Review: Christian Stanger
Photography: Dan Maynard

Hey kids, remember the noughties? Remember when you would go to Big Day Out on a cloudy, humid day in 2004 to see Metallica and Blood Duster and end up standing in front of the main stage at 12:30 taking in one of the most over-the-top rock shows the festival had ever seen? The tight leather pants, the catsuits, the face-melting solos from Justin and Dan Hawkins, the stylish bass of Frankie Poullain and then-drummer Ed Graham holding a tight rhythm.

It’s almost 20 years to the day and these prophets of rock have returned for the anniversary of that most sing-along-able of debut albums, Permission to Land. After surviving all the excesses of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle in the years following the album’s release (and 2005’s follow-up One Way Ticket To Hell… And Back) the band returned in 2011, sober, and completed their resurgence with Rufus Taylor joining the band on the skins in 2015. Now on rotation number 7, Permission To Land persists as the album most fans want to hear and tonight, it’s a guarantee.

With four bands on the bill, Cry Club emerge on stage first. Purveyors of some sort of noisy bubblegum pop-punk fusion they have seriously bring some of that groove to the Fortitude. Equal parts catchy and angsty, this duo has been cruising up and down the country playing shows and building a killer live reputation for years. Throwing themselves around the stage and showing off some pretty impressive musical chops, Cry Club would have made themselves a few bonus fans from the sounds given off by the growing crowd after each track ended.

Tonight, the DZ Deathrays play Brisbane for, I Dunno, the billionth time! But they always sound fresh, crisp and, I can’t stress this enough, LOUD. I hadn’t seen the Deathrays in a bit and was surprised to see Violent Soho’s Luke Henery slinging on the bass. The band with the newly minted best bassist/windmiller in the business did not disappoint. They might have had the best sound of the night and they take full advantage as they tear through the years of tracks with My Mind Is Eating Me Alive from last year’s R.I.F.F. sounding particularly monstrous.

The Darkness have been out this way more than a few times but this time they’ve brought some friends cut from the same cloth. Friends like You Am I, who have come with Marshall stacks and their own wardrobe of flamboyant shirts, capes, bondage gear, kilts and squalling guitar solos with hammed-up stage manoeuvres. Tim Rogers, Davey Lane and co. have arrived as Spinal Tap… or, a tribute to Spinal Tap? Hard to tell from the outset but it hardly matters. What does matter is that they came to play the hits and they expect you, the punter, to buy into the insanity of it all and we’re out of the gates with “Tonight, I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight”.

What follows is 45 minutes of a completely in-character Rogers playing all the legendary hits of the extensive Spinal Tap catalogue, with interludes of extremely serious soliloquies spouting the virtues of rock and Spinal Tap. Playing up an English accent, Rogers says, “it’s the majesty of rock, the pageantry of roll, the crowing of the cock, the running of the foal” heralding the arrival of the pompous and absurd, The Majesty of Rock. Followed by Gimme Some Money, Sex Farm and everyone’s favourite Big Bottom (“talk about mudflaps, my girl’s got ‘em”), all the hits are there but the most triumphant (and true to the movie) performance comes as a tiny Stonehenge is lowered from the rafters during the penultimate song of the set.

The Darkness don’t mess around for too long and they strut onto the stage with the requisite confidence, and they get stuck into the Permission to Land opener, Black Shuck, which, as it does on the album, sets the tone for the following hour plus of grandiose rock riffage from an absolute gem of an album. Everyone’s wearing their uniform: Dan in his leather jacket, Frankie in a three-piece, multi-colored suit and then Justin comes running from the wings in a skin-tight black and white catsuit like it’s 1983 and within a couple of songs he’s doing a headstand on the drum riser. What confidence! From then on, the band peel back the years with borrowed presence and stage moves from past epochs of rock, reinventing them and making them natural. All this, spiked with incredible musicianship, shows why The Darkness are renowned as one of the world’s great rock acts.

The set was always going to be Permission to Land–heavy with all ten cuts making an appearance (in no particular order) along with a handful of other numbers from B-sides and different editions. But nobody is complaining as these singalongs are greeted loudly and devoured ravenously with the band dealing with the Fortitude like it was Wembley Stadium – solidifying the comparison when Hawkins treats fans to a Freddie Mercury-style echo check.

Also punctuating the set are some handy covers including a couple of partial Zeppelin tracks, Phil Collins’ ‘In The Air Tonight’ (with Dan Hawkins on those iconic drums) and an extraordinarily heavy, dark version of Radiohead’s Street Spirit (Fade Out) which can’t help but lead-in perfectly to masturbation ballad, Holding My Own.

Hawkins’ voice is near faultless as he takes on megahit, I Believe In A Thing Called Love to close out the set proper. But the band emerge a few minutes later in their boxers along with smoking jackets and kimonos for a short encore and a lengthy take Love On The Rocks With No Ice culminating in the now customary ride Hawkins takes on a bodyguard’s shoulders, shredding that white and red Atkin gat, as he does a tour through the crowd.

If tonight proves one thing, it’s that you don’t need stadium flood lights, massive screens and 40,000 people to make a rock show. Just get yourself some colossal riffs, catchy choruses, some insane musicians and a frontman who can stand and deliver. The Darkness are something truly special and I, for one, am glad they’re still going 20 years later!

Remaining Dates:

Fri 9 Feb: UC Refectory, Canberra w/ Cry Club
Sat 10 Feb, Hordern Pavilion, Sydney (Let There Be Rock)*
*w/ You Am I ‘Majesty of Tap’, DZ Deathrays, Cry Club, DJs Eleven & Denim

Tickets: www.thedarknesslive.com and www.sbmpresents.com