Dedicated music fans know the thrill of seeing a truly charismatic act in concert -- they can make the most cavernous venue vanish and make it seem like they're performing a private concert, pulling the crowd's mood along to intense heights.

Collective Soul in concert isn't like that. Despite a likeable stage manner and a mastery of songs built around whiplash guitar riffs, the Georgia-based quintet's Silent Parade tour, which arrived at the Civic Centre last night, was as enthralling as ... well, a silent parade.

Before an appreciative audience of about 2,000, the group kicked off the night with the title cut from their most recent album, Disciplined Breakdown, but apart from a warm greeting and some enthusiasm for familiar numbers like Smashing Young Man and the anthemic Shine, the response from the crowd, for much of the show, seemed occasionally distracted by the determined crowd surfers.

When he didn't have a guitar draped around his shoulders, singer-songwriter Ed Roland appeared uncomfortable and awkward -- jogging on the spot or frequently adopting a hammy messianic arms-outstretched-at-shoulder-height pose during instrumental passages. The remaining band members -- guitarists Dean Roland and Ross Childress, bassist Will Turpin and drummer Shane Evans -- keep their eyes down, focussed on the demands of the music.

As with their appearance across the way at Frank Clair Stadium a few months back at Edgefest, onstage chemistry is not abundantly evident. It only seemed to jell during a climactic rendition of their best song, Gel, which earned the band an encore.

Roland's voice, which sounds serviceable on record, last night came off thin and was overpowered by the music. Certainly if there's a Grammy for congeniality, Roland should get the lifetime achievement award. He's as gregarious as a puppy but his introductions for the new, less familiar material were so ingratiating, it sounded like an apology. And while tossing in irony-free covers of The Beatles' Revolution and Ozzy's Crazy Train is a crowd-pleasing move, there's something slightly desperate about it.

Roland has a good handle on spicing his songs with jackhammer, slashing guitar figures and memorable hooks (listen to the way the crowd spontaneously took over singing Shine!), but his melodies and lyrics are often all-too-forgettable. Forgiveness, which Roland confided he hoped would be the group's next single, was interminable, despite Childress' sweetly agonized solo.

Newcomers Darlahood were unlikely to steal the headliners' thunder. The New York City-based trio's guitar-driven rave-ups offered little that was pleasing or indelible. The nadir came with the amelodic riffery of their song New York City. Drawling singer-guitarist Luke Janklow was singularly listless as a frontman. When drummer Joe Magistro joined in on harmonies for 99% Bulletproof and Sister Dementia, the effect was even less charming.

The group was initially supposed to play a two-week stint with Collective Soul, but the two bands were so simpatico, they've now been on the road together, off and on, for four months. But when Darlahood stepped away from the retreaded classic-rock stylings they share with Collective Soul, particularly on the nicely arranged Runaway Clocks, they showed some promise. And whatever their musical shortcomings, you have to give them credit for making an effort to engage the audience.