I was thinking about the last time I saw Blue Rodeo -- for pleasure that is, not for work -- about an hour into their Corel Centre show last night.

It was eight years ago in Sunderland, where we trussed up a bachelorette friend in a sandwich board reading "It's my last night as a free woman, take me Blue Rodeo!" before heading out to see the show at the hockey arena down the road.

We got a smile, a nod and a thumbs up out of Jim Cuddy -- making our night -- and captured more attention from hundreds of well-refreshed locals out for a big Friday night. What a different picture last night, in squeaky-clean Kanata, where 5,400 pre-work-week fans sat quietly, sometimes danced, and mostly just drank in their beloved band over the course of a two-hour performance.

AT HOME

The other half of Blue Rodeo -- Greg Keelor -- must have been thinking about the difference too.

"These buildings don't smell the way they used to," he said.

"They smell all clean and stuff."

Either way, this two-decades-along Toronto band of two is just as at home in either venue. Utterly unobjectionable, Blue Rodeo has proved so versatile they can rock it out just as easily as they can raise a lump in my throat with their words of heartbreak and hard knocks.

Last night they zipped back and forth between their fledgling present and beloved past. You could almost hear the audience go "Ah," as they launched into favourites like Bulletproof, That's The Way, 'Til I am Myself Again and Hasn't Hit Me Yet, which Blue Rodeo has apparently decided to let the audience mostly sing full-time now.

Opening tune Heart Like Mine nicely melded the group's ability to jump up and down tempo, as it combined heavy beats and trippy jams in one tune.

Fully comfortable in their skins, and backed by a three-piece band on guitar, keyboards and drums, they stretched out old favourites like Diamond Mine with impressive instrumental interludes.

FEEL THE PAIN

And those who hadn't quite digested their latest studio album, Are You Ready, should be ready after listening in last night. The raw title track was written by Keelor for his "dear departed dad" and you could hear his pain in between the combo of harsh wails and mellow vocals.

Rena and Runaway Train are two bittersweet standouts, continuing the band's tradition of lyrically nailing the complications of love while giving the audience something nice to listen to.

Dartmouth, N.S. native Matt Mays and his band, El Torpedo, opened the show, with Mays stepping back out to help out during the encore.