WINNIPEG - There wasn't a strategically placed tube sock in sight, but legendary funk-rock frat boys the Red Hot Chili Peppers still managed to deliver the goods last night.

Of course, the Chili Peppers haven't been boys for at least a couple decades now so while their two-hour-long show (for a capacity crowd of 13,000) was just as boisterous and rambunctious as you'd expect from a band that once had debauchery down to a science, it was also tinged with a maturity that can only come from having survived the rock 'n' roll realm all these years.

But mostly -- thankfully -- it was boisterous and rambunctious, the frenzied pace set early on as an opening mini-jam between drummer Chad Smith, guitarist John Frusciante and bassist Flea gave way to the instantly recognizable intro of propulsive rocker Can't Stop.

Clad in his now-trademark vest and short pants combo, frontman Anthony Kiedis rocked the mike like an especially naughty schoolboy on steroids, shifting effortlessly from his also-trademark pseudo-rapping to some surprisingly chunky vocals on the arena-ready anthem Dani California -- all while a massive wall of lights (you had to see this thing to believe it) spun a trippy web of Day-Glo hearts and swirls.

Kiedis is sometimes given short shrift as a singer but he imbued the elegiac lullaby Scar Tissue with palpable vulnerability, before ending the song with an impressive handstand off Smith's bass drum.

On Charlie -- from the new Stadium Arcadium album, the source of the bulk of last night's set list -- Flea's hyperactive bottom end sparred with Frusciante's fiery fretwork, but on Fortune Faded, Frusciante's blistering riffs emerged the clear winner (or maybe it was that wall of lights, this time blanketing the performers in rays of cool blue and red).

Tunes like Readymade, Throw Away Your Television, Hump de Bump and even a cover of Simon and Garfunkel's For Emily (Wherever I May Find Her) were all afforded similarly stellar treatment (we didn't see a backup choir waiting in the wings, so we'll assume Under the Bridge wasn't on the set list) and though our press time arrived just halfway through the show, we're gonna predict the band also hauled out Californication, By the Way and Give It Away, among other welcome gems.

Given the thunderous applause that greeted the Chilis at every turn, we're also gonna predict the crowd fully dug every second of it.

Earlier in the night, experimental opening act the Mars Volta set the stage with an hour-long set of electrifying, highly visceral, avant-garde rock, giving frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala ample opportunity to indulge his shrieky, Zappa-by-way-of-Tasmanian-Devil routine.

The relentless barrage of screaming saxophones, psychedelic guitar squelches and prog-rock timekeeping (not to mention Bixler-Zavala's impressive high-pitched caterwauling) might been a bit of a shock to those who came expecting an opener as radio-friendly as the Chilis.

But as they have in the past, the Mars proved themselves worthy predecessors to the Peppers, especially given both bands' penchants for experimentalism -- and their shared love of a really lo-o-ng jam session.