Gig review: Barenaked Ladies

TUMBLEWEEDS blew through the camp of these normally wisecracking comedy-rock Canadians last year after the departure of principal songwriter Steven Page, following his charge for cocaine possession – a publicity clanger that didn't quite fit with the image of a band whose second-to-last record was a set of kids songs titled Snacktime!

Back with a new album entitled All In Good Time, they're back on the road and laughing off their difficulties. If your sense of humour is piqued by novelty ad-lib numbers about the elevation shortcomings of Google Earth, joke rap versions of contemporary chart hits and more turgid Scottish-isms than a shipment of See You Jimmy hats, then you would have been chuckling along too during this show. If not, then you – like me – may have spent most of the time chewing your fist.

The multimillion selling Ontario quartet – whose name is so lame I'm frankly too embarrassed to write it out more than once – enjoyed a purple patch in the late 1990s with a cluster of singles that made the soundtrack to more than a few college frat parties. Their new record is an exercise in MOR maturity – a case in point is straight-faced sub-Coldplay ballad You Run Away. Though that didn't stop them goofing-off like the house band on some TV chat show beamed from an alternative universe, one where a set climaxing with a choreographed en-masse bum-slapping hip-hop dance routine is considered a serious hoot.

The hits came stacked towards the end: One Week, Pinch Me and shuffling live favourite If I Had a Million Dollars. If I had a million dollars, I would pay this band to go away.