Barenaked Ladies blend old favorites, new tunes at Rivers Casino

”It’s been…”

If you lived through 1998, those two words may very well get one particular song stuck in your head (sorry not sorry!). Barenaked Ladies had a Billboard number one hit with “One Week,” but the Canadian band’s 36-year history is a lot deeper than just fast-rapped pop culture references. They proved that on Friday night at Rivers Casino, playing a set that spanned four decades — even more, if you count several covers.

Barenaked Ladies — or “BNL,” as fans prefer — came out of Ontario, Canada, in the late 1980s to take the Great North by storm. They have retained a similar lineup for the past 30 years, though they lost co-lead vocalist Steven Page in 2010. Still, the band has trekked on, prolifically releasing music and crisscrossing North America to play live shows. Many of their songs radiate goofiness — what else would you expect from the band that created the “Big Bang Theory” theme song? — but they’ve also crafted some great serious tunes.

They brought some friends, too. Toad the Wet Sprocket, another alternative band that found mainstream success in the 1990s, opened with 50 minutes of singalong-worthy folk-rock fun. With songs such as “All I Want” “Walk on the Ocean” and “Good Intentions,” they brought a hesitant crowd to their feet. “I love this town, (there’s) so much art, so much music, so many weird little experiments that you couldn’t run anywhere else. You guys are awesome,” said lead singer Glen Philips before ending on a high note with “Fall Down.”

Barenaked Ladies came to the stage to the great fanfare of The Who’s “Pinball Wizard.” They kicked right into high gear with “One Night,” a YOLO-style banger from their most recent album, “In Flight,” the current tour’s namesake. The next song — “Testing 1,2,3,” from their 2003 album “Everything to Everyone” — would’ve also made an appropriate opener.

From there it was a whiplash through their many records, with the pumped-up “Flip” coming from this decade, while fan favorite “The Old Apartment,” with its rockier guitars and melancholy lyrics, brought the audience back to 1994. The stomp-clap folk beat of “Big Back Yard” may be on the newer side, but its sincerity and fancy guitar fingerwork definitely won some less-familiar audience members over.

The next three songs — “Boomerang,” “Toe to Toe” and “Just Wait,” sung by bassist Jim Creeggan — were all from the last 10 years, but then they brought the crowd once again to their feet with “Brian Wilson,” a Canadian hit from the band’s 1992 album “Gordon.” The song was a frenzy of guitar, bass and drums, culminating in some of lead singer Ed Robertson’s strongest vocals of the night.

BNL are no strangers to the Steel City, either — Robertson talked extensively about one memorable visit to Pittsburgh, when he was filming an episode of his Canadian TV show, “Ed’s Up.” He described it as kind of like “Dirty Jobs.”

“The one here I thought was going to be the worst of all the jobs,” he said. “I spent two days working as a garbage man in Pittsburgh. It was the best experience I had. The guys I rode with were the coolest guys.”

He said that the crew he worked with was at first hesitant to let him into the “rubbish man” club, until he lifted and poured out a heavy trash can full of particularly gross refuse. “It sloshed into the back of the truck and all over me, and the guy on the handle on the truck said, ‘now you’re a rubbish man.’”

He also sang the praises of Toad the Wet Sprocket. “It sounded like yinz enjoyed them. Yes, I got the dictionary of Pittsburghese today … so now I’m fluent.”

He added, “We are thrilled, not just because Toad the Wet Sprocket is an amazing band but because they are part of a relatively rare musical group with names as stupid as ours.”

Robertson dedicated “50 For Awhile,” off the new record, to his kids. It may be a new song, but it felt like old-school Barenaked Ladies, with bouncy acoustic guitar and funny-but-a-little-sad lyrics.

That was followed by the slower “Aluminum.” Then, the opening guitar chords of 2000 hit “Pinch Me” sent a wave of cheers through the audience. Robertson once again showed that he doesn’t miss a beat with those fast-sung choruses and guitarist Kevin Hearn offered up a spacey, nifty guitar solo.

After upbeat “Odds Are,” they brought out the big guns. “Alright, this song may be familiar to even the most reticent attendees of tonight’s concert,” Robertson joked. “This is the only modern pop song with the word Austrolopithecus in it.”

That was all leading into the “Big Bang Theory” theme song which is, in fact, a full song with several verses and everything. It certainly kept Robertson’s tongue from getting too twisted when they played “One Week” next.

“Sing all the words to this one,” Robertson dared the audience. They did flash the lyrics up on the screen behind the stage, but it was just another demonstration of how impossibly fast the words fly by. The intrepid lead singer could surely battle his way through in his sleep, though, and managed to make “One Week” just as much fun as it was 25 years ago.

But the most electric moment of the night came with super-early hit “If I Had $1,000,000,” a sing-along staple that had the entire audience swaying, laughing and shouting along.

Closing out the regular set was a series of cover snippets, including Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club,” Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please,” Tracy Champan’s “Fast Car” and ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.” But not done yet, Robertson switched places with drummer Tyler Stewart, and Stewart growled out a surprisingly faithful rendition of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.”

After a brief pre-encore break, the band pulled out an accordion-and-banjo version of a deep cut from their 2000 album “Maroon,” the unabashedly depressing “Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel.” It was a musically stunning and very moving performance.

They closed the night on a much sunnier note with “Lovin’ Life,” the opener of the new album, a song as bright and optimistic as the band themselves. As they wrapped up, Robertson declared, “May all of your sandwiches have French fries and coleslaw on them!”