About two thirds of the way into Janet Jackson's show at the Air Canada Centre last night, I had an almost unbearable urge to leave, as fast as I could through the emergency exit. But it wasn't because the show was bad. Trust me, it rocked. It was just that after Jackson pulled a fan from the audience, strapped him to a table, rubbed up against his crotch, kissed his face and lips with a teasing, feathery touch, then ended up straddling his face, all the while singing a love ballad and wearing a skin-tight black leather outfit, I wanted to go home and ... well, you know.

So did the fan, it was very clear, and so did everybody else in the audience. That heated moment was the climax of a grand, sold-out show that touched on Jackson's many hits from the last 15 years, but featured songs from her most recent album, All For You. Even in such a huge venue, Jackson managed to make the crowd feel intimately involved from beginning to end, varying the pace and energy levels constantly and changing costumes nine times.

When the curtain rose, the singer stood on a tiny, 20-foot high pedestal wearing white fringe pants and a matching fedora. The platform lowered, and her eight dancers appeared from above, suspended on cables and landing on the stage.

This is her first time before a crowd since the Velvet Rope tour in 1998, but Jackson, 35, is clearly in fighting shape. She looked fit and sexy, with six-pack abs, straight, highlighted hair, and perfect white teeth (she recently had dental surgery to correct a chip).

She's still got the moves, too. She sang the first several songs while dancing ensemble with her posse, in her famous militarily exact style. After her first costume change, the fans, who ranged widely in age and included both men and women, were loving her out loud, shouting her name and stomping their feet when she came out and sat on a stool next to a guitar player. And Janet loved the crowd right back, waving, smiling sweetly and looking misty eyed at the adulation, which lasted about two minutes.

She sang a medley of quiet hits, including "Come Back To Me," often turning the mike over and letting the fans fill in the lyrics. But the intimate moment was over soon, and the backdrop changed to a Sesame Street-on drugs-scene. Janet entered wearing a surreal pink helmet to sing another medley of old hits, hitting on "Miss You Much" and "When I Think Of You." But the medley moved too fast. It was as if Jackson was trying a little too hard to remind us of how many she's had over her relatively short career, and not really letting us enjoy those songs, which don't sound the least bit dated a decade later.