There’s something strangely ironic about a band who made it big styling themselves on bands from the previous generation, now being a generation removed from that breakthrough time themselves. It’s crazy to think that The Darkness released their debut record Permission To Land in 2003, bringing glam rock back to the masses, and 22 years later, they’re still going strong, having just released their eighth full-length, Dreams On Toast.
A huge world tour brings them to Montreal tonight, and it’s a packed Club Soda that greets them. They arrive on stage to grandiose orchestral music and still look every bit as Spinal Tap as I remember. Frontman Justin Hawkins sports a cowboy hat, so it’s only appropriate that the pastiche “Rock and Roll Party Cowboy” starts the set; don’t expect anything serious tonight!
He remains as engaging a frontman as you can imagine, too. By second song “Growing on Me,” he’s already out roaming on top of the speaker stacks at the front of the stage, and by third song “Get Your Hands Off My Woman,” he’s doing handstands on the drum riser. His vocal performance on a cover of “Dead Flowers” by The Rolling Stones is epic too; it sounds like Mick Jagger himself is here singing it!
It’s absolutely no surprise that the offerings from the Permission To Land record get the biggest cheers of the set. “Love Is Only a Feeling” is the definition of an 80s hair ballad, Justin’s falsetto still holding up after all these years, while the singalongs that accompany “Givin’ Up” and “Friday Night” are resonant. Of course, breakthrough anthem “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” which closes the main set, gets the loudest response of the night, the floor pogo-ing from front to back every time that chorus drops. The noise isn’t lost on Justin, who effuses, “Thanks for selling our shows out, we’re overwhelmed by the Canadian magic!”
Outside of the debut record, “Barbarian,” from 2015’s Last of Our Kind record, is a definite highlight, Justin losing his shirt for the rest of the show amid a backdrop of blue strobes before the song concludes with an enormous drum solo from Rufus Tiger Taylor, who himself takes vocal duties on “My Only” a few songs later. Justin orchestrates a massive marching dance on new song “Walking Through Fire,” which looks really cool from my vantage point on the balcony, while encore song “I Hate Myself” is absolutely thunderous, incorporating Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog” riff to wrap up the 105-minute show in spectacular fashion.
Their first Montreal show for over seven years was certainly worth the wait!
Setlist:
- Rock and Roll Party Cowboy
- Growing on Me
- Get Your Hands Off My Woman
- Mortal Dread
- Motorheart
- Dead Flowers (The Rolling Stones cover)
- Walking Through Fire
- Barbarian
- Love Is Only a Feeling
- Givin’ Up
- My Only
- Heart Explodes
- Secret Heart (Ron Sexsmith cover)
- The Power of Love (Jennifer Rush cover)
- The Longest Kiss
- Friday Night
- Fat Bottomed Girls (Queen cover)
- Japanese Prisoner of Love
- I Believe in a Thing Called Love
Encore:
- I Hate Myself
Review – Simon Williams
Photos – Steve Gerrard
