TORONTO - Warmth might be what's keeping Los Angeles rock band Motley Crue going through their Canadian Dead Of Winter tour.

How else to explain the bombardment of explosions, fireballs and flames which were the bookends to the group's 95-minute set Thursday evening at Toronto's Air Canada Centre.

And while bassist Nikki Sixx - who had a page only with "TORONTO" printed on it near his microphone letting him know where he was (I kid you not) -- complained about how cold it was, the warm response the fans gave the band now 29 years young was generous almost to a fault.

Still touring behind their 2008 album Saints Of Los Angeles, Motley Crue lead singer Vince Neil and guitarist Mick Mars got the hard rock rolling with Kickstart My Heart, one of four tunes the band delivered from 1989's Dr. Feelgood album.

Neil perhaps had the easiest night of all four members as the crowd filling the floor and lower bowl often drowned out the vocalist on the fist-pumping Shout At The Devil and Wild Side. In other spots he'd hold out his microphone to let the audience do the work while occasionally sprinting from one side of the stage to the other.

Following a lukewarm response for the majority towards the latest album's title track - and with Aerosmith guitarist and show opener Joe Perry watching offstage - Mars had the spotlight for a lengthy solo, working in snippets of Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Chile before drummer Tommy Lee came out to pound the skins.

A rather awkward moment and missed opportunity came next when Cheap Trick singer Robin Zander and fellow guitarist Rick Nielsen walked on stage to say hello after wrapping up their own headlining show at the Sound Academy. An impromptu cover with both musicians could have been memorable, but instead the two walked off as Motley Crue continued with the fine punk-meets-metal vibe of Looks That Kill and the catchy Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away).

The band had another little rest while Lee passed a bottle of booze into the crowd to share yet hit the main set homestretch roughly an hour in with Primal Scream and the inane crowd pleaser Girls, Girls, Girls which had pyrotechnics, pyrotechnics and more pyrotechnics.

Returning for Home Sweet Home that had the quartet placed around a piano, Motley Crue wrapped up the show with Dr. Feelgood as Neil and company went out with more bangs.

And unlike the band's recent Winnipeg show where a couple were videotaped being raunchy in the upper bowl, it didn't happen in Toronto. The upper bowl was empty.

Earlier in the evening, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry (who also had a page with "TORONTO" on it taped to the floor near his amps) doled out material from his latest solo album Have Guitar, Will Travel alongside Aerosmith nuggets Toys In The Attic and Walk This Way.