WINNIPEG - They've been away for a while, but Winnipeg's The Weakerthans more than made up for their absence with a bemusedly boisterous show at the Burton Cummings Theatre Saturday night.

The folk/punk foursome, whose last hometown performance was a Winnipeg Folk Festival gig more than a year ago, treated a near-capacity crowd of fans to a spin through many of their old favourites and unveiled a few new ones (which will hopefully find their way onto the new album, whenever the guys get around to recording it).

Kicking things off with the country-ish Benediction -- from 2003's Reconstruction Site disc -- the band quickly launched into overdrive with the highly literate rocker Our Retired Explorer (Dines With Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961), in which frontman John K. Samson namechecks Ernest Shackleton and Jacques Derrida, in between verses sung in rudimentary French.

The momentum was maintained on Watermark, things slowed down a bit for Reconstruction Site's title track (which found axeman Stephen Carroll rounding out the jangle-pop sound with a little steel guitar), then it was back to rockin' for the up-tempo Aside (which even the most casual fans probably recognize from the soundtrack to a little movie called Wedding Crashers).

Samson trotted out a new track, a gentle ode to a "transit bus driver at Confusion Corner," before admitting he was a little nervous about goofing up his guitar solo on Utilities. (He did fine, no surprise, bobbing his head along cheekily with each bluesy note).

The crashing guitar intro of This Is A Fire Door Never Leave Open gave way to the propulsive Diagnosis -- a song Samson jokingly claimed was "as old as the (Burton) itself" -- and one which ultimately resulted in his forking over $20 to someone in the front row after flubbing the last few bars.

"I played that song kind of poorly," Samson grinned, as drummer Jason Tait explained the $20 fine was a band tradition.

Another new track, the slow-building Sun In An Empty Room, led to the title tune from Left and Leaving, which saw Samson's plaintive bleat bolstered by some sing-along contributions from the crowd.

And as if to prove The Weakerthans are about more than just navel-gazing and philosophy references, Carroll let fly with some windmill arms on Plea From A Cat Named Virtue (sung from the perspective of Samson's pet tabby, natch), eventually goading Samson and bassist Greg Smith to join him as he rolled around on his back for the song's feedback-drenched conclusion.

Earlier in the evening, the George Reznik Trio (also the house band at the Pemby every Saturday afternoon) came through with a polished, fully endearing set of jazz and swing tunes.

Though they may have seemed an odd choice for an opening act, the Reznik Trio are a lot tighter with the Weakerthans than might be expected, having portrayed the band in the video for Psalm For the Elks Lodge Last Call.

Samson's reverence was evident (not to mention contagious) when he introduced them later in the show as his "honoured guests."