Twenty bucks doesn't get you far in this economy. It won't usually get you in to a major rock concert, for instance.

So props to the rock jocks at Power 97 for putting on their annual five-hour, five-band bash at the MTS Centre last night, all for the wallet-friendly price of $19.97.

The flipside, though, is that organizers have to take what they can get for that budget, and let the raucous party vibe take care of the rest.

Sometimes, that worked in the concert's favour: Winnipeg's own The Waking Eyes are talented enough to win over a stone-cold-sober crowd at the start of the show, and Powerball fixtures Default are a lot more palatable after four beers.

On the other hand, things fell sadly flat for Montreal alt-rockers Mobile, who kicked off their brisk set with a trippy drum intro and delivered a sleek, '80s-tinged performance to which almost nobody paid attention.

But the news of the night was one-time hometown heroes the Watchmen, reuniting their best-known lineup in Winnipeg for the first time in eight years.

It wasn't their tightest show ever -- eight years put some rust on a band -- but it did remind us how much the Watchmen are missed.

Opening with '94 breakthrough single Boneyard Tree, the quartet struggled at first to find a groove. But vocalist Danny Greaves came out with guns blazing: His peculiar sharp voice actually sounds stronger now than it did in 2003.

After a few songs, guitarist Joey Serlin, drummer Sammy Kohn and bassist Ken Tizzard found their stride. They bit hard into Run and Hide's dark opening riff and got the wriggling floor crowd clapping along on 2001's Absolutely Anytime.

It's the little touches in a concert that count, and the fact that Greaves sang an a cappella cover that was once a regular staple of Watchmen concerts was icing on the cake: Lyle Lovett's Creeps Like Me sounded, well, creepy and cool as a vocal intro to lilting '94 hit ll Uncovered.

This was followed by Incarnate, a tune that had been retired in the last couple of years of the band's existence (and which got three people kicked out for crowd-surfing).

Not everyone at the MTS Centre was thoroughly impressed; some of the audience wasn't around when these tunes were alive and kicking. (Greaves half-jokingly pointed out numerous occasions where most of the crowd didn't know the words.)

In a way, the billing was too bad for the fans: At small-venue reunion shows in Toronto and Ottawa, the band has played close to two hours, rather than only 45 minutes with no encore.

The good news? Greaves mentioned that the band may be back for another show of their own this year.

Still to come for Powerball at press time: hard-rock heavyweights Papa Roach, set to close out the show, and about another 10,000 beers.

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