Band: The Darkness
Support: Rivers 68, LostAlone
Venue: The Electric Ballroom, Camden, London
Date: 12/11/13
As the crowd continues to trickle in the opening band, Rivers 68 begin to play. They’re self-confessed fans of The Darkness and hold a similar sound despite the acoustic nature of their set. LostAlone then take to the stage and play through their set faultlessly. They fulfil their job of warming up the crowd encouraging shouts, chants and clapping. By the end of the two support acts the audience is buzzing with anticipation for the reason everyone is here: The Darkness.
‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ starts playing over the speakers and it becomes clear to the audience that any minute The Darkness will definitely be back in town. They build up their entrance, appearing on stage to ‘Second Fiddle’ and simply standing hand in hand, revelling in the feel of being on stage as cameras flash all over the venue. From here they launch straight into ‘Making Out’, proving instantly that they are the same capable band they were 10 years ago when they scored chart success.
By the third song ‘Is It Just Me?’ iconic front man Justin Hawkins performs guitarless. He struts the stage, easily owning the whole room. He exudes a rockstar aura that stays with him throughout the evening.
Justin then introduces a new song under the name of ‘The Horn’. It has a slightly heavier sound than their other songs and definitely leaves the audience anticipating new releases from the band.
At the end of this song, Justin strikes up a conversation with a guy in the front row, whose name we are to learn later. Said fan requests ‘Friday Night’ leading the singer to affectionately call him a ‘fucking moron’, after explaining that the first half of the show will be called ‘obscurities’ and the in the second they will play through ‘Permission To Land’, the album on which you can find ‘Friday Night’.
The last song of the first set is ‘One Way Ticket’, one of the bands better known tracks and a great way to end half of the show. Freddie proudly stands with his cowbell as the song starts before it conveniently floats off into the rafters as he needs to play his bass again.
After this the band leave the stage and a slightly confused audience unsure what to expect next. A voice over then starts, telling a brief story of The Darkness bit by bit, spoken by each of the members. Each section ends with ‘I should know, I was there’ before the person speaking appears back on stage to take their place. They have changed their outfits to match their style from the ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ video; Justin is now in a very fetching fluorescent pink jump suit.
They launch straight into the album, from here and it doesn’t take long for a mosh pit to open and the audience started clapping into the second song. Of course clapping normally is too mainstream for their diva of a singer who did a handstand on the drum riser and clapped with his feet instead.
Between all of the songs Justin begins to crank up the banter. He plays around with the on stage monitors, trying to stand as high as possible, then holding the microphone up to it so that a high pitch screech rings through the venue. “Now were all deaf,” he tells the crowd, “we’ve had a collective experience.”
After playing their biggest hit ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ and reminding everyone why they achieved the success they did, Justin then proved just how rockstar he is by insulting half of the audience. He asked for a show of hands from those who follow his Twitter, and then proceeded to tell those who don’t “You’re all c**ts! Turn round and face the back, I don’t want to look at you until you follow me on your smart phones.” Naturally no-one took offence to this, laughing at the singers antics, although many did pull out their phones and head to Twitter.
A song later he returns to the front row fan, who is still requesting ‘Friday Night’. “What’s your name?” he asks, and although the crowd can’t hear the fan Justin’s responses are brilliant. “Your name’s not shagger, nor is it your profession or your hobby.” Eventually, we discover that this is Brian. He is given a spare mic and allowed to sing a quick accapella version of Friday Night with the frontman before the band perform it. It’s a song that simply demands to be danced to and the crowd obliges.
When it came time for the final song, ‘Holding My Own’ the frontman gave a speech: “There have been bands that have played through a whole album, then get to the end and realise the last ones a ballad and they think ‘we don’t wanna end on a ballad’ so they don’t play it and you all go home happy and pretend it never existed. So that’s it good night.” On that abrupt note he drops his microphone and walks off, before returning a minute later and announcing that it was simply a test and they were going to play it full band for the first time.
The whole band then left the stage and it didn’t take long for chants of ‘One more song’ to start up from the crowd. After another quick wardrobe change, The Darkness returned, Justin slightly more covered up now and played their Christmas hit ‘Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)’, November 12th isn’t too early for that, is it? Justin let the crowd sing some of the highest notes near the end of the song to comical effect and the crowd left laughing, satisfied and ready for the holiday season!
9/10
Reviewed by: Jenna Young
Photos by: Kayla Elliot
