Bob Seger is a relic.

He's old-fashioned and over the hill, too.

It's OK. He said to call him that. Right in that song everyone fast-dances to with their aunt at their cousin's wedding.

	Frank Micelotta, Getty Images Bob Seger performs in New York. Click photo for larger image.

All that stuff about Bob Seger is true, and that's why people love him enough to fill arenas all over the country, like the Mellon Arena Thursday night.

Returning to the stage after a decade-long retreat to raise his kids, Seger took his fans right back to the '70s, where they were perfectly happy to be.

While many of his contemporaries -- Springsteen, Mellencamp, etc. -- moved on to experiment with different sounds over the past decade or so, for the marketplace or their own sanity, Seger has always been the same: strictly meat and potatoes.

Seger showed up with a roadhouse-jukebox full of hits and a handful of new songs, like "Wreck This Heart," that sounded just like the old ones. He's got the right mix for a two-hour arena show, with Chuck Berry-style rockers ("Sunspot Baby," "Katmandu"), hearty midtempo fare ("Hollywood Nights," "Trying to Live My Life Without You") and a few power ballads ("We've Got Tonight" and "Mainstreet," a showcase for the savvy sax player).

Falling into that latter category was one of the evening's best-received songs, "Turn the Page," Seger's vivid portrayal of tour fatigue that allowed him to sing the line "Here I am/on the road again/here I am/up on the stage" to shouts and hollers. Actually, Seger, sitting at the piano, didn't even need to sing that one because everyone in the house obviously knew every word.

The production matched the no-nonsense quality of his old time rock 'n' roll. There were some stage lights and a simple red backdrop. No video screens, ramps, pyro or any of that Aerosmith stuff. The man himself, now sporting that fashionable silver hair all the kids (like Taylor Hicks) have, was wearing what he probably wears when he sits around and watches the Pistons -- black T, blue jeans, glasses and shoes that looked like slippers.

He split the show into two sets with an intermission that lasted long enough for you to make it to the end of the row and then go back to your seat. Set two had an amped-up rock 'n' roll feel from the tight six-piece Silver Bullet Band, three backup singers and four-piece horn section. They even went back to the source and threw in a rollicking version of Berry's "Never Can Tell."

In case the fans were feeling kind of frisky and youthful from the music, he shocked them back to reality with this intro to "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man": "Here's one from 38 years ago ..."

Yikes.

The one people were really waiting for came from 30 years ago -- "Night Moves," an acoustic rock classic that never gets old and, being a reflective song even then, works nicely in this phase of Seger's life.

Watching the old relic up there, it was hard not to think of grandpa getting up with the wedding band. But the voice is still husky and strong, the spirit is still generous and true, and, say this about Bob Seger: He doesn't try to be anything he's not.

Like a rock, man, like a rock.