Making their first live appearance in two years, The Crash Test Dummies displayed no signs of stage rust at The Drink last night. The prominent Canadian rock band launched their high-energy London gig with Give Yourself A Hand, the bluesy title tune from their latest album and followed it up quickly with God Shuffled His Feet from the group's 1994 album of the same name. Both feature the mineshaft-deep singing voice of Brad Roberts, which has been the Dummies' signature sound since their 1987 start as the house band for a bar in their hometown of Winnipeg. A switch of moods and musical gears was made for The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead with Ellen Reid supplying the sultry lead vocals on the song from the soundtrack of the movie Dumb and Dumber. Between numbers, Roberts kept a funny patter going with the audience of more than 900 persons in the crowded London night club, even offering his own dubious solution to the drunk driving issue. "I stopped driving so I can drink every day!" But then, playful irreverent humour has always been a mainstay of the five-member band which also includes Dan (brother of Brad) Roberts on bass, harmonica man Benjamin Darvill and percussionist Mitch Dorge. Drawing in the past on an eclectic mix of country, Irish traditional, funk and modern folk, the Dummies have added a stronger blues component to their musical repertoire. That was most apparent in one of the better offerings of last night's 60-minute set, a soul/R&B hybrid titled Keep A Lid On It. It's the first single from the new album which will be released nation wide on March 23, joining the group's album list that already includes The Ghosts That Haunt Me (1991); God Shuffled His Feet (1994), to date the most successful entry selling 5.5 million units worldwide and A Worm's Life (1996). Meanwhile, other highlights of the band's 15-number performance at The Drink, included the raucous Par-tay and Goo, a little ditty about necrophilia boasting the memorable line, "I love your guts, I love your goo." Newspaper deadline demands prompted this reviewer to leave the show before the Dummies' encore set. It was slated to include the group's most famous number, Superman's Song, a satiric elegy for the death of the Man of Steel, from their initial album; Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm, which drew a 1995 Grammy nomination as top song and He Liked To Feel It, a weird tune about a kid who pulls out his own teeth. The evening of happy melodies, spiced with quirky lyrics, appeared to delight the large audience, including one couple who arrived expecting, for some reason, to see Barenaked Ladies and not Crash Test Dummies. For the information of non-fans, the band's bizarre name was inspired by a friend of Roberts, a med school student who had just come from a class showing films about car accident victims. He suggested three names: the Chemotherapists, Skin Graft and Crash Test Dummies. "I thought the last one was at least plausible since it wasn't quite as gruesome as the others," recalls the 35-year-old Roberts, adding, "Once people hear it, they don't forget it." The same could be said for the group's London performance. The Dummies will perform at the Sarnia Sports & Entertainment Centre Saturday at 7:30 p.m. In May, the band will be the opening act for Alanis Morissette at several stops on her Canadian tour, among them Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax.