OTTAWA -- They survived rain on Canada Day, a hot August night at Summersault, so what's a little snow mean to Our Lady Peace?

A helluva lot, given the Canuck alt-rockers braved winter's harshest elements -- 28 cm of the white stuff, not to mention incredibly bitter windchills -- to perform an intimate gig last night at Carleton University pub Oliver's, the rarest of locales for these arena rockers.

The 250 fans who managed to snag tickets for the show (on top of the 198 contest winners) were probably thanking their lucky stars they didn't have to stand in line outside in the cold.

The gig was slated to be at Barrymore's, but clearly somebody was thinking ahead with the change in venue.

Nonetheless, the thought of OLP, a band that could easily pack an arena, going back to its club roots would seem a bit insane. Even more out of whack, OLP tossed in a pair of cover songs: A wicked spin on The Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows and John Lennon's Imagine, odes to commemorate last Friday's 20th anniversary of Lennon's fatal shooting. Now that's reminiscing.

The raison d'etre for OLP's fourth Ottawa visit, though, was to promote their fourth album, the conceptual Spiritual Machines, released yesterday.

Once again, the idea of showcasing material inspired by author/inventor Ray Kurzweil's book The Ages of Spiritual Machines -- When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence could easily make for an epic adventure onstage ... in an arena setting.

Consider that a prediction for a future tour. But I digress.

OLP, as a bar band, adapted nicely to Oliver's "basement-like" setting, putting in a solid two-hour performance, though lead singer Raine Maida took a few songs to let his vocal power and frontman dynamic shine through.

Of the first eight songs that focused on Spiritual Machines, the ethereal In Repair, the haunting Are You Sad?, and the rocking Right Behind You (Mafia) garnered the highest reaction on the crowd metre. And Life was recognizable enough considering the song was actually premiered at Summersault in August.

Not bad, given the album was just released.

Gusto went up several notches once OLP jumped into older material -- Automatic Flowers, Superman's Dead, Naveed, One Man Army and Starseed -- which had the audience jumping and -- though it was heavily discouraged -- tiny flourishes of crowd surfing.

No slouches in bravado, guitarist Mike Turner, bassist Duncan Coutts, drummer Jeremy Taggart and utilityman Jamie Edwards grooved to the beats and rhythms emanating from their instruments, always smiling, never struggling. (A couple of times Maida's vocals couldn't reach the high notes, but they were few and far between.)

What remained consistent was OLP's connection with the crowd, something noticeably absent at The Tragically Hip's recent Corel Centre show.

JAM! Rating: 4 out of 5