It was my second time in the week visiting the lovely Corona Theatre. This time I was there to find out what the music and live act of a two-hit wonder is like, especially after more than a decade has passed since their song “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” reached the top 10 charts just behind the Black Eyed Peas’ “Where is the Love?”.
Their latest album titled “Pinewood Smile”, which they were promoting on this tour had been a frequent go-to album ever since I learned that they were coming to Montreal, and honestly, after learning they were still doing music after all these years.
The theatre was at least 70% at capacity, even filling the majority of the balcony seats, which for me seemed definitely like a good sign of how the band was received in the city.
The setup of the stage, as well as the opening, set the tone for what was to be Rock n’ Roll night, filled with loud guitars, bright stage lights and a frontman that knew how to work a crowd. I felt as if I was witnessing the heirs of the torch passed down by the likes of Uriah Heep, Queen, ELO and even T-Rex. Each of those bands had left its mark on the style, music, and lyrics of The Darkness. Even the security guards, whom I had seen bored out of their minds during Dweezil Zappa’s marathonic show a few nights before, were headbanging and smiling.
Justin Hawkins, frontman, and singer of the band took every chance he could to speak to the crowd, tell stories, and most importantly for any band visiting La Belle Province, speaking any French that could be conjured from high school days. He spoke way more than the usual greetings, he completed whole sentences, made jokes and even got some members of the crowd to help him out.
This attempt at connecting to the city through its language is not merely for show. According to what Justin retold on stage, he and his brother Dan’s (the guitar player) granddad was a French-Canadian who immigrated to the UK after the WW2. He recounted that he was a hockey player and that it felt good to reconnect to their roots.
(Quick note to any band planning to come here, at least say Bonjour, you will have the cheers of the public and it will be easier to break the invisible wall that separate artists from the spectator. Just beware, it’s a quick win but you still have blow our brains out in order to be memorable)
Song after song they gave their all to the crowd, the riffs played by Dan Hawkins were incredible, while the drums and bass did not stay behind. The lyrics were strange and comical at times, such as the song “Buccaneers of Hispaniola”, a song that speaks of roasting men like manatees and washing it down with tears.
Everything considered, the show was clean and delivered to stadium-like standards, but at times the crowd, especially in the balcony, seemed numb as though they were watching a nature documentary and not a flashy, glammy rock show in the middle of the week. This observation combined with the absence of the radio waves, their memorable riffs and hymn-like songs, makes me think that their era might have been better fitted for the 80s and 90s.
Review – Ricardo D. Flores
Photos – Kieron Yates
