Persistence has paid off for Three Days Grace. Well, at least in this rock town it has.

The Ontario hard rockers have had frequent -- OK, excessive -- airplay on local radio stations. They were also just in Winnipeg in November 2006 to tout the same album (One-X) they were here promoting last night.

And yet there they were, back at the MTS Centre with 7,500 locals pumping their fists and waving devil horn salutes like they were experiencing 3DG for the very first time.

But hey, this was only seconds into the show -- when the beer buzz was still fresh. And there was plenty of time to consume said suds, since it was creeping on 10 p.m. when 3DG rolled onstage.

The quartet -- frontman Adam Gontier, guitarist Barry Stock, drummer Neil Sanderson and bassist Brad Walst -- kicked off with Animal I Have Become, one of the four singles One-X has spawned.

A tattooed Gontier was in hyped-rockstar mode, yet friendly enough to chat up his fans and include them in the opening track's chorus.

Up next was One-X's Pain, an up-tempo rant on loneliness the band endured while touring their 2003 self-titled debut. Third track Let It Die slowed things down to a near stop, and 2003 single Just Like You upped the pace slightly shortly after.

At press time, plans to start a Riot were still on deck. Let's hope the noisy One-X track was wild enough to suffice among ballads like Never Too Late and Wake Up, which were also still to come.

Grunge-heads still mourning the loss of Kurt Cobain (we know we are) would have either loved or loathed the opening set from Seether, who have honed Nirvana's sound to the point where, at times, it sort of creeps us out.

But even if the post-grunge trio's 45-minute set sent diehards into a rant, everyone dug their performance of 2004's Broken, where 3DG ringleader Gontier made an early appearance to fill in vocals for the verses Seether frontman Shaun Morgan's now ex-girlfriend, Evanescence's Amy Lee, sang during the charttopper's heyday.

A few songs later, Seether pulled a switcheroo by covering a verse of 3DG's I Hate (Everything About You) before pulling off an explosive version of 2005 hit Remedy to close the set. Single Fake It and a few other tunes from the act's 2007 release Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces filled out the setlist.

Earlier, regrouped radio-rockers Econoline Crush -- led by Winnipegger Trevor Hurst -- amped things up with a half-hour set that included past hits like Home and You Don't Know What It's Like and a couple (slightly weaker) tracks off their new disc, Ignite.

Despite having expired about a decade ago, the foursome's brand of industrial alt-rock went over surprisingly well with 3DG's fans.