TORONTO -- Irish supergroup The Cranberries visited Toronto for the second time this year, pulling into the Molson Amphitheatre last night to play in front of 10,000 fans. But after the band's earlier fired-up and energized show at Massey Hall in May -- a rare glimpse of the multi-platinum Celtic-tinged pop act in an intimate setting -- their more sedate and sluggish performance at the larger venue paled in comparison. Despite the same oversized lanterns decorating their stage and only a slightly altered set list from the Massey Hall gig -- including a clumsy cover of Fleetwood Mac's Go Your Own Way from a much worse 1998 Mac tribute album -- the Limerick-based foursome and two touring musicians started off slowly. One glimpse at the support bandage around lead singer Dolores O'Riordan's left knee -- damaged a few years back while she was on stage -- may have been the telling sign that the usually fiery, pint-sized performer wouldn't be her normally mobile self. While there was some much-needed passion injected into the evening with new songs Promises and Animal Instinct, the spirited anthems Salvation and Zombie, and the breakthrough older hit, Linger, for the most part band members Noel Hogan on guitar, Mike Hogan on bass and Fergal Lawler barely moved from their spots while their faces remained expressionless. They seemed particularly mystified, like the rest of us, by the encore number Dying In The Sun which featured O'Riordan above them playing a white piano while an odd-looking, circular, yellow lighting-rig rose up behind her. Still, the pixie-like O'Riordan -- looking about half of her 27 years in a sexy schoolgirl's jumper and black go-go boots (before two costume changes) with her ever-changing hair cut short and a reddish-brown colour -- was in good, soaring voice. She was able to show off her instrument playing, variously handling keyboards, acoustic and electric guitars and the aforementioned piano. One group in the crowd near the front of the stage held up a homemade banner proclaiming: "Canada loves The Cranberries." O'Riordan is somewhat of an honorary Torontonian having married local boy Don Burton, who is the band's road manager, and given birth to their son Taylor here in November 1997. The couple have a cottage near Peterborough and the group recorded demos for their latest album, Bury The Hatchet, at Metalworks studios in Toronto. Meanwhile, Southern soft-rockers Collective Soul -- who played the Warehouse in March -- also didn't exactly set the amphitheatre's stage on fire with their hour-long set before The Cranberries took the stage. Playing in front of a backdrop that showed the striking album cover of their latest album, Dosage (it's a woman's face and mouth covered in honey and bees), the frathouse-staple fivesome played a hit-heavy if same-sounding set of music. Still, the Atlanta band scored points with a cover of U2's early classic, I Will Follow, even if frontman Ed Roland doesn't have anywhere near the charisma of Bono to pull the song off.