TORONTO -- Melissa Etheridge's sold-out show last night at the Hummingbird Centre -- at least the last three songs before the encore -- deserved full marks.

 The sheer musicianship and passionate vocals displayed by the wonderfully raspy-voiced Etheridge during extended versions of the full-out rockers Bring Me Some Water, I'm The Only One and Like The Way I Do were worthy of top grades and then some.

 Unfortunately, it took Etheridge and her stellar four-piece band -- including noted session drummer Kenny Aronoff and touring guitarist John Shanks -- a long time to reach that fever pitch after a slow-paced and bumpy start to their marathon, 21/2-hour concert.

 Unplugged set

 "You've been real good sports Toronto," admitted Etheridge towards the end of the evening.

 "This is one of those gigs that we call 'working out the kinks.' "

 Given Etheridge's just-released latest album is called Breakdown, it seems appropriate that it would take a couch for her to find her bearings.

 The furniture in question was brought out for an unplugged segment which saw Etheridge initially perform with just her acoustic guitar before she was eventually joined by all her band members, one by one.

 For some reason, this configuration seemed to finally energize the singer-songwriter-guitarist, whose concert at times had the feel of an experiment.

 After last playing here at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1996, she only performed in front of 3,200 last night on a spartan stage with simple backdrops.

 Perhaps the idea was to show off the music and get closer to the fans, which Etheridge did on a couple of occasions, sitting at the front of the stage to sing the great new song Into The Dark and actually wandering through the crowd to belt out I Want To Come Over and high-five ecstatic audience members.

 She also did right by the new songs Mama I'm Strange and Angels Would Fall, the crowd pleasers Come To My Window and Similar Features -- the latter song which saw Etheridge begin to let loose vocally -- and Nowhere To Go.

 Etheridge, who is only on the fifth show of her current tour, promised to return to Toronto next summer.

 By then, no doubt, she'll have worked out the kinks.

JAM! Rating: 3 out of 5