Rush

And the geeks shall inherit the Earth, indeed. If anyone said that Rush would last 30-plus years in 1975, when robo-tronic drummer Neil Peart joined the Canadian trio (thus transforming it from a derivative bar band into one of the world's most revered prog icons), they were probably high. But, as it turns out, the band has outlived its detractors who had every reason to think — in fact, to hope — that punk, New Wave, metal, and hip-hop would stamp out prog rock for good. That aside, the band's unlikely survival gets puzzling when you consider that, if it was arguably out of gas, it was definitely past its creative prime 20 years ago. But Rush's aggressive performance on the R30 DVD, which captures a concert from its 30th-anniversary tour, is flat-out perplexing. Apparently, Rush in the new millennium is a fired-up, if not altogether new, animal. One can accuse the band of delivering the same ol', same ol' in its predictable, stiff technicality, which unfortunately stereotypes the genre in which peers like Yes and Jethro Tull actually grooved with a level of feeling that Rush could never touch. But the fact that the band puts so much care into picking its set list, not to mention the tear-inducing, life-soundtrack significance and sheer strength of the songs themselves, is what ensures bang for your buck at a Rush concert, and proves that even in 2007, the band has yet to become a dinosaur.