CALGARY - In the gospel according to Shakira, hips don't lie. Neither, it should be noted, do the eyes and ears.

If you needed any proof, you just had to be among the sold-out Jubilee Auditorium audience last night.

The band on stage, the two central figures, could have gone under any name -- the Guess Who, BTO, Bachman Cummings, the Phoenix Coyotes, etc. -- but there was no hiding the songs, no disguising what they were.

It was unmistakably Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings and, despite the ironically titled name of the tour (First Time Around), the history of rock music in Canada.

To prove the point, the Winnipeg pair, whom mustachioed Cummings explained had been working on and off together for 40 years, kicked off the show with a freshly recorded jazzy rendition of the always-relevant American Woman.

And despite that renovation, the song carried with it, all of the power of its original incarnation.

What followed for the remainder of the evening was song after song of immaculately performed memories from the men and their five-piece backup band.

These Eyes, You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, Clap For The Wolfman, Lookin' Out For No. 1, No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature -- the spigot of hits was opened wide.

And just as on the recently released Bachman Cummings Songbook CD, the familiarity of the material also had a freshness about it.

The songwriters themselves -- both looking and sounding better than they have in years -- also seemed to have harnessed a new energy, with Cummings particularly extroverted and Bachman's guitar solos and his counterpart's piano work sounding nothing short of inspired.

Call them what you want, but last night was a pretty excellent classic rock show. No lie.

Before her brief acoustic set, opener Serena Ryder introduced herself to the Jube audience by stepping onstage solo and belting out, without accompaniment, the self-penned Melancholy Blues.

It was a brave, astonishing and effective move, winning over the crowd and calming them enough to deliver the remainder of her songs.

It helps that she's gifted with a dynamo set of pipes, sounding like a cross between Jewel and Janis Joplin.

And she's also a smart enough performer to know her audience, reeling them back in when she felt their attention wandering by hauling out superb covers of Neil Young's Heart of Gold and Hank Williams' Lovesick Blues.

For most, it really was Ryder's first time around, for many, it won't be the last.