Live Review: Mark Lanegan Band, Howl At The Moon at The Tivoli

Melbourne four-piece Howl At The Moon are a fitting choice of support for Mark Lanegan, with their dark, foreboding yet perversely melodic sounds setting the scene nicely for what's to come. Led by Katie Scott, the band's set goes down well with the couple of hundred early arrivals, with Janet Leigh, Just A Kid and Let The Mainsheet Down, My Love particular highlights.

As Mark Lanegan and his band make their way on to stage and launch straight into When Your Number Isn't Up from 2004 album Bubblegum without so much as acknowledging the audience, it's clear we won't be treated to much in the way of between-song banter tonight, but Lanegan has always been one to let his songs do the talking. Blues Funeral opening track The Gravedigger's Song is up next, before Lanegan delves into his back catalogue for Sleep With Me, Hit The City, Wedding Dress and Field Songs highlight One Way Street.

Near album-perfect renditions of Wish You Well and the hauntingly beautiful Gray Goes Black – one of the standouts from Blues Funeral – are up next, before Lanegan dusts off Screaming Trees classic Crawlspace, much to the crowd's delight. Over the next half hour, the majority of his latest longplayer gets an airing, including Quiver Syndrome, Riot In My House, Ode To Sad Disco and Tiny Grain Of Truth, as does Lanegan's idiosyncratic cover of '80s indie rock band Leaving Trains' Creeping Coastline Of Lights.

Lanegan's distinctive baritone still sounds as evocative as ever live, but he is hardly what you'd call a dynamic or energetic performer – from the start of the set, he grips the mic stand halfway down the base with one hand and holds the microphone tight with the other, and he stays in virtually the same spot for the entire set.

After a brief exit, the band returns for an encore consisting of Bleeding Muddy Water, Pendulum, Harborview Hospital and Methamphetamine Blues, which garners the biggest cheers of the night. Lanegan then leaves it up to his bassist to thank the crowd for coming and tell us Lanegan “will be signing tour CDs somewhere over there, I think”.

There's no denying his considerable talent, but a performer with such a long and varied career would undoubtedly have some interesting tales to tell and it's a shame Mark Lanegan chooses not to share some of these stories.