I got a VERY (
VERY) cheap ticket to see Darren on his latest tour recently and it really was quite...something
I'm not a huge fan of Darren OR Savage Garden, but I do obviously adore the trilogy of I Want You/To The Moon And Back/Crash And Burn.
To his credit Darren was GREAT, he's very engaging when speaking and the Savage Garden songs in particular which were generally sung with a band and mic-stand were all really strong and he was super strong vocally.
I really think he should consider "An evening with Darren Hayes" style TOUR, he clearly has a lot of stories to tell and in generally I found the parts where he was telling anecdotes and WASN'T SINGING some of the most engaging/interesting parts of the whole show
The solo material though...good GOD. I haven't really followed his solo career as the albums all seem to be two hours long MINIMUM, and I'm just not a big enough fan to commit. The difference between Savage Garden and solo was quite noticeable.
The new album material he literally had to prefix with a
"I'm about to play several songs from the new album, please be supportive and don't all rush to the bar" spoken word statement

and to the audience's credit they did TRY for the first couple of songs, but by the the time the song where he just repeats "IT'S HOMOSEXUAL IT'S HOMOSEXUAL" x infinity started I don't think I've EVER seen so many people rush to the bar/toilet at once at a show

A genuine mass exodus.
And I'm sorry Darren, but a lot of the presentation was really truly just giving Mr G The Musical.
There was particular moment where Darren performed at the top if some stairs song draped entirely in red fabric SWOOSHING AROUND for 4 minutes that really was just this but in real life:
and sort of similar to when Jack Garrett and Bright Light Bright Light decided they suddenly wanted to DANCE there was a lot of
very poorly done choreo (often with a backing singer who was completely out of step with Darren), that truly was giving:
But bless him, he truly seemed overwhelmed to be out there performing again, and he seems to have gone through some utterly DARK TIMES in both his general life and recent years, and as much as I may jest on this show it is meant with AFFECTION.
Truly Madly Deeply really did go off too. It's easy to forget just HOW BIG that song was worldwide, and there was quite a sizeable portion of the audience that had clearly sat through the entire show just to hear it.