Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution Tour was hardly revolutionary this year.

Photos by JASON JANIK/Special Contributor

The Projekt Revolution Tour brought singer Chester Bennington of Linkin Park and others to Superpages.com Center on Saturday.

C'mon: Hip-hop artists aren't exactly reliable, so Busta Rhymes' early abandonment of the tour fits that mold. The most cutting-edge act on the bill was LA punk-percussion trio Street Drum Corps, and Dallas has seen that outfit several times on other tours. It's old – right along with the same well-meaning and well-funded sponsor booths, the same varied, mostly mature crowd and the same not-quite-a-full-rock-festival feel.

The closest that Saturday's tour stop at Superpages.com Center came to revolution was the mad rush onto the lawn after the side-stage activities ended. That the amphitheater and its shade and cool grass were off-limits until 5:15 p.m. on a searing and muggy August afternoon is shameful but not inexplicable (main stage preparation).

Jason Janik/Special Contributor

Linkin Park played a 100-minute set, without any notable technical glitz, to a crowd of about 13,000 people.

But none of that is what makes Projekt Revolution click, anyway. It's the performances, the intent and the interest.

Linkin Park itself is responsible for that on several levels, even if its 100-minute set eschewed any mentionable technical glitz and was essentially a repeat of 2007's turn. It was delivered with the same lofty levels of verve, action and insistence as any of LP's previous shows, and the 13,000 or so that showed up were adamantly appreciative.

Linkin Park fans tend to be fervent and open-minded, and they appeared to give the main-stage openers props when deserved.

Chris Cornell darn near upstaged the hosts with an animated and bombastic set that rivaled his late Soundgarden days.

Even two tracks from the Timbaland-produced knee-buckler of a CD that'll be pitched to the public in the fall (Scream) roared with authority. But Interpol-aping faux-Brit popsters the Bravery withered with too much style and schtick, even for this permissive throng.

It's little wonder that Street Drum Corps was reassigned to open the main stage; the noble and soaring work of A Perfect Circle co-founder Billy Howerdel's new act, Ashes Divide, isn't combustible enough to ignite this kind of evening.

That doesn't mean that it wasn't good, in the same way that Projekt Revolution isn't quite sparking fresh ways to think about rock these days.