Queen and their temporary new singer Adam Lambert – a pairing that makes a good deal more sense than the earlier incarnation of Queen and blues-rock belter Paul Rodgers – were scheduled to make their British debut at the Sonisphere festival, but when that was cancelled they hastily booked three nights in Hammersmith. Thus, what was conceived as an outdoor show was brought indoors with all the trimmings intact, including fireworks, pyrotechnics and a lightshow designed to be seen for miles. The result? A spectacle of such overblown majesty that, somewhere, Freddie Mercury must have been chuckling approvingly.

It's no insult to Lambert, a theatrical pop star in his own right, to say he lacks Mercury's magisterial authority. The late singer still inhabits every one of Queen's songs, and the best Lambert could do was sing them with verve. While vocally equal to the crescendos and curlicues, he was unable to compete with Mercury's memory – something vividly proved during Love of My Life, when 1980s footage of Mercury unexpectedly flashed on screen. The crowd's gasp spoke volumes.

In any case, Lambert was frequently off stage, leaving guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor to perform a tranche of hits as a duo. They dispatched One Vision, A Kind of Magic and These Are the Days of Our Lives, with Taylor introducing the last as "a song about looking back and reminiscing". That also defined the evening itself: this gig commemorated marching shoulder-to-shoulder for 40 years, the last Queen men standing.

Lambert was back for the big, primal stompers, audibly growing in confidence as he worked through Radio Gaga, We Are the Champions and We Will Rock You. The fireworks and lasers that came with the finale, Bohemian Rhapsody, were appropriately grandiose – how else to finish a terrific show in which no gesture was too overwrought?