A man would have to be pretty comfortable with his masculinity to wear a full-length dress on stage - as Philosopher Kings singer Gerald Eaton did on the MuchMusic video awards last year.

He laughs, "Having a wife and kid - that's what solidifies your masculinity."

It goes further than outrageous wardrobe, of course. There's been a distinct change in this jazzy, genre-busting band that used to draw music college students at the Sidetrack Cafe.

Now it's a "pop" band, for lack of a better term, playing in the Winspear Centre tomorrow night.

Eaton (who's already written a song about his seven-week-old son, Quincy) has especially blossomed into a potent showman, exuding charisma and sex appeal. He can be confident to the point of excess. He boasted during a phone interview two weeks ago that the P-Kings were going to win all three Junos they were nominated for. They didn't win any - but no matter! It's the positive attitude that counts. It's as if Eaton and his Philosopher Kings strive to become the title of their latest album, Famous, Rich and Beautiful.

"This album was a great platform for me to have more fun on stage," Eaton says. "Just the title, Famous, Rich and Beautiful, it's all about being in your face and over the top, the opposite of subtle - sort of like being American. That was the idea in a nutshell. Let's take what we think the Americans are doing and do it more."

There's not enough of that larger-than-life bravado among Canadian performers, he adds - and so the P-Kings are just the ones to bust through the veneer of typical Canuck meekness. It's not a put-on, either.

"It's not that we're pretending to be something we're not, but we don't want to have to pretend to be mild mannered. Before, it was a confidence thing. I describe our first album as our first steps, and this album is just jumping up and down. The sky's the limit right now. Anything we can think of, we're game for."

For those who may be wondering what kind of band the Philosopher Kings is, even the band members aren't sure. In the space of two years, they played at Edgefest, a hard rock festival, and Jazz City, which is not a hard rock festival. Tomorrow's show in the Winspear is more like a high-class soul revue, complete with live strings and a horn section. Can a date at the folk fest be far behind?

While the floodgates of success haven't fully opened yet, the P-Kings have carved out their own genre and won fans of all ages in the process. It's been slow going.

"There's no demographic out there waiting for the kind of music that we do," Eaton says. "When it drops, it's really winning people over one at a time, from all different genres. I've become very aware of the process of actually having to tell people that it's OK to like your music.

"When older people hear it, they're like, 'I don't know, is it for me? This isn't Sarah McLachlan or Jann Arden or Celine Dion.' And kids are like, 'well this isn't Our Lady Peace or Foo Fighters' or whatever. We've had to create something one person at a time, with our music, our image, our videos, our live shows ...

"No one can describe what kind of music Madonna plays. But she's at the level where people can simply say, 'do you like Madonna?' She is her own genre, which is really what we've been trying to do from the beginning. It's a very long road, but the payoffs are definitely the greatest."

The Philosopher Kings will be recording the shows on this tour, the first exclusively in theatres, for a live album due out this summer. Then it's back to the studio in May to write some new material. Don't expect it to be mild mannered.

Tickets to the concert, with opening act Melanie Doane - who did win a Juno Award - are $24.50 and available at the Winspear box office (428-1414).