OTTAWA -- The more than 6,000 people who turned out for the Barenaked Ladies concert at the Corel Centre Tuesday night have to be glad they did. After all, tickets to a Ladies show guarantee not only a top-notch, tight musical act with diverse vocals and wonderful harmonies but also a unique, improv-infused variety-style entertainment show. Oh, and more than a few laughs. The antics during last night's two-hour performance included a choreographed dance sequence complete with metal shopping carts, cereal boxes and a neat aerial view for Shopping off the Ladies' latest album Everything to Everyone; a funky, Ottawa-based rap from both frontmen Steven Page and Ed Robertson; and a short video sequence featuring the entire band playing Careless Whisper on their kazoos. Things started out mellow, with laid-back opening acts Jason Plumb and Ron Sexsmith in separate performances. But the Ladies were like a stealth act, stealing into the city and waking up a late-February-in-Ottawa crowd in spite of themselves. "This is starting to feel like a rock concert now," Robertson said 10 minutes into the show when the entire floor was up on their feet. "None of this, 'I wonder what's on TV?' " Intermingled with new tunes like the first Everything single, the silly Another Postcard, catchy Maybe Katie and the lovely Celebrity were old, beloved Barenaked tunes like Pinch Me off 2000's Maroon and It's All Been Done off 1998's Stunt. One of the best parts of the show came during a stripped-down, three-song acoustic set. Hearing The Roadrunner Song from five guys, complete with drummer Tyler Stewart's variation on the "beep- beep" section, would have been good enough without the group's astonishing and refreshing rendition of the creative rap tune One Week. Reworking some of their popular songs to grab new attention, and leaving others exactly the same -- like their powerful, near-perfect cover of Bruce Cockburn's Lovers in a Dangerous Time, with former member Andy Kreegan stepping in on keys so Kevin Hearn could return to his first love, the accordian -- prevented audience members who know the songs by heart from feeling as though they've heard it all before. Jim Creegan briefly stole the show with a bass solo and the entire thing wrapped up with an unexpected cover of Duran Duran's Rio. Things got a little melancholy when the hyper, gyrating Page piped down to introduce War On Drugs by describing the Bloor St. bridge suicide site that inspired it. But it wasn't long before they were back up again, with old favourites like Brian Wilson and If I Had A Million Dollars from 1992's Gordon. In the end, the Ladies have always known how to make us smile.