I’m not sure why I had left it so long before seeing The Darkness again tonight but that’s a question for another day! To say I was absolutely blown away with the performance is an understatement, it was pure showmanship from the off which didn’t let up!
Portsmouth Guildhall was packed to rafters tonight with this sold-out gig on The Darkness ‘Dreams On Toast’ Tour named after the impending album that is due to drop at the end of this week. I have been lucky enough to have received an advanced copy and it’s been on heavy rotation since. Everything about it is classic The Darkness, just pure, clean rock n roll! During the gig tonight, Justin did his best to plug the new album borrowing a lanyard from the crowd which had a QR code for you to scan and download ‘available at the merch desk for five english pounds’. This may have also been accompanied but a tongue in cheek hate speech as the album will be going up against Mumford & Sons to be crowned Top of the Pops!
The high energy was palpable amongst the crowd as I heard someone behind me say ‘I’m ready, the photographers are ready, let’s go’ Justin, Dan, Frankie and Rufus hit the stage heading straight into ‘Rock and Roll Party Cowboy’ which is one of my favourites off the new album.
Justin has perfected being the master of ceremonies ‘most people think The Darkness released one album, I took all the drugs and died but I didn’t, I survived’ Back to back numbers from their debut ‘Permission to Land’ follow with ‘Growing On Me’ and ‘get Your Hands Off My Woman’
Being his unfiltered self, Justin asks a fan to pass them his before proceeding to condone the filming that is going on in the crowd. As a little two fingers up to this behaviour, Justin the proceeds to stick the phone down the front and back of his pants to take some pictures for the lucky fan! Another few classics knitted together the middle of the set with ‘Barbarian’ and ‘Love Is Only a Feeling’ with arguably their best new track ‘Walking Through Fire’ sandwiched between.
Rufus Taylor came front and centre to take vocal duties on ‘My Only’, which is an ode to his dog it would seem. This man is an absolute powerhouse of a drummer (hardly surprising when his Dad is one of the best in Roger Taylor) and I had been looking forward to seeing him drum again since the Taylor Hawkins tribute gig a few years back. It would seem that that he is a man of many talents, and you could argue should maybe appear on vocals more frequently.
The bounciness of the crowd needed to be tested before playing ‘the one we all know’ (aka ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’) so the band began to play ‘Immigrant Song’ by Led Zeppelin (which I wish they carried on and played in full!) – Justin bellowed that the crowd was only at 30% – ‘I’m on fire tonight and you need to be a little more bouncy’.
The encore begins with ‘Weekend in Rome’ with came with outfit changes for the band and which saw Rufus provide a monologue alongside Justin in this theatrical rendition. Fake flowers were thrown on to the stage as the song ended as Justin took the plaudits. ‘I Hate Myself’ closes out a mighty fine 1hr 45 mins of rock!
If you’ve been lucky enough to see The Darkness this tour then I don’t need to say anymore to you but if you haven’t seen them and you can, then don’t think twice as you won’t be disappointed!
