.

“I thought it was kind of cute. I’ll give them credit for that,” Vallier said. “I thought the graphics were just bullshit. It had nothing to do with what was going on.”

Even though the show as a whole disappointed, attendees felt that Rush executed their parts well.

“I thought [lead singer] Geddy [Lee] was on fire,” Vallier said. “He played great, he sounded great. I thought Alex [Lifeson], the guitar player, was playing good even thought I couldn’t hear him very well.”

Britson agrees with Vallier on the merits of Lifeson’s playing.

“Alex Lifeson — is amazing, there is no denying that. I couldn’t believe the solos he was playing. They were flashy and had the technical skill. But they were so ethereal at the same time,” he said. “It’s really rare to find a soloist who can do that. He pulled it off.” Vallier said he’s still happy that he flew out for the show. “It was exciting to see them and I was glad to see them in real life. But that’s about it. I was expecting to be blown away,” he said.

“I think they’re just showing their age. I don’t think I’ll be able to play that well at how old are they? 52? 55?”

Vallier hesitantly gave the show an average rating.

“Out of 1 to 10, I’ll give it a 7. It hurts me to say that, because I wanted it to be a 10,” Vallier said. “It’d be easy for me to bullshit and go, ‘It was the best show I’ve ever seen.’ Not really.”