TORONTO -- Singer J.D. Fortune got quite the homecoming last night at Massey Hall.

The 32-year-old Mississauga native was greeted with huge applause, big cheers and even handmade signs during the first of two sold-out shows by dance-rock veterans INXS.

Fortune, you will recall, won the frontmanship of the Aussie band last summer, during the popular reality series, Rockstar: INXS, and hasn't really looked back since.

A huge single (Pretty Vegas), respectable new album (Switch) and sold-out tour -- they're announcing a whole slew of new Canadian dates today at the Hard Rock Cafe -- followed and now Fortune's having to prove himself on the road.

The group began their latest world tour on Jan. 18 in Vancouver and, at the time, Fortune was still a work-in-progress as a performer with a little too much emphasis on crotch-grabbing, swearing, etc. In other words, his bad-boy image from the TV show left a bit of a hangover.

But last night Fortune, who kept shaking his head and laughing at the overwhelming crowd response, seemed way more comfortable in his own skin. He was just generally looser and more relaxed, even if inside he might still be freaked out at just how far he has come. At the time that he auditioned for Rockstar: INXS almost a year ago, he was living in a car.

"What the f--k is going on Toronto," he said as the 90-minute show drew to its close. "This is a trip. I wish I could take each and every one of you back to the hotel room tonight."

Much like the tour opener, set highlights proved to be full-blown rockers Suicide Blonde, New Sensation, What You Need, Kick, and Don't Change, the slinkier numbers Disappear, Original Sin, and Stairs, the poignant Never Tear Us Apart and the new songs Afterglow -- a tribute to original singer Michael Hutchence who died in 1997 -- the Bowie-esque Hungry and the ultimate crowdpleaser Pretty Vegas.

In fact, INXS played the exact same songs as they did in Vancouver, but changed up the order slightly near the set's end.

And while there was at least one crotch grab and extended caress of his microphone stand by Fortune, during the overtly sexy tune Taste It, for the most part, Elvis has left the building. (Fortune is a former Elvis impersonator.)

Meanwhile, opener and fellow Rockstar: INXS finalist Marty Casey was a compelling, crazed force of energy with his band The Lovehammers, who delivered an animated rock set that included their hit Trees, which Casey wrote on the TV show.

At one point, Casey even scrambled up speakers to the second-floor balcony, and later invited a young fan on stage to play bass briefly. For the record, 11-year-old Mitchell Dailey of Cobourg, Ont., acquitted himself nicely with the opening of Smoke On The Water.