(Dave Thomas/ Sun Media)

TORONTO - Bravo to the Barenaked Ladies.

Only the fun-loving Toronto fivesome could turn the Air Canada Centre into a cozy-ish hockey hangar on a cold February night in front of a nearly sold-out, hometown crowd.

“I don’t know if you guys noticed but we’re actually from here,” said singer-guitarist Ed Robertson to huge cheers last night.

“Everywhere I look is someone I know.”

Currently touring in support of their not quite two-week-old new album, Barenaked Ladies Are Men, and its companion, last September’s Barenaked Ladies Are Me, the vital-sounding pop veterans opted to open their two-hour-plus show with two back-to-back older hits, One Week, and Old Apartment.

However, it didn’t take long for Robertson, singer-guitarist Steven Page, guitarist-pianist Kevin Hearn, bassist Jim Creeggan and drummer Tyler Stewart, to delve into the new material.

First up was the sweet mid-tempo love song, Sound Of Your Voice, and it was followed by plenty more, including Bank Job, Wind It Up, Angry People — complete with synchronized dance moves — Take It Back, and Easy.

But it was the group’s blue-grass style acoustic gathering around the microphone that really shined; particularly Robertson playing banjo on the new song, Everything Had Changed and Stewart wailing away on bongo drums during the oldie but goodie Enid.

Other crowdpleasers stretched back over their 15-year discography — Bruce Cockburn’s Lovers In A Dangerous Time, which prompted a huge sing-and-clap-along, Get In Line, Too Little, Too Late, Falling For The First Time, Pinch Me, Alternative Girlfriend, It’s All Been Done, Brian Wilson — the latter ending with Page belting out Melissa Manchester’s Don’t Cry Out Loud — and Call And Answer.

As is usual at a Barenaked Ladies concert, comedy was also a major factor, from an abbreviated banjo version of Pat Benatar’s Love Is A Battlefield to a funny story about Robertson’s search for curling stones in London, Ont.

Tomi Swick was the Ladies’ actual opener but in between musical sets, environmentalist David Suzuki came out to address the crowd.

He was preceded by video clips of Canadians talking about what they would do for the environment if they were prime minister of our country.

“You think you could do a better job than the current guy up there?” asked Suzuki, and the audience screamed in the affirmative. “I thought so.”

He then encouraged the crowd to go to the website davidsuzuki.org to upload their own video.

“When enough of us get together, the politicans will have to listen to us,” he urged before getting volunteers to shoot T-shirts into the audience.

“How good is it to see David Suzuki whipping T-shirts?” said Robertson afterwards.