Rating: 5/5

Three-Word Summary: These ladies rock

I don’t usually attend live music concerts, but the recent Barenaked Ladies show at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Alpharetta, Ga., was undoubtedly the best I’ve ever been to.

BnL was at the peak of their popularity during my youth in the 1990s, so I heard quite a good deal of their music on the radio then. Even if I didn’t start listening to them more regularly on Pandora a few years ago.

The show also included appearances by former Men at Work front man Colin Hay and hard rock band Violent Femmes. To my delight, Hay performed a few new songs and a few classics, such as Overkill, Land Down Under and Who Can It Be Now.

The headline act a similar blend of old and new songs. The tour is promoting their new album Silverball. From the sampling we heard, it sounds slightly more somber and less lighthearted than their earlier works.

Of course, the Barenaked Ladies entertained the audience with several old favorites, including Pinch Me, One Week, If I Had $1,000,000 and the Old Apartment. All of these songs are easy to sing along to, especially $1,000,000 because of the call-and-answer style chorus.

Best of all, we got to experience the famous informal banter between songs. Lead man Ed Robertson is well-known for his improvised raps and he did not disappoint. The humor kept the energy high between sets and made BnL one of the few bands I’ve seen better live than on recording.

They may be a few years past their prime. They may be missing former front man Steve Page. They may even be from Canada.

But the Barenaked Ladies put on one heck of a show that was well worth the price of admission.