CALGARY -- The only things missing were Jeff Probst and an immunity idol.

 In a nice moment of cosmic synchronicity, on the same night that the third installment of the popular reality-series Survivor kicked off, so, too, did the second leg of the latest tour by Aerosmith begin in the rowdy, raucous environment of the Saddledome.

 

 A near sellout crowd turned out to watch rock 'n' roll's true survivors do what they do best, which isn't necessarily outwit or outplay the few classic rock icons that remain from their era.

 

 No, what the Boston-based band does, and does so very, very well, it should be noted, is bring the debased, barroom blues boogie for a raunchy night of pie-eyed and mindless good times.

 

 The opening video, featuring the metallic fembot from the cover of the band's latest album, Just Push Play, engaging in -- pun intended -- autoeroticism, perfectly set the tone for the L-O-U-D Aerosmith show that followed.

 

 Musically, that sweaty and sleazy theme was kept alive by songs such as Love In An Elevator and Pink, which were performed with the arena-rock slickness you'd expect from 30-year veterans.

 

 But -- and here's where the survivor thing is most apparent -- it was performed with the kind of energy you rarely see from rockers even half of Aerosmith's members' ages.

 

 The 53-year-old Steven Tyler walked the catwalk and worked his scarfed mic stand and the crowd as though he's still enjoying himself and still enjoying singing the many classics from the band's canon.

 

 Surly, 51-year-old guitarist Joe Perry was the picture of laid-back and cool -- at one point even performing with a stogie in his mouth -- knowing he has nothing left to prove, but proving it anyway just because, well, just because he can.

 

 And the rest of the band was equal to the task -- tight and tenacious playing off of one another with ease.

 

 All of that, plus the endless stream of faves, new (Jaded) and old (most notably house-rockin' renditions of Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion), is what has allowed them to survive. To survive battles with booze and drugs, to survive an early '80s separation, to survive a number of truly terrible albums, and to even survive a recent ultra-embarrassing Super Bowl appearance with Britney Spears and *NSYNC.

 

 Outlast, outperform and, more importantly, outrock, Aerosmith may indeed wind up the only '70s rock survivors left on the island.

 

 If they're not careful, opening act The Cult -- rock survivors in their own right -- may find themselves getting voted off the tour before too long.

 

 The '80s rock band's criminally brief 45-minute set of Led-heavy, mystic metal was in a word: Awesome.

 

 They blew the roof off the old joint with a set peppered with some of that decades most memorable rock moments and, in doing so, threatened to blow the headliners out of the water.

 

 Frontman Ian Astbury still has a voice that -- while faltering at times -- sounds like black leather and lipstick.

 

 Guitarist Billy Duffy still serves up the tasty, meaty solos like they're going out of style. (And for over a decade, unfortunately, they were.)

 

 And the gothic, guitar chime opening of She Sells Sanctuary and the sheer brute force of the musical behemoth Love Removal Machine still gets the hairs standing in all the right places.

 

 Even tracks from the Cult's 2001 comeback album, Beyond Good and Evil, slotted themselves into the set nicely, giving the audience something more to remember them by and (knock wood) reason to anticipate a return headlining engagement.