TORONTO - If the future of rock and roll includes one part Foo Fighters, one part Led Zeppelin and one part Queens Of The Stone Age, then it is still in good and incredibly capable hands.

Them Crooked Vultures - consisting of Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, Queens Of The Stone Age front man Josh Homme and guitarist Alain Johannes and drummer Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters - shone during a near flawless 80-minute set before a sold-out crowd Friday night at Toronto's Sound Academy.

And fortunately, this wasn't an exercise in rehashing their hits. Instead it was an interesting and at times spectacular display of musicianship, with Jones sometimes pulling his band mates into '70s heavy blues-tinged rock while Homme and Grohl pulled Jones into a more contemporary rock realm.

With no new album out - although one expected by year's end - Them Crooked Vultures opened with Elephants, a boogie-cum-bluesy nugget which set the path the quartet sailed down quite easily.

"I feel good," Homme said following the song, quickly kicking into the somewhat relentless Dead End Friends, a tune similar to Queens Of The Stone Age's Go With The Flow which Grohl rounded off nicely with rapid fills and rolls.

While Homme was lead singer for all of the 13 songs, his vocals often played second fiddle to the chemistry Jones and Grohl seemed to have from start to finish, especially evident on Scumbag Blues with Jones playing like a man 36 and not 63 years young. Jones also effortlessly played off Homme's fine guitar work during the tune's homestretch.

After Homme stated they had a lot of new music to get through, Them Crooked Vultures were again extremely tight and polished during the dance-rock tinted Gunman. Sadly, they had a slight hiccup with Caligulove which sounded unfocused and left Jones trying to salvage the number with a Doors-ian keyboard solo to little effect.

Thankfully the last miscue was a brief but bizarre Interlude With Ludes as Homme went without a guitar for this set breather.

All was forgiven though when Them Crooked Vultures launched into a new, well, newer song Reptiles that garnered one of the louder cheers of the night, the sum far greater than the talented parts performing it onstage.

Yet that basically paled in comparison to the evening's two show stoppers, the first being a lengthy Daffodils, a punishing and intense effort comparable to material from Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti. And Homme, Grohl and Jones went to town on the lengthy jam before Jones tenderly rounded it off with a short but sweet keyboard solo which the crowd loved.

A groove-saturated Nobody Loves Me (And Neither Do I) was highlighted by Jones playing some mean slide guitar and could've been extended. But the band was correct to close with Warsaw, initially a swinging kind of ditty that morphed into a long and beautiful, garage-like rave up as Homme and Grohl embody a bit of Jimmy Page and John Bonham, respectively.

No encore was presented, but none was needed as Queens Of The Led Fighters, oops, Them Crooked Vultures earned their keep on this night.

Sun Rating: 4 out of 5