Fri. May 25

 Progressive rock got such a bad rap during the first punk era, it took a long time to recover. Rightfully so, perhaps. I remember talking to Peter Gabriel about why he left Genesis (and prog-rock form) on his first solo album. He said, "Progessive rock used to mean 'exploring music,' and it's come to mean 'using keyboards." In a nutshell, yes. Plus there was all that bloat, those phantasmagorical images, the haughty aura of musicianship ... Well,  there's been a prog-rock recovery. One could say it started with Queensryche and continued with Tool. And one could very much say its leader now is Porcupin Tree, the English quartet led by singer-guitarist Steven Wilson. They're back with the smartly titled "Fear of a Blank Planet," a play off Public Enemy's "Fear of a Black Planet" and a rather trenchant comment on its own. At first we tought the "blank"-ness referred to the possible result of global warming. But it turns out it it refers more to a populace hooked on a numbing routine of drugs, MTV, video games, the Internet, etc. Youth culture in the ruts. Shades of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" thematically if not musically. Porcupine Tree earned a rave for the disc in Q, where it was called "a dramatic, wide-screen, expertly executed, even genuinely thrilling record worthy of an audience way beyond nu-prog's regular constituency." Well, yes. (Prog-rock guitar god Robert Fripp guested on the disc.) Wilson favors songs over 7 minutes (one, "Anesthetize" runs over 17!) Wilson began the Tree as a solo project in 1992. It became a band the following year, and it's built its audience bit by bit here in the States. But they're heading toward that big breakthrough and, with their Roxy date Friday May 25, this may be the last time you can catch these expansive sounds in clubland. Tickets: $30. Starts at 7 p.m.

Tremont St., 617-931-2000 roxyplex.com