WINNIPEG - Everyone knows that Sunday's gloomy, but it turns out Saturday night can be pretty melancholy, too.

At least, it can be when moody alt-rockers Evanescence are in town, as they were last night for an appropriately tortured show at MTS Centre.

The band itself is a bit of an odd duck -- a brooding metal quintet whose angsty guitar riffs are buoyed by the operatic vocals of pint-sized frontlady Amy Lee.

But the formula definitely works, and while some of the songs tend to sound the same, Lee's classically-trained pipes are distinctive enough to keep things from getting too morbid.

Lee and her bandmates (among them guitarist and songwriting partner Terry Balsamo, who replaced founding member Ben Moody when he abruptly split in 2003) took to the stage at 9 p.m. sharp, opening with the one-two punch of Sweet Sacrifice and Weight of the World.

Both served as awesome showcases for Lee's soaring vocals, though it was the latter song on which she unleashed a high note that could've shattered glass.

Looking suitably Goth in black lace-up boots and a bizarre tulle skirt, Lee stalked the stage like a pro, pumping her fist in the air at regular intervals and chatting cheerfully with the crowd of 8,000 in between bouts of Pat Benatar-like wailing.

For every menacing, aggressive rocker in Evanescence's catalogue, there's a somber, heart-wrenching ballad, as Lee proved after sitting down in front of a baby grand piano half an hour into the set.

First up was the creepy anthem Lithium (from the band's newest album The Open Door), then the tender Good Enough, from the same disc. The snowflakes that fell around her for both songs were an especially nice touch.

Lee was back on her feet for more bodice-ripping theatrics shortly afterwards, following up Snow White Queen and Whisper with the vitriolic kiss-off Call Me When You're Sober, a track inspired by ex-boyfriend (and Seether frontman) Shaun Morgan.

Lee, of course, got engaged to someone else about a week before last night's show, which might explain why she was in such high spirits, even while her set list hovered somewhere between sullen and downright suicidal.

An hour into the show, just as Lee and company were about to launch into their breakout hit Bring Me To Life, it was abundantly clear that -- while they may not be the most exciting thing to look at -- Lee's songbird-of-teen-misery routine makes Evanescence infinitely easy on the ears.

Earlier in the evening, post-grunge outfit Stone Sour delivered a 45-minute set of chest-thumping (but still melodic) power metal.

Frontman Corey Taylor (who, along with guitarist Jim Root, does double-duty in Slipknot) sprinkled his tough-guy banter with a near-comical amount of f-bombs, but also pulled off the high point of the band's set by going solo for the acoustic ballad Bother.