HALIFAX -- It's unlikely there was much crossover in Halifax Metro Centre audiences this week.

You couldn't ask for a starker lesson in contrasts than by comparing Monday night, when Wayne Newton brought his slicked-up, Vegas road show to town, and Tuesday night's dressed down and sold out appearance by Kingston rockers The Tragically Hip.

Needless to say, the Hip's audience is much more demonstrative, but then their fanbase has done nothing but grow in this country since their debut over a decade ago. So as a valentine to their devotees, the band offer up its current tour, soberly billed as An Evening With The Tragically Hip, promising all the hits and more than a few unplucked gems from the back catalog plus the unspoiled splendour of their latest album, Music @ Work.

It was the soaring ecstacy of said album's title track that kicked off Tuesday night's show, as appropriate a welcome as you could hope for, with its words of audience identification and a "la-la-la" hook that's partly melodic, and partly the laughter of a madman left to his own devices in a cubicle late at night.

If it wasn't for vocalist Gordon Downie's tug of war with sanity, the Hip probably wouldn't have attained its cherished status as The First National Band of Canada. While guitarists Paul Langlois and Robby Baker crank up the driving riffs and bassist Gord Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay dish up the trademark pounding Hip rhythm, Downie provides the bulk of the show with his stream-of-consciousness rants (I thought I heard him say something about "medication" and later mention "mayonnaise") and nervous tic stage moves.

"He's a total nutjob!" was overheard from a neighbour early on in the show.

"Yes, but he's OUR nutjob," was the silent thought that followed.

He's also one of the country's premier lyricists, evidenced on the band's most recent albums which, if anything, show them gathering creative steam, rather than running out of it.

Songs from the latest CD worked particularly well amid the expected hits like Twist My Arm and New Orleans Is Sinking. Downie can convey straightforward emotion on Putting Down and The Completists, or set the controls for the heart of the brain on Tiger the Lion, a tribute to minimalist John Cage couched in opaque language that would do William S. Burroughs proud.

The quintet is expanded to seven members for this tour, with the addition of former Bourbon Tabernacle Choristers Kate Fenner and Chris Brown on vocals and keyboards, breaking up the churning guitar sound with extra detail. Fenner earned cheers when she took a verse on Yawning or Snarling, and gave Ahead By a Century an added layer of sweetness.

After 2 1/2 hours, Halifax got the last of its annual Hip fix with Little Bones and a farewell jig from Downie. An evening well spent.

Set List

Music @ Work Grace, Too Fully Completely Putting Down Gift Shop Twist My Arm Springtime In Vienna Tiger The Lion Fireworks The Completist At The Hundredth Meridian Yawning Or Snarling Ahead By A Century Nautical Disaster Scared Train Overnight Boots Or Hearts Blow At High Dough Lake Fever Daredevil Courage Long Time Running Poets Flamenco Inevitability Of Death Stay New Orleans Is Sinking Fire In The Hole Encore: Emporer Penguin Little Bones