What a difference two years can make. Back when the Afghan Whigs last stopped byToronto's Opera House in 1996 on the Black Love tour, black-clad leader Greg Dulli, coming across as equal parts Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave, opened what would be an intense, darkly-hued show with the mournful lines, "Tonight, tonight, I say goodbye/to everyone who loves me."

Tonight, however, Dulli -- decked out in shades and a pimpish fedora, looking like Robert DeNiro's Johnny Boy on a Miles Davis tip -- literally strutted onstage to the chunka-chunka rhythms of his band laying down The Temptations' "Papa Was A Rolling Stone," with the air of a man given a new lease on life. As the song metamorphosed into "Somethin' Hot" from the Whigs' critically acclaimed new album, 1965, it soon became clear that existential angst was the last thing on Dulli's mind. He was here to partay, y'all, and for the next two-and-a-half hours, that's just what he and the packed house did.

When Dulli did essay treatises on the sexual wars that pervaded the band's classic Gentlemen album of 1993, such as "Debonair" and the searing "Fountain And Fairfax", he did so as a survivor, rather than either a victim or victimizer. The new perspective lent the songs a heretofore unheard of air of ultimate victory. Nothing, but nothing, was going to bring Dulli down on this night, a point that a wacky mid-set cover of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" drove home. Helping Dulli cut through the doom and gloom of the past two tours in favor of this new, upbeat, rhythm and blues-fueled celebration of life and love were Whigs cohorts John Curley (bass) and Rick McCollum (guitar), drummer Michael Horrigan and an assortment of sidemen and women, including singer Susan Marshall, whose smoldering solo turn on "My Curse" was one of the evening's highlights.

Back when the title seemed to mean more than it currently does, that other great rock & soul band, the Rolling Stones, were regularly billed as "The World's Greatest Rock Band." As the Afghan Whigs tore through their sinewy new funk tune "Neglekted" and, appropriately, crunchy encore versions of The Stones' "Beast Of Burden" and their own "Miles Iz Ded" -- a tribute to Dulli's fave icon of black cool -- the band simultaneously made that tired old phrase seem meaningful again and highlighted why it has fallen into disrepair. Simply put, most of the competition just ain't good enough. Like prime-time Stones, these white boys have learned the lessons of their black musical forebears, and without patronizing them, are creating something totally now, somethin', well, hot. Seeing the Whigs in action only emphasizes the ineptitude of many of today's rock bands, for whom pop music history seems to stretch no further back than, say, Nirvana.

The Afghan Whigs may not yet have attained Greg Dulli's recently expressed desire for them to be the biggest rock band in the world. Last night's performance, however, proves they're a strong contender for one of the best.

JOHN WALKER
(November 11, 1998)