The Barenaked Ladies are a love-'em-or-hate-'em band. Either you embrace the quintet's clever lyrics and musical playfulness or its output is bound to strike you as precious and even cloying. The Canadian-based band's first live concert on DVD, Talk to the Hand: Live in Michigan, probably won't make converts of the uninitiated, but longtime BNL fans (which include this reviewer) will most certainly enjoy.

The group's principal songwriters, Stephen Page and Ed Robertson, are justly celebrated for their humor and wordplay. Take "One Week," for example. The band's biggest commercial success, it's a burst of pop-faux rap candy that manages to name-check The X-Files, Akira Kurosawa, Snickers and Sailor Moon. Still, the Ladies' gift for lyrics transcends the tongue-in-cheek variety, as evidenced in a song like "The Old Apartment," which, like "One Week," is also performed in Talk to the Hand. Fueled by crunching guitars, Page channels the rage and despair of a guy returning to the flat he and a girlfriend once shared:

"Broke into the old apartment
Forty-two stairs from the street
Crooked landing, crooked landlord
Narrow laneway filled with crooks.
This is where we used to live.

"Why did they pave the lawn?
Why did they change the locks?
Why did I have to break it? I only came here to talk.
This is where we used to live"

Only later does it become clear that the couple is still together, and has evidently moved well past their history of domestic battle. And yet the volatile past is loaded with memories that the guy dearly misses -- perhaps yearning for a passion that has since been tamed. Whatever the motives for the nostalgia, the song is one of many revealing a depth and emotional complexity for which the Barenaked Ladies, with their better-known comic gems, don't often get enough credit.

Recorded in Michigan (duh), Talk to the Hand: Live in Michigan is representative of BNL's spry stage presence. Page and Robertson are in excellent voice, and the band -- which also consists of bassist Jim Creeggan, drummer Tyler Stewart and keyboardist Kevin Hearn -- is tight and energetic. Highlights here include strong versions of "Brian Wilson," "Pinch Me," "Too Little, Too Late," "If I Had $1,000,000" and an acoustic version of "Be My Yoko Ono." On the more dubious side is a too-goofy dance shtick for "Angry People."

The Ladies live up to their reputation here as great comedic showmen. While not a novelty band (although a few songs have come mighty close over the years), group leaders Page and Robertson share a terrific sense of humor and mix it into the act, whether they're riffing on vivisection or razzing a woman in the front row for talking on her cell phone (Page: "There's a whole shakeup in the H.R. department! You need to take care of it, I know!").

Six of the 15 tracks are from the Ladies' last two studio records, which invariably means a number of BNL fans will grouse that some of their signature songs ("Hello City," "Alternative Girlfriend," "Life, in a Nutshell," etc.) are missing. Deal with it.

The concert playlist is as follows:

The anamorphic widescreen picture is fine quality, certainly more detailed and shaded than your run-of-the-mill shot-on-video look. You won't see beads of sweat glistening off anyone's forehead, but the images are crisp and clear.

Viewers can choose between Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1. Both are excellent, but the DTS boasts particularly superb quality. There isn't particularly inventive use of immersive sound, but the vocals are sharp and the music is crystal clear.

Really, the only special feature of serious interest is Backstage with the Ladies, a 12-minute interview with the band members. Page and Robertson are as entertaining offstage as they are on, and all five band members join in for some wonderful anecdotes about their more memorable shows. Other features include a five-minute, 46-second sound check for "Angry People" and a concert photo montage.

I've seen the Barenaked Ladies four times since 1991, and I consider them among the best concerts I've seen (and trust me, I wasted a lot of my youth at rock shows). Talk to the Hand: Live in Michigan is a solid, fun show, even if it falls short of BNL's more inspired concerts. The DVD, aimed at the already-initiated, is a must-have for the band's legions of fans.