TORONTO - Gavin Rossdale has aged well - too bad his music hasn't.

The 43-year-old British pretty boy rocker, who's married to the equally genetically blessed music star in the form of Gwen Stefani, pulled into the Music Hall on Saturday night in support of his 2008 solo album, WANDERlust.

The crowd numbered somewhere in the 700-800 range, a far cry from the thousands that packed the Molson Amphitheatre back in Rossdale's musical heyday in the late '90s when he fronted the post-grunge outfit Bush, who split up in 2002.

"Sorry it took us so long to come back here," said Rossdale. "Trust me, we did try."

Before WANDERlust, there were was one forgettable 2005 album with post-Bush band, Institute, which spawned the minor hit Bulletproof Skin, and he has since spent his time raising two young boys with Stefani, playing the celebrity tennis circuit and appearing in such movies as Constantine and How To Rob A Bank.

While WANDERlust has bore the raspy-voiced Rossdale a Top 40 hit with soundtrack favourite, Love Remains The Same, most of its harder rocking fare is also pretty forgettable - like a dated throwback to the Bush sound which was never a critic's favourite in the first place - the exception being the poppier and more melodic The Trouble I'm In.

In concert, Rossdale, backed by a four-piece band including a muscular drummer who looked like he could bench-press the singer, seemed determined to make an impression as he worked himself into a major sweat over the course of his 90-minute set.

"You make touring worth it - thank you," said Rossdale of the appreciative audience.

It has to be said the man has a handsome mug and beautiful physique - this explains the crowds of young women wielding cell phone cameras outside his tour bus parked at the front of the venue before the show even began - but his good looks almost work against him in rock star mode.

When he wasn't anchored behind an electric or acoustic guitar, his frantic moves - jumping up and down, dancing or kneeling in front of the crowd - came across more rehearsed and posed than anything else.

That studied behavior didn't seem to matter to the screaming, singing and dancing female fans who flocked to the front of the stage shortly after openers Can't Stop The World and Frontline, both from WANDERlust.

But it was the first Bush song, Machinehead, which got the loudest response of the night, as would Everything Zen - into which Rossdale questionably inserted a few lines of the Talking Heads' classic, Once In A Lifetime - Fugitive, Glycerine and Comedown later on.

And Rossdale's attempt at getting heartfelt didn't quite come off as he dedicated an acoustic cover of Fleetwood Mac's Landslide to Major Michelle Mendes, the Canadian female soldier in Afghanistan who committed suicide.

"It's so crazy - war," he said.

It didn't help that his weak voice didn't do the Stevie Nicks-penned song justice and that fans could be heard laughing during the song.

WHAT GAVIN PLAYED:

Can't Stop The World

Frontline

Machinehead

Boombox

Everything Zen

The Trouble I'm In

Forever May You Run

Landslide (Fleetwood Mac cover)

Love Remains the Same

Fugitive

Adrenaline

The People That We Love

ENCORE

Bulletproof Skin

This Is Happiness

Glycerine

Comedown