WINNIPEG - The venue's been booked, the tickets are sold, and tonight, Winnipeg welcomes prodigal son Neil Young back home again.

The only question still remaining -- which Neil Young are we gonna get?

Will it be the folksy, plaintive balladeer, the one immortalized on albums like After the Goldrush and Harvest Moon, not to mention the elegiac 2006 concert flick Heart of Gold?

Or will it be the feedback-drenched, distortion-prone guitar hero who stormed his way through Cinnamon Girl, Rockin' In the Free World and Jim Jarmusch's rock-doc Year of the Horse?

Well, if recent (and not-so-recent) history is any indication, we're probably in store for a little of both.

See, Young has a long history of showcasing both sides of his dual personalities. On the mostly live 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps -- and in the concert film of the same name -- he splits the set list into acoustic (ballads Thrasher and Pocahontas) and electric (Sedan Delivery, the proto-punk Welfare Mothers), even bookending the whole thing with mirror-twin versions of My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) and Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black).

It's a trick he repeated during a three-night stint at Massey Hall in Toronto last fall, first treating the crowd to solo guitar and piano versions of Old Man, Cowgirl in the Sand and A Man Needs a Maid (among others), before returning with a full band -- including Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina -- to knock out plugged-in versions of The Loner, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere and Like a Hurricane.

Having been fortunate enough to have caught that last gig (and yes, you should totally be jealous), we can happily confirm that the two-for-one strategy is best, since it gives Young ample opportunity to prove he's equally adept -- equally brilliant, in fact -- while working in either milieu.

And a quick spin through some of Young's recent set lists (he spent July and August touring Europe) suggests tonight's show could be a similarly mixed bag, heavy on hits both acoustic (Cowgirl, Heart of Gold, The Needle and the Damage Done) and electric (Love and Only Love, Cortez the Killer, Hey Hey, My My), plus the occasional cover version (in recent months, it's been The Beatles' A Day in the Life).

Of course, if there's one thing we've come to expect from Young over the years, it's that he prefers to play by his own rules, so the possibility also exists he'll take a completely different tack tonight.

That said, here are a few more of our predictions:

1. Banter will be optional

The last time Young played Winnipeg (back in July 2006), he arrived with former bandmates David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash in tow, as part of the Freedom of Speech tour captured in the documentary Deja Vu. Despite the fact it was his first trip home in more than a decade (he'd been booked to play the Junos in 2005, but had to bow out after suffering a brain aneurysm), Young kept the conversation to a minimum, speaking just long enough to dedicate the track Families to fallen Canadian Cpl. Anthony Boneca. But during his Toronto shows last year, he was downright chatty, regaling the crowd with funny/touching anecdotes from the past, and giving a shout-out to the town of Flin Flon while telling of his grandmother's history as a cabaret queen there.

2. He will probably get political at some point

As mentioned, Young's last show in Winnipeg was part of the Freedom of Speech tour, timed to coincide with the release of his venomous anti-Dubya screed Living With War. And as mentioned, he performed with Crosby, Stills and Nash, three of the more outspoken anti-war liberals ever to spring from the turbulent '60s. Despite those circumstances, some rather oblivious types were still shocked -- outraged, even -- to discover the group's concert was heavy on politically charged material. A flurry of letters to the editor ensued, many arguing that rock stars should keep their opinions to themselves. As a preventive measure (and as a courtesy to those uninformed few who still don't get it), we say the following: It's Neil Young. The man played Woodstock, for crying out loud. He wrote Ohio and Let's Impeach the President. Given the current political and economic climate, it's all but inevitable he'll want to weigh in. Plus, one of the functions of art is to comment on society. If you don't like it, stay at home and listen to your Victrola.

3. He will be awesome

Sure, he's been known to break the rules once in a while. But he shouldn't have any trouble sticking to this one. Trust us.