This past Saturday night I went to the third show of The Darkness’ current North American tour, which is their first visit to these shores after a six year hiatus. It was an amazing evening; one of the many highlights of my time in the pit was the multiple occasions the dudes around me started air-guitaring along with the band.
The setlist was a mixture of old and new songs, and included the entirety of their first record, Permission to Land. Highlights: One Way Ticket, Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us, Get Your Hands off My Woman, Love Is Only A Feeling, Everybody Have a Good Time and, of course, in I Believe In a Thing Called Love. If the new tunes are anything to go by, the record they’re working on right now is going to be a banger. I can’t wait to hear the rest of it.
And now, some pictures, starting with the first opener, Crown Jewel Defense, who have a record out.
Taylor Hood and Steve Ford
Nick Clinch
Next up was Foxy Shazam, who have become somewhat ubiquitous (omnipresent?) in my concert-going adventures in the last couple of years or so.
The first time I saw them was during their own headlining tour, where the first show I attended concluded with Eric Nally literally half-naked and swinging from the lighting rig on the ceiling.
But more recently I’ve caught them as an opening act for Panic! at the Disco and Courtney Love. In all instances, they have put on a SHOW (all caps totally appropriate) and the audience reacted with either enthusiasm or bafflement (Panic!) or else just plain bafflement (Courtney Love).
This time around, they won over a restive crowd within one song. The dudes around me especially appreciated Eric Nally sticking his head into the drums, and also his mid-song headstand. (I’m fond of that move myself.) I got approximately three decent pictures of them, though at this point I think all y’all know what they look like.
Anyway, here is a Eric Nally singing while bathed in moody green light:
And then it was time for The Darkness. Here was where everyone (including me) really got going and started jumping, singing, and waving their hands in the air. There were one or two crowd-surfers, and at the end, someone on the balcony climbed down onto a riser and jumped into the crowd. It was complete chaos, and it was glorious.
Dan and Justin Hawkins
Justin Hawkins and Frankie Poullain
Dan Hawkins, Ed Graham is behind those drums, and Justin Hawkins
Dan and Justin Hawkins jamming out on the drum riser.
Justin Hawkins playing his guitar behind his head.
Dan Hawkins, Ed Graham is (still) behind those drums, and Justin Hawkins.
Frankie Poullain
And then Justin Hawkins took his jacket-shirt thing off.
The tattoo on his stomach says “Lowestoft”, which is where they are from. It’s a town on the east coast of England, and Wikipedia tells me it’s also the most easterly point in England.
I just like this one. Isn’t his moustache dashing?
He donned a special fancy hat for Holding My Own.
I think this costume change happened while I was trying to avoid being trodden upon by glamazons.
The new costume again in color, because I like the purple light in this one.
Every once in a while I get a shot that I think “now that is a damn beautiful picture of [insert name here]†in an almost abstract way, as if I had just stumbled over it and not, you know, taken it. This is one of those pictures:
