from Jam! Showbiz By PAUL CANTIN / Senior Reporter, JAM! Showbiz TORONTO -- Early into U2's sold out concert at Toronto's Air Canada Centre Thursday night, a kind of torpor settled in that was in danger of bringing the show's running start to a jarring halt.

Perhaps it was the distraction of the recent birth of Bono's new baby. Perhaps there were some kinks to work out on this leg of the band's Elevation Tour. But I suspect that the real problem was the brace of songs - "New York," "Stuck In A Moment" and "Kite" - which snuffed out the white-hot fire the quartet had managed to ignite off the top. Setting those numbers (from the group's latest album, "All That You Can't Leave Behind") amid what amounted to a best-of-U2 23-song set made some of the new material come off listless. This was not simply a problem of the recent stuff being unfamiliar and alien alongside the more seasoned repertoire; The players did justice to the material. But some of the new songs just don't serve the group particularly well, and judging by the wavering attention evident in the audience, the same could be said for how well the new songs have been embraced by the fans. And then, like Superman swooping in to save the day, guitarist The Edge busted out the piercing intro to their debut single, "I Will Follow." With drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and bassist Adam Clayton locking into the song's stutter-step groove, Bono was moved to freestyle a verse Island Records' founder Chris Blackwell, his new baby and then steal a line from Bob Dylan's "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding" "I'm too busy being born," Bono declared, one of several asides made in honor of Dylan's 60th birthday.. And with that, the ensemble shifted into a higher gear, surging through the show's pre-encore eight song homestretch with one of the most powerful, perfectly staged arena shows you could hope to see. "I Will Follow's" wake-up call triggered Mullen's martial time-keeping on "Sunday, Bloody, Sunday," and a re-energized Bono prowled the stage's heart-shaped cat-walk, barking the song's militant lyrics at an adoring, now fully revved-up audience. Then Bono and The Edge held court at the furthest edge of the walkway - deep in the middle of the general admission audience on the arena floor - and performed an aching version of "In A Little While," "a song made holy by Joey Ramone," Bono said of the late Ramones singer. The guitarist extended the spell, briefly strumming the chords to Lou Reed's "Satellite Of Love," before joining Bono on a wrenchingly soulful "Stay (Far Away, So Close)." A slow-burning "Bad" erupted with Bono's final, almost operatic delivery of the song's climactic declaration ("I'm wide awake!"), before seguing into an audience-led, hymn-like version of "40." That melted seamlessly into the equally liturgical intro to "Where The Streets Have No Name," which launched heaven-word amid a gorgeous swirl of blinding white light. In those moments, Thursday night's performance (the band plays a second Toronto show Friday) was as close to perfection as big-room rock gets, and the rough patches were easily forgotten by set's end. Dylan, an artist who has, in the best sense, grown old in public without growing up, was obviously very much on Bono's mind. When the group emerged at the top of the show, with the houselights still illuminated and launched into "Elevation," the singer declared "Happy Birthday, Bob Dylan," and punctuated the song with snatches of "Mr. Tambourine Man." Then just before kicking into a valedictory "Walk On" at the end of the night, Bono and The Edge performed an understated version of Dylan's "Forever Young" -- which is exactly what you might expect from someone who's busy being born. Despite suffering an audience either unfamiliar with her work or still searching for their seats during her set, opening act P.J. Harvey was in surprisingly upbeat form. Kicking off her set with the churning "The Whore's Hustle And The Hustlers Whore," singer Polly Harvey and her crack band gave a vigorous accounting of themselves. The audio mix left much to be desired, Harvey's adroit wordplay was swallowed up in a boomy mess of sound, and much of the charisma and intensity that was so abundant when she headlined at the Phoenix Theatre in Toronto was swallowed in the steel-and-concrete cavern of the Air Canada Centre. But no amount of imposing architecture and sluggish sound could neuter Harvey's attack on the sultry "Down By The Water," the exotic "Horses In My Dreams" and the worthy b-side "Somebody's Down, Somebody's Name."