The Darkness @ Astor Theatre
w/ The Southern River Band
Friday, October 14, 2022
Some of us may remember the early 2000s when The Darkness thrust themselves into public consciousness off the strength of tongue-in-cheek singles such as I Believe in a Thing Called Love and Love On the Rocks (With No Ice). This pack of cheeky Brits may have ridden the wave of resurgent rock around that time, but they were cut from a rather different cloth than their contemporaries, their music and image rooted in a cerebral love of all things hard-rock and classic metal. Their songs may be self-aware and silly, but under it all they are a lean, mean, hard-rock machine, and their time-honed brand of ass-kicking was on full display on Friday as they played to a sold-out crowd at Astor Theatre.
Opening proceedings was a revelatory performance from locals The Southern River Band (SRB). Decked out like early Motley Crue, down to frontman Cal Kramer’s epic mullet, these local lads have been making a name for themselves over the last few years on the strength of their energetic live show. They didn’t disappoint on the night, delivering a set of rollicking hair metal numbers that threatened to upend the headliners. White-hot boogie stompers like Chasing After Love (It’ll Burn a Hole in Your Shoes) drew a great reaction from the crowd.
Cal’s stage presence was awesome throughout as he played up the band’s homegrown Thornlie roots. Stage banter highlights included the pros and/or cons of Qantas CEO Alan Joyce (guess which) and the excellently timed intro to fan fave Chimney as “Anyway here’s a song about cunts that smoke meth.” That song was a lurching, grungy thrasher delivered with serious bite. But it was on closer Vice City II that the band really shone. The track is already a masterpiece in hard-rock songwriting, but SRB killed this live rendition. The guitar solos came on red hot and Cal delivered the anthemic chorus with serious passion.
After a brief break, The Darkness came on to a fanfare and an inevitable cow bell joke – with one being introduced and then shunted away just as quickly. The band were dressed sleekly, with frontman Justin Hawkins eschewing any glam rock pomp (or unitards) in favor of a stripped down Jack Sparrow-esque get-up. The punters on the night also fell firmly into the hard-rock and metal lover camp. The precedence of denim jackets, leather and various band T-Shirts – The Scorpions, Motorhead, Iron Maiden et al – showed that band and audience were on the same page. The Darkness’ love of classic heaviness extends not just to glam rock but all ends of the metal spectrum, and the band played a diverse range of material to cater for all tastes.
The band opened with the cool stop/start dynamics and NWOBHM riffs of Motorheart, the title track from their latest 2021 LP. Setting a standard for the rest of the night, they tore into it with a frenzied energy. Big handclaps introduced follower Big Shuck, from the band’s breakthrough debut. The song’s rabid pace and silly energy make it scream for live treatment, and indeed all this and more was captured and amplified in this rendition. Fan favourites continued with the juvenile genius of Growing on Me which had the crowd singing along. This was followed by the biggest hit off their sophomore album, One Way Ticket to Hell. Once again the crowd participation was on point, including back-and-forth ‘hell’ chanting. It was pure pop metal fun and the most KISS-inspired moment of the evening.
The crowd engagement throughout the night was excellent. The punters at Astor should give themselves a pat on the back, as they served as a third act in and of themselves. Their participation and reactions made frontman Justin Hawkins’ already natural charisma come off easily. Highlights included a bra being thrown on stage, which Hawkins had a brief minute with (“Love the familiar smell of sweaty boobs”). There was also a surreal attempted bit of improv where Hawkins took a crowd member’s mobile with her father on the other line. The connection didn’t work but even a few garbled sounds were enough to make the moment worthwhile, with Hawkins’ milking the classic “Don’t tell the parents” trope for all it was worth. This must be why The Darkness love coming to Australia so much – guitarist Dan Hawkins has even said recently that the band sometimes feel more Aussie than British.
Overall though the focus was on the music, and there were many high points. The anthemic Heart Explodes was beautiful, and the cheesy sword-and-sorcery-isms of Barbarian were welcomed by the audience with open arms. Friday Night was excellently carried off, starting acapella and getting some big crowd buy-in. The underrated and ridiculous thrasher Japanese Prisoner of Love packed some huge oomph on stage. The best was saved for last though, with the iconic numbers Get Your Hands off My Woman (this reviewer’s fave) and of course I Believe in a Thing Called Love getting the kind of rapturous reaction one would expect. The theatricality was upped – it was particularly great to see Justin Hawkins still whipping out a headstand during Woman. SRB got another look in too, with Cal coming back for an epic guitar turn in the latter track.
It was during this pair of songs that the only blemish of the night was most evident, and that was the inevitable drowning out of Hawkins’ voice in a live setting. Hawkin’s trademark falsetto, while still there for the whole evening, was not as much at the forefront and, with the emphasis on energy and speed, this part of the band’s sound wasn’t given as much room to breathe as it could have been. There was also relatively little flash or use of the stage – the focus was on the music, but when Cal jumped off the platform to deliver Love‘s closing power chord, you wished there were a few more moments like this throughout the night.
After the inevitable encore the band returned for the one-two punch of Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End), the band’s nearly-there Christmas single of 2003, before finishing on the iconic Love On the Rocks (With No Ice). It’s no wonder why this is a concert favourite, with its extended structure providing room for some epic guitar solos and the chance for Hawkins to really screech his head off. There was also a great call-and-response moment from the crowd, as Hawkins split them left and right like a hard-rock Moses.
This was, overall, a fun night of hard-rock debauchery. The Darkness may seem to play it loose, but they were consummate professionals who had the audience in the palm of their hand.
MATIJA ZIVKOVIC
Photos by Stu McKay
