Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell, rocks out in front of about 11,000 fans at the 'Dome last night. (Photo: Darren Makowichuk, SUN)

CALGARY -- When you're comfortable with your present, you can return to your past.

We've already seen an example of that earlier this year when supergroup Velvet Revolver came through town and was more than comfortable performing material from the bandmembers past lives in Guns 'N' Roses and Stone Temple Pilots. The result was a satisfying evening of rock.

As they showed last night in front of a 'Dome crowd of 11,000 or so, Audioslave are so comfortable being Audioslave, they're also willing to acknowledge what they once were to just as successful results.

For those who don't know, the band are another supergroup, this one featuring vocalist Chris Cornell from '90s giants Soundgarden, along with the instrumental core of Rage Against the Machine.

Throughout the quartet's loud, sweaty superb two hour set, they were more than happy to toss out a couple of bones from those projects, including Soundgarden's Spoonman -- while even throwing out some material from another Cornell project, the phenomenal The Temple of a Dog.

It was all great stuff and a welcome trip back a decade.

But before that trip, Audioslave first had to establish themselves, something they did to great effect with powerhouse songs such as the title cut from their latest release Out of Exile and the appropriately titled Doesn't Remind Me -- both of which featured genius guitar work from a coverall-clad Tom Morello.

In fact, the beauty of Audioslave is that each of the four members can establish who they were and are -- Cornell still owns one of the most distinct and best set of pipes in all of rock and Morello's style is also so very much his own -- while still working towards a sound that is very much Audioslave.

And on stage, with those separate pasts and a collaborative pair of albums in their back pockets, as well as multiple headlining tours, they seem physically comfortable separately and as a whole.

The Rage boys are an insanely tight unit, yet they also seem to harness the energy of their frontman and return it tenfold.

Maybe Audioslave aren't the future of hard rock -- although they showed they do have a future, by previewing a new, unrecorded cut -- but they're very much the present.

And last night, the here and now couldn't get much better.

Both of last night's opening acts also have the baggage of being best known for other reasons. Unfortunately, neither 30 Seconds to Mars nor Seether have the talent to push those other things, those other associations aside.

For example, 30 Seconds to Mars failed to overcome the Dogstar stigma -- in other words, watching the band's mercifully short set, it was impossible to put aside the notion they're anything but a hobby for their rich, actor-boy frontman Jared Leto.

As for Seether, they're probably best known for the relationship between frontman Shaun Morgan and Evanescence's Amy Lee -- something they embraced with the hit duet Broken. To be fair, once past that, Seether do have an established rock career.

But to be brutally honest, that career is as the most popular nu-metal Nirvana cover band on the planet.

Seether's set last night did little to move them beyond that. From Morgan's Cobainian vocals, to the rather In Utero-esque stage imagery, to the cover of Nirvana's Drain You, it was hard to see Seether as anything more than a relatively competent clone.

Yes, it's a complaint and criticism I've made a half-dozen times before, but if they feel no need to move past it, why should I?