TORONTO -- Dido certainly had her work cut out for her last night at the Molson Amphitheatre.

On her first major headlining tour, the British singer-songwriter with the astonishingly angelic voice was preceded by an intense, winning set from Scottish pop-rock outfit Travis. They've been a favourite of Toronto fans since they made three appearances in the city last year in support of their breakthrough album, The Man Who.

This time, the group -- fronted by the endlessly appealing Fran Healy on both acoustic and electric guitars -- is touring behind a brand new record, The Invisible Band, and performed six songs from it.

But it was tunes from The Man Who -- particularly As You Are, Driftwood, Why Does It Always Rain On Me?, Turn and Blue Flashing Light -- to which the crowd of 8,000 responded the loudest.

Granted, The Invisible Band is not yet a month old, so it's possible much of the audience wasn't yet familiar with the new material. Something tells me that, after last night's performance, they'll be running out to record stores to pick it up.

Healy -- sporting a bleached-out "slo-hawk," as he's called his mini-mohawk -- was his usual charming self, dedicating various songs to Dido, a female from Ireland, and even to an audience member's unborn child.

"Feeling good?" he asked a pregnant woman before remembering the reality of morning sickness. "(I know,) ask me in the morning. Well, this is dedicated to the little person in your tummy."

She's going to have a good story to tell her child one day. (The song, by the way, was a new one called Flowers In The Window.)

Otherwise, Healy's chatty charisma -- he also told another story about how writing songs is the closest men will ever get to bearing children -- was matched by the strength of Travis's pretty, melancholic pop-rock and guitarist Andy Dunlop's scissor kicks whenever the mood struck him.

Feedback did interfere with a few songs, but it wasn't bad enough to really affect the band's 55-minute set.

And Healy's enthusiasm almost led him to knocking out a tooth after one song when he went to thank the crowd.

Dido, meanwhile, took a while to get going, her impressive lights, sound system and "starry night" backdrop notwithstanding. (Guess having Here With Me as the theme for the teen alien series Roswell and Eminem sampling Thank You on his huge, controversial hit Stan has really payed off.)

Backed by a slick-sounding six-piece band, the blond-haired singer casually appeared after running up the stage's back steps and just stood there before launching her performance with the ballad My Lover's Gone.

It wasn't until she kicked it up a notch much later with dance numbers like Honestly OK, featuring her drummer out from behind his kit, Take My Hand, Thank You and Hunter that Dido really hit her stride.

Although, naturally, the audience did respond earlier to Here With Me, whose video was shot in Toronto. (More on: Dido & Travis).

JAM! Rating: 4 out of 5