The venue’s packed. The audience is quite literally buzzing with anticipation. After already having the show postponed nobody wants to wait a minute longer before the music starts…and the lights go dark.
Ash opened up their (unfortunately rather short as the only support) set with “Goldfinger”, then A Life Less Ordinary - both doing their job perfectly to get the crowd moving and their energy up. Every song after raising the roof more and more, building anticipation for the main act, ending their set with a cover of “Jump in the Line”, their 1996 hit “The Girl From Mars” and 2001s “Burn Baby Burn” - accompanied by Justin and Dan Hawkins themselves.
At this point the crowd have already had a taste of what they’re there for, and excitement is clearly building - but the wait was almost over,
The Darkness entered the stage to ABBAs “Arrival”, backlit with hazy purple and pink, with the crowd (and even some security) cheering them on, jumping straight into “Rock and Roll Party Cowboy” as the intro ended - the crowd goes nuts.
After having to reschedule the show due to ill health, Justin Hawkins had clearly recovered well as his vocals and playing were on point - the show was absolutely worth the wait! After their opening number from their latest release they took us back in time to their debut record “Permission to Land” with “Growing on Me” and “Get Your Hands off my Woman”; somehow the volume from the crowd got even louder at this point. With their latest album only releasing last week it seems like the band wanted to give the audience more of what they already knew, playing quite a few songs from their existing repertoire rather than their latest - this is hardly a complaint though.
As with any of their shows, its less of a concert and more a comedy show with music attached. Justin's crowd interaction was spot on, at one point even stealing one of the front rows mobile phones to prove a point about people recording / taking photos throughout the show, and taking an “intimate picture” of himself by way of an apology…
The man is unhinged in the best way possible, somehow maintaining enough energy to sprint around the stage like a man possessed, jump on and off the drum stand and even do handstands and clap his feet in time to the music, How he does this (especially considering his sobriety in recent years) is beyond me, and incredibly impressive I was tired just watching him.
Overall the gig was exactly what you expect from The Darkness Flashy, loud, funny and an incredible performance all around. While the band members may have aged over the past 22 years, their musical ability and sense of humor certainly hasn't. I personally cant wait until they're touring again, and I’ll be first in line for tickets. If you haven't seen them before, then you're missing out - and if you have, then do it again…