If the members of Pearl Jam demonstrated anything Saturday night - other than how to put on one hell of a show - it's that they know how to play to their audience's local sensibilities.

And so it was that six songs into their outstanding set before a sold out Toronto crowd, Eddie Vedder stepped up to the microphone and asked those seated at the back of Maple Leaf Gardens if anyone could see his T-shirt.

"This here shirt's a circa 1978 Neil Young and Crazy Horse tour shirt. We've got some friends who are Canadian," he said as the crowd erupted into a head crushing cheer. "Apparently more than I thought."

And so the tone for the evening was set.

Vedder, along with guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard, bassist Jeff Ament and drummer Jack Irons, put on a show that was both relaxed and entertaining.

From the opening cords of Release through such songs as Tremor Christ, Animal, Jeremy and Habit, Pearl Jam freely weaved tracks from all four of their albums.

Few of the faithful lucky enough to get tickets (they were sold out in 20 minutes) should have left disappointed.

Vedder seemed downright playful as he wandered the front of the stage showering the sweating throngs in the mosh pit with water from a plastic bottle or bounded about the stage with gleeful abandon, at one point nearly bumping Ament into the drum kit at the rear of the stage.

Not even blowing the opening lyrics to Even Flow could dampen the apparent performing rush that seemed to have hold of the singer.

"You'll never hear us do this anywhere else," he said later as the fans' screams erupted yet again. "Wait a minute, you haven't heard what it is. I might piss on you."

What Vedder did, in fact, was demonstrate that he'd done his home work before coming to Toronto. "We're going to get (Toronto Maple Leaf enforcer) Tie Domi into this song," he announced to the delight of over 15,000 in the crowd. The band then began playing Not For You with the opening lyrics: "Restless souls, enjoy your youth / Like Tie Domi hits the truth..."

Through more than two hours Vedder's voice was powerful enough to vibrate your insides while the rest of the band played song after song with power and precision, never noticeably missing the mark.

One of the more interesting moments came near the end of the set when Vedder tried to reach out over the red shirted security personnel lining the front of the stage, apparently trying to grab the hand of a fan up front, perhaps to bring on stage. After a few moments he abandoned the attempt and headed back to his microphone as the band broke into Alive.

But the highlight of the night had to be the final encore. At that point the crowd experienced a moment rare in the realm of arena rock shows as Vedder performed a slight of hand that would make Kreskin proud.

"Just keep the lights on. We're just hanging out here," he called to the lighting crew. And with the house lights on and the cooling strains of Black rolling over the crown and everything in plain view for one brief moment the cavernous Gardens actually seemed intimate.

And that, if nothing else - and there was something else - was worth the price of admission.