The Darkness @ Enmore Theatre

The Darkness

Enmore Theatre

Sydney, Australia

March 13, 2020

It has been a few moons since I first saw The Darkness incarnate in a live environment, which was in the UK shortly after they landed their hit album ”Permission to land” and which saw their nonetheless fantastic live performance mildly affected by the throes of rock stardom and the readily available substances that come with it, which only seemed to give the theatrics of the show an additional dimension of authenticity: The way they unapologetically channelled the heritage of bands like Boston, Queen,  AC/DC, Thin Lizzy and other glam heroes while not missing to infuse it all with their own DNA and passion was quite something.

Having now an arsenal of two decades of band history to cover, the first half of tonight’s set focussed on their most recent emission, i.e. the album “Easter Is Cancelled”, before proceedings were rounded out by proffering their old hits in the second act after a costume change.

The first act of the night  saw the band incarnating in white satin and from the get go, the sold out audience was in the thrall of the never not charming front man Justin and his worthy constituents, as they delivered their well-calibrated melange of melodic glam rock gems with pouty lips galore and all the trimmings.

The second act served as the corresponding “yang” to the angelic beginning, signified by a costume change, which saw the band re-enter the stage decked out in black.

Heavy on audacious guitar wizardry, glam histrionics and with a near pitch perfect vocal delivery including piercing falsetto screams, in 2020 The Darkness are still going strong.

Having at times been written off as a unicorn act or a joke, tonight again solidified The Darkness as a band at peace with themselves and a force to be reckoned with.

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photos courtesy of @k.a.vv