People love labels. Movie studios love to herald the release of a new movie as “This year’s…” then, whatever the progeny or two-point-oh they’re trying to push onto the public.
Record labels do the same; Greta van Fleet was heralded as the new Gen Z version of Led Zeppelin, and it worked for awhile, letting the young band act as a gateway to a generation of post-millennial streamers who may have no idea who Zeppelin is.
British hard rock outfit The Darkness can easily draw comparisons to Queen: frontman Justin Hawkins’ falsetto sounds quite a bit like early Freddie and, obviously, drummer Rufus Taylor is the offspring of legendary Queen drummer Roger Taylor. Although Rufus didn’t join the band until about ten years ago, his addition to the band cements a valid comparison to one of popular music’s most legendary and important outfits. Queen’s DNA can be found in many of their tunes; Brian May-inspired licks can be heard on “Walking Through Fire” and “Open Fire,” but beyond that, the band has created its own unique sound, maybe flavored by other notorious outfits, but surely a creation of their own making.
Coming to prominence in 2003 with their debut Permission to Land, the band was a smash in their native England. Like many outfits, success caught up with them and two of the original members, including frontman Hawkins, left the quartet in early 2006.
Getting back together in 2011, original bassist Frankie Poullain and Hawkins rejoined the band and they’ve been going strong ever since.
While their name may evoke mystery or the absence of light, their stop at the Agora on Sunday night was anything but. Touring in support of their newest album Dreams on Toast, the quartet played to about a thousand diehard fans gathered to hear some hard rock soaked in old school glam. Sunday night’s tour stop was the last of the North American part of the tour; they came to Cleveland before embarking on a European leg, commencing September 30th in Brussels.
A little after 9:00, Justin Hawkins came out dressed in a large, oversized jacket a la David Byrne/Stop Making Sense. By the fourth tune he had shed the jacket and, by the end of the show, was stripped down to a pair of black shorts, knee-high gym socks and not much else. Donning his guitar, he hopped up and down across the stage, ducking and diving in between the red and orange gels that lit up the auditorium. He remained that way for the majority of the show.
Justin’s brother Dan took lead guitar duties, while Frankie Poullain thumped his bass dressed in an awesome homage to the 1970s and the all-that-glitters decade of excess.
Taylor came out from behind the kit, asked to remove his shirt, took the mic bare-chested, and offered lead vocals on a cover of The Stones’ “Dead Flowers.”
It seems that an obligatory Queen cover needed to be offered, so “Fat Bottomed Girls” became a late-set addition.
Playing a total of nineteen tunes, the outfit left after a two-tune encore, including “Conquerors” and “I Hate Myself.” Leaning heavily on their first album and their newest release, there were no tunes present from their sophomore release, One Way Ticket to Hell…and Back.
Irish openers Mark Daley and the Ravens played a 45-minute warm-up set of hard rock tunes.
