TORONTO - The White Stripes' blues-garage-rock duo Jack and Meg White were outed as former spouses a few years ago by a newspaper in their native Detroit.

And yet lead singer-guitarist Jack -- who actually took drummer Meg's last name when they got married in 1996, and then divorced four years later in 2000 -- just can't let the myth that they are siblings go.

"I'm Jack White and this is my big sister Meg," yelled the tall, pale guitar player early in the group's hour-and-35-minute show last night at the Molson Amphitheatre in front of more than 10,000 fans.

Both musicians are currently 30 years old, although Meg will turn 31 in December.

The artifice surrounding their relationship, which Jack explains in the current edition of Rolling Stone, saying the former husband-and-wife label distracts from their music, is symptomatic of their live show.

It's a theatrical endeavour, to say the least, as Jack and Meg played on a wild-looking set that wouldn't have been out of place on a Caribbean cruise ship, with the backdrop of an island harbour and fake white palm trees scattered around the stage.

Even their instruments -- Jack also played slide acoustic guitar, piano, organ and marimbas while Meg weighed in on maracas and bongos and handled off-key vocals on both the new song Passive Manipulation and In The Cold, Cold Night from 2003's Elephant -- were in their trademark black, white and red colours.

Jack, too, was decked out dramatically in a toreador suit and a Zorro hat, looking as if he'd never seen a ray of sunshine in his life.

As for their loud if inconsistently glorious music, it's a contradiction at the best of times.

Simplistic yet complicated, monotonous with genuine moments of excitement, dull yet riveting and so many more things: Unique, raw and original to name a few.

Meg pounds away on her drum kit while smiling at Jack, and the howling, maniacal frontman can't seem to take his eyes off her.

There seems to be intimate improvisation at work.

Touring in support of their fifth album, Get Behind Me Satan, the duo wasted no time getting to the first single, Blue Orchid, which was the second song of the night.

Other highlights were both new and older tracks -- My Doorbell, You're Pretty Good Looking (For A Girl), The Nurse, Forever For Her (Is Over For Me), The Hardest Button To Button, We're Going To Be Friends, The Denial Twist, and the anthemic Seven Nation Army plus a spirited cover of Dolly Parton's Jolene.

Just as The White Stripes arrived in town, news broke yesterday of Jack's former flame, 36-year-old actress Renee Zellweger, filing for an annulment from her husband, country singer Kenny Chesney after just four months of marriage.

The only mention Jack made of his own second marriage in June to British model Karen Elson -- in a canoe in the Amazon River with a Shaman priest presiding over the nuptials no less -- was when he thanked the enthusiastic crowd for their support.

"We always have a good time when we come to town, every time, I swear," said Jack. "I haven't had this much fun since I was in Brazil. And that's saying a lot."