Gary Brooker

The catch phrase of Jethro Tull's biggest American hit some 21 years ago was "Let's go living in the past." Ian Anderson, the British band's leader, evidently meant what he said. The past is Tull's present agenda, as it brings its tour celebrating the band's 25th anniversary to Irvine Meadows on Saturday. There always has been something antiquarian about Tull, even in its early days, when it was forging a distinctive musical style that placed it in rock's "progressive" sector.

Robin Trower is a musician whose output never seemed to live up to the potential of his gift. His nimble-fingered guitar work went a long way toward making Procol Harum among the most intriguing British rock groups of the late '60s and early '70s. His second solo album, 1974's "Bridge of Sighs," is a classic of the power-trio genre that still sounds fresh and exciting today. But after "Bridge," Trower began to recycle formulaic, blues-steeped rock ad infinitum.

How odd that the first original Rolling Stone to quit that august group should be the one to most vividly live up to the aphorism about--sorry, we have to invoke it--gathering no moss. Bassist Bill Wyman quit in 1992 after 31 years co-anchoring the Rolling Stones rhythm section with drummer Charlie Watts. "People think I'm a crazy idiot," Wyman says with a laugh. "And I swear, it's been the happiest time in my life since I left."

"Age isn't everything. Age is (expletive) nothing at all," Ian Anderson mused defiantly during a pause in the proceedings as Jethro Tull brought its 25th Anniversary Tour to Irvine Meadows on Saturday night. At 46, the British band's leader remains enough of a showman to almost have backed up those words.