Fates Warning, Savatage Canyon Club (inside the Bronco Bowl), 2600 Fort Worth Av, Dallas 8pm Fri. $17.50. 214-943-8088.

What separates Savatage from its contemporaries -- other than its longevity -- is that this Florida band combines social consciousness with searing guitar licks and thundering keyboards. Recording and performing for two decades, the band has spent much of the past 10 years focusing on rock operas, beginning with 1991's Streets. Each song is like a separate chapter or act in a musical that tackles topics like homelessness and drug abuse, delivered with the kind of muscle expected from Black Sabbath and the dramatic melodic flavor of Queen. Backed by a hard-edged soundtrack, Savatage's knack for grim storytelling has unfolded on a dozen albums over the years, and also created the popular spin-off group Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

With its new album/rock opera, Poets & Madmen, Savatage spins the tale of three teenagers who break into an abandoned mental institution and discover the file -- and possibly the ghost -- of a former photographer who was traumatized and haunted by the human tragedy he once had captured on film. The album kicks off Savatage's first tour in three years, which means all the Savatage fans who packed the Trans-Siberian Orchestra show in December can get their fix of the music they've grown to love.