Live Review: The Darkness, Tequila Mockingbyrd

Support act Tequila Mockingbyrd did their best to get the fairly subdued, older skewed crowd into a state of excitement for the main show. The Melbourne three-piece, having just finished a six-month tour of the UK and Europe, are playing their first live show since returning. With solid riffs, snappy lyrics and some soaring vocals, these ladies dominate the room. They exude swagger without needing to strut. It's a pretty rare thing.

The Darkness stride on stage, Justin Hawkins clad in his trademark jumpsuit - bright purple this time - and break into Black Shuck from 2003's Permission To Land. Obviously, the crowd go a little bit nuts. Hawkins' onstage persona is exactly what you would expect from watching the I Believe In A Thing Called Love video. Plenty of mischievous bravado and good-natured digs at the audience. He charmingly deals with a heckler later on, who made a comment about Hawkins' well-known struggles with addiction, breaking into song about how awesome he is: "Fuck you, I'm awesome! And I've been sober for 11 years," he ad-libbed.

The Darkness dance back and forth over their discography, sticking mostly to tracks from Permission To Land and One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back with a few songs from their later albums thrown in. Disappointingly, they only played a few songs from their most recent record, 2015's Last Of Our Kind, which is a cracking album. Open Fire is tailor-made for a bit of audience interaction, as well as being a kick arse song.

Justin Hawkins works the stage like he owns it. There's a sneaking suspicion that every stage is like that for Hawkins. Roughly three-quarters through the set, he's shirtless, singing Get Your Hands Off My Woman while wearing a donated bra like a completely inefficient backpack, and a donated G-string as an armband. The intimacy of the room suits their style of stagecraft, allowing for a heap of audience interaction and clothes donations. However, more than once Hawkins has a tongue-in-cheek go at the relatively quiet audience, commenting that he shouldn't be able to hear anyone through the noise.

It was a great show. Right before the encore, the crowd erupts to the opening chord of worldwide juggernaut I Believe In A Thing Called Love. This is the most enthusiastic the crowd has been all night. The Darkness go out in style about with a ten-minute rendition of Love On The Rocks With No Ice, which, in true Hawkins fashion, included him riding through the audience on the shoulders of a crew member, being pawed at by his people like a benevolent pharaoh.