Ed Robertson, of the Barenaked Ladies, smiles as they perform at the Celebrate Canada! Centennial Jam at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alta., on Friday July 1, 2005. (SUN/Darryl Dyck)

Not sure what the Celebrate Canada! Centennial Jam was supposed to be beyond a Barenaked Ladies concert with an odd bunch of opening acts - but it sure was an interesting day.

Besides, what are you complaining about? It was free!

Smoke-free, yes indeed. Umbrella-free. Alcohol-free, too.

It would've been fun to play a game where you took a drink every time you heard "Happy Canada Day!" - and two for every "happy birthday, Alberta!" - but it was not to be.

Yesterday's event (a misnomer in more ways than one: It was Alberta's centennial, not Canada's, and only the Barenaked Ladies actually "jammed") saw the hardest rocking band on first, featured a native rap group, a French-Canadian folk band, Ukrainian dancers and Randy Bachman.

It was a melting pot of music as varied and unpredictable as the day's weather. An estimated 25,000 folks turned up, ages two to 82.

The Barenaked Ladies was just the act to please all of them. The smirking wizards of pop were lively, funny, sometimes silly, sometimes bittersweet, but never a moment away from another wacky bit.

Like all Barenaked Ladies shows, this was a mixed bag of suburban angst wrapped in poignant childhood memories wrapped in sweet, sweet vocal harmonies and jingle-jangly rhythms.

The "jams" - free-form improvisations in the spirit of the place and occasion (take three drinks) - were actually more entertaining than most of the songs.

It's not often you hear an entire set of big hits - and Randy Bachman was just the man to pull it off. None of this "here's one from our new album" nonsense. It was just hit after hit after hit.

You could sense the plan. Soften us up with These Eyes and She's Come Undun, blast us with American Woman and Ain't Seen Nothing Yet and then finish us off with Takin' Care of Business. We didn't stand a chance.

Taking the stage as a steady rain began to fall, Bachman himself didn't seem to sweat too much. The trick at this stage in his career is to surround himself with great musicians - didn't catch their names, maybe we should call them Randy Bachman and Guess What - and then let the material do the work. With a classic rock arsenal like this, you can't go wrong.

Before the Shumka Dancers took the stage with all the pomp, polka and pageantry you'd expect from this award-winning area troupe, Wil surprised the audience with his drum 'n' guitar act. Not to be confused with drum 'n' bass, that's all it was: Guitar and drums, a jangle-rock answer to the White Stripes, if you like.

The Vancouver singer-songwriter looked like he just came back from his job at the mill and picked up an old six-string in a pawn shop, but he was terrific: Great songs performed with passion. Imagine how good he'd be if he had a whole band.

Near as I can figure out, Les Fistons - don't even want to try to translate that - sounded like the Acadian Captain Tractor. They had the lusty French vocals, the accordion, the fiddle and the jaunty gypsy jazz and full-on gumboot clogeroos. Might be a swell act at the folk festival.

From another genre - perhaps even another world - came Non Status, an aboriginal rap group with Christian overtones. As break-dancing spontaneously broke out in the crowd, they promised and largely deliver "verbal ass-whippin's," the closest yesterday's wholesome bill o fare came to profanity, and sounding a lot like gangsta rap without the gangsta. Bonus points for working "Edmonton Eskimos" into a rhyme.

Finally, let's go to the opener, Calico Drive, the local hard-rock band tasked with the three-song opening set/soundcheck.

A little green and lyrically a little whiny - memo to band: the public doesn't care that life on the road is hard - these guys would've fit in at Stage 13 or any of these other modern rock festivals you just don't see much of anymore.

Speaking of which, the whole "sameness" of those daze of rock events held in this very building had been a major complaint. No such problem yesterday.

Organizers of the Celebrate Alberta! Centennial Jam at Commonwealth Stadium couldn't have picked a more diverse lineup of entertainers if they tried. Oh, right, they did.