If happiness really is a warm gun -- as The Beatles once famously opined -- then surely a similarly strong case can be made for Velvet Revolver.

The members of the hard-rock supergroup certainly left their fans in a state of near bliss last night (those loyal few who bothered to show up, anyway), via a high-energy show that found all five members cocked and loaded.

The L.A. quintet -- comprised of former Guns N' Roses heavyweights Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, plus Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland and Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner -- took to the stage almost an hour past their scheduled start-time last night, suggesting Slash and the other ex-Gunners could maybe learn a thing or two from Axl Rose, who actually managed to be on time for his own show last winter, despite a notorious reputation for being late.

But we're inclined to forgive the transgression, since when they finally did get things underway, they quickly proved they planned to make the most of all those combined years of shared experience.

Kicking off with Let It Roll and She Mine, the same one-two punch that opens their new album Libertad, the Revolver crew set a polished sleaze-rock template for the rest of the evening, as Slash and McKagan vied for attention with Weiland, who commandeered his spot at centre stage dressed in a motorcycle hat and dangerously low-slung jeans.

The band's material hews a little closer to current rock-radio formats than either STP's retro alt-sound or GNR's anthemic arena-stylings, and even if that means the songs aren't nearly as memorable, you still have to give them credit for looking forward, not back.

From VR's debut disc Contraband, the track Sucker Train Blues found Weiland wielding an air siren, Do It for the Kids and Superhuman struck a perfect balance between glam and metal, and Big Machine saw Slash busting out a quick solo from atop a riser at stage right.

Of course, the guys aren't above dipping into their old bands' back catalogues, so it wasn't too surprising to hear the opening strains of STP's Vasoline or Interstate Love Song (performed, like the Revolver tune The Last Fight, with all five members seated in a row), or later, the lighter-friendly GNR ballad Patience.

And while Weiland is still no match for Rose, his own by-now-trademark brand of lizard-king theatrics -- put to especially good use on She Builds Quick Machines and Get Out the Door -- sync just as well with the old-school swagger of his new compatriots.

Shoot-shoot, bang-bang, indeed.

Earlier, opening act Sparta quickly wore out their welcome with an overly long set of moody, atmospheric alt-metal. The band, fronted by Texan Jim Ward (ex- of the far superior prog-punk hybrid At the Drive-In) sounds interesting enough on CD, but live, their reliance on disjointed guitar breaks and Ward's Bono-esque wailing produces the unfortunate effect of making every song sound exactly the same.