EDMONTON - Blue Rodeo is exempt from the Classic Rock Commandment: Thou shalt not dwell too heavily upon thy new album lest thou annoyest thy most loyal fans.

This 25-year-old band has never been mainstream enough to be called "classic rock." Besides, the loyal fans of Blue Rodeo will take pretty much anything served to them. History has shown that.

These guys used to play single shows at the Jubilee Auditorium. Now they're doing doubles.

That's progress, isn't it? Sure, the fans may holler requests, they may scream requests, but they'll come away happy even if the band doesn't play (insert your favourite song here). What?! They didn't play Try?! Oh, well ...

For the first of two shows at the Jubilee Auditorium last night, our good Canadian boys dared to pull out a gigantic chunk of the latest record, a double album, All the Things We Left Behind.

It was almost an hour into a show filled with unfamiliar, interesting and sometimes downright weird fare before the band threw the crowd an old, well-chewed bone: Five Days in May. This song seems to get longer and more elaborate with every performance.

There was a wicked piano solo from new keyboardist Michael Boguski, then a wild guitar romp from Greg Keelor -- the scruffy yin to the smooth yang that is Jim Cuddy. The whole tune clocked in at about eight minutes. At this rate it'll be a symphony.

From a casual opening and a breezy "hi there" as if they were just popping into your livingroom to rehearse a few new tunes, the show reached a fever pitch of styles and influences, a lot of the newer material coming from somewhere in left field, older songs like Diamond Mine given wild new arrangements.

The title track of the new album came off like a Grateful Dead jam. There was even R&B from stuff like And When You Wake Up, quite a bit of all out rock, and of course plenty of down home "country" music. We need to come up with a new term for Blue Rodeo -- since "alt" is out. Let's try "anti-country."

Some songs didn't quite work. Don't Let the Darkness in Your Head -- coming off like no-regrets-on-the-deathbed sort of thing -- started off all spooky and atmospheric, complete with a violin and cello, but slipped into inappropriate jauntiness, for some reason. It may be that Blue Rodeo is simply too happy a band to properly deliver the heartbreak-in-yer-beer ballads.

There was an attempt at a heartbreak rocker, Old Blue House (from the band's second most recent album, Small Miracles) with its ridiculous line: "I dreamt you were an iceberg and I was the Arctic sea and I held you but you held back from me."

Talk about a cold, cold heart.

The band's best songs --Try, Five Days in May, Lost Together -- generally represent the polar opposite of heartbreak: Romantic bliss. This need not be boring, of course.

Elsewhere, the spooky bits worked well. One of the highlights of the show was yet another new one, Gossip, kind of secondhand heartbreaker, actually, which really let loose the string section -- plus Keelor's gruff, soulful vocals.

By the end, like I said, everyone came away happy. They didn't even get lynched for not playing Try.

As with the band's show here almost two years ago, Blue Rodeo still has the capacity to surprise. It's doubtful any other band of this vintage could boast the same.

It takes a lot of testicles to hire an opening band that sounds exactly like you -- and Cuff the Duke has the same basic instrumentation, sweet melodies, wistful, romantic lyrics and general anti-country sound as the headliner.

The result sounded like Blue Rodeo in an alternate universe, minus the well-known songs done sparingly last night in any case. Singer Wayne Petti pulled double duty singing backup for Blue Rodeo, which may explain a few things about great minds thinking alike.

Blue Rodeo plays again tonight at the Jube.