WINNIPEG - Trust The Tragically Hip to turn a venue usually reserved for tutus and Beethoven into a sweaty haven for the beer guzzling set.

The Centennial Concert Hall - home to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra - hosted its messiest show since we don't know when on Monday night, as the Kingston, Ont., CanRockers went fully completely out for the first of four not-so-intimate local gigs.

Even frenetic frontman Gordon Downie couldn't tell the place apart from the late Winnipeg Arena.

"Welcome to the old barn," he joked after second track New Orleans is Sinking brought the mostly 25-plus crowd to their feet.

The 160-minute show got off to a deceptively mellow start, with an acoustic guitar-toting Downie and his bandmates - bassist Gord Sinclair, drummer Johnny Fay and guitarists Paul Langlois and Rob Baker - coasting through The Depression Suite. Coming in at nine and a half minutes, the track off The Hip's latest disc, We are the Same, was an interesting (if not lengthy) opening choice.

New tunes Morning Moon, Love is a First, Coffee Girl and That Exact Feeling also made their way on to the setlist - a mish-mash of lager-soaked rockers (At the Hundredth Meridian, Blow at High Dough), beloved ballads (Wheat Kings, Ahead By a Century) and obscure offbeat non-singles (The Dark Canuck).

Said setlist is, of course, subject to change throughout the week; after all, The Hip are still an off-book kinda band whose ringleader nearly gives himself whiplash every time he performs.

Dressed both up and down in a lumberjack-plaid shirt (which he later ditched for a black button-up) and black tailored vest and slacks, Downie, 45, literally monkeyed around with his mic (chimp noises, and all) and must have gone through about 50 handkerchiefs. Seriously, we're convinced one of his stage hands' sole duty is to throw him fresh hankies that he just as quickly tosses to fans - but not before using them to blot his face and famously bald head.

Yes, Downie is every bit the frantic, stumbling performer he's always been. And what he lacks in coordination, he makes up for in enthusiasm (and the odd animal impersonation), all while Sinclair, Fay, Langlois and Baker appear calm and zoned out.

Aside from being one of the Concert Hall's wilder shindigs; it was also one of its louder ones - perhaps even a smidge distorted at times. Though we really can't complain, because, even given a venue that's a fraction of their usual arena size, The Tragically Hip can always be counted on to bring the all-Canadian party - just as some of their fans can be counted on to fill the air with illegal aromas (you know who you are).

It's a good thing Gord was passing those hankies around, because clearly he wasn't the only one who needed them.

And with only one Hip show down - and three more soldout stints to go, from Wednesday through Friday - the Concert Hall's cleanup crew will have their work cut out for them.

Set List:

The Depression Suite

New Orleans is Sinking

Yer Not the Ocean

Ahead By a Century

Morning Moon

Poets

Gus: The Polar Bear from Central Park

At the Hundredth Meridian

Love is a First

Intermission

Thompson Girl

Coffee Girl

Wheat Kings

Grace, Too

The Last Recluse

In View

The Dark Canuck

Bobcaygeon

Courage

That Exact Feeling

Music at Work

Blow at High Dough

Encore:

Queen of the Furrows

Little Bones