The Darkness Are The Best-Kept Secret Of The Fortysomethings
Sunday night I covered The Darkness in San Diego for Classic Rock magazine. It was a rare two-hat gig where I wrote the review and did photos as well. To be honest, I've always enjoyed The Darkness but it's been an awfully long time since I've piled up a stack of Darkness tracks and gone for a long run. They represent so much of what I love about rock and roll — crunchy guitars, shouty choruses and over-the-top rock 'n' roll theatricality — and as such, they offer a sound that works well at parties, on road trips or a long day at the beach. And yet I've never felt the electrifying swivel-eyed fervor for them that has overtaken me with so many other bands. I hate to use the word "novelty" because the Darkness have far too much depth and ambition than such a term implies, but perhaps due to singer Justin Hawkins' falsetto, I find a hard time pinpointing where they fit in my emotional makeup when I listen to them. I first interviewed them in 2011, when I was invited to take part in a conference call for a handful of music media types. Dan Hawkins, seemingly bored by the proceedings, apparently left the interview mid-point but Justin soldiered on, answering questions with a gratifying sense of pause and introspection. Sobered up and ready for a second run at his career, Justin knew exactly what he needed to do and while a lot of platinum-certified rockstars can scarcely conceal their tedium in interviews, the legends look you in the eye, give you thoughtful answers and always thank you for your time. Which is precisely what Justin did during our interview.
When I received the assignment for the gig on Sunday night, I had zero expectations — whether it was massively fun or incredibly dull, I'd be snapping photos for a few songs, which is always a blast. Not to mention seeing one of Britain's most popular rock exports. Indeed, these guys dragged guitar-powered rock back into the mainstream at a time when overproduced pop and yawn-inducing R&B blather enjoyed a ruthless reign over the charts and airwaves. Sadly they still do, so it's always nice to see some rockers ride in and shake shit up.It was nice to cover a show in San Diego instead of having to drive a hundred miles to and from L.A., hopping in my car at midnight and drive 90 minutes home from L.A. The venue was relatively empty compared to the Struts show I saw there a week ago. Somewhere between half and three-quarters full, with the audience almost entirely north of thirty-five and most well over that. As a testament to this pot-bellied, aging demographic, I spied a good 10-20 people sitting on the small flight of stairs during the opening act, RavenEye. This had nothing to do with the band, who were giving it large with both barrels. These people looked tired, and quite possibly a Sunday night show was a relatively heroic feat.Snapping the show was a blast. Unlike the Cult gig that I shot a few months back, where they made me shoot their impossibly-dim stage from the soundboard, the lighting for the Darkness was bright and the band put on a hell of a show. After the third song, when it was time for all of the photographers to leave the photo pit, Justin bent over and patted a couple of us on the back, asking if we'd gotten everything we needed. I felt like he was only half-joking, fairly certain that if I'd asked his permission to shoot one more song, he would have genially assented. The band played for about an hour and forty-five minutes and they maintained a ferocious pace the entire time. Justin's between-song banter was engaging, charismatic and at one point, laugh out loud funny. The musicians went all in, detonating one massive hit after another with joyful abandon. For the 700 or so people there, it was a uniquely intimate opportunity to see one of the best bands to emerge from the UK in the past twenty years. I'd easily rate this show among my best of the year so far.Apparently the band liked my review because they posted it on their Facebook page. I recreated the show for you here, but you'll have to add your own crowd noise. I'm also including a few extra photos I took that didn't make the review. https://open.spotify.com/user/joed_sandiego/playlist/2DviXtthLx3NlxIYDp4zxc 
