OTTAWA -- Bif Naked played the SuperEx on Thursday night, just like she did a year ago, and it was enough to make a person imagine the power never went out, Bob Hope is still alive and Avril Lavigne is on her way to becoming really famous.

The show was similar right down to the closing cover of Twisted Sister's raucous tune We're Not Gonna Take It, though it did not, as I claimed last year, "blow the roof off the place."

Though there was little to differentiate Naked's SuperEx 2003 show from her SuperEx 2002 show -- well, she did wear a miniskirt and show her chiselled belly last year, I think her hair is a little different and the energy level was way, way down -- none of her surprisingly young fans, all 4,200 of them who turned out last night, seemed bummed out by it.

Naked has a new album coming out in January though, so we can only hope she'll mix it up a little when she inevitably rolls into town next year.

"We like it here," she said. "We stand on the bridge between the museum and that other place, and take lots of pictures."

As she told the Sun in an interview last week, she won't play any of the songs already written for it out of fear they'll be pirated and put on the Internet.

Naked did perform the punchy but repetitive Rich and Filthy, a tune about "being on the dole" and feeling okay about it that was included on a special 22-song compilation/DVD she released earlier this summer called Essentially Naked.

There was lots of that powerful voice, a little of the manic dancing and the occasional ear-piercing squeak we're used to hearing from the Vancouver-based dynamo. Naked was backed by rough-and-ready guitar courtesy of her LiveOnRelease protege, Brit Black -- who has hit the road with Naked this summer rather than vacationing with the rest of the band in the Dominican Republic -- bass player Rob Fury and crazed drummer Scotty Sex.

Naked breezed through a hot, near 90-minute long set filled with everything from My Bike off her self-titled debut album to Choking on the Truth from 2001's Purge. She punctuated the show by tossing away water bottles and frequently talking to the crowd as though we were all on her couch.

There were her more recognizable hits, like Tango Shoes, Spaceman and I Love Myself Today, and Naked gave a clue to her mood when she introduced the sad ballad Lucky by referring to Monday's Sun article, in which she talked about her recently broken heart.

"It kind of gave you a little too much information, I have to apologize," she said. "I'm supposed to be this shiny, happy person."

JAM! Rating: 2.5 out of 5