If there's anything to go by from what happened this past Friday night in Adelaide (6 November), it can only be summed up in one phrase – absolutely pure rock & roll.
It has been a few years since The Darkness last rolled into Adelaide and the fans piled into HQ Complex to welcome the mighty band back, and to get a fix of their rock & roll medication.
Image © Shayarah BrownNo matter where I turned my head, the venue was packed with close to 650, 700 diehards in attendance to witness, in my very humbled opinion, a rockier version of Queen meets AC/DC.
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Even at one stage during their performance, Justin Hawkins was throwing guitar picks up to the giant mirror ball to make the shining ball spin. Even the crowd chanted “Spin! Spin! Spin!” Unfortunately according to Justin, the mirrorball is from the southern hemisphere, therefore the thing didn’t spin.
The Darkness are touring Australia off the back of their latest album, 'Last Of Our Kind' released in May this year after some line-up changes, and they are back with a vengeance. The night opened with 'Barbarian' and it was a full-on rock & roll frenzy that would make even Freddie Mercury start jumping to the tune.
Speaking of Queen, Roger Taylor’s son Rufus is living up to his father's name playing drums for the mighty Darkness, which in hindsight you can see Roger’s talent written all over his son.
Image © Shayarah Brown'Growing On Me' and 'Black Shuck' were thrown in next, which had the crowd fired up with massive sing-a-longs as they were having the time of their lives. 'Mudslide', 'Given’ Up', 'Roaring Waters' were all fans favourites, as a lucky punter in the audience was handed the microphone during 'Mudslide' to put on his best English impersonation.
'One Way Ticket' and 'Love Is Only A Feeling' show just how far The Darkness have come since arriving in the early 2000s. Fans were in pure ecstasy by this part of their performance. Justin is multi-talented; not only can he sing and play guitar, but can play piano as well for a couple of songs.
'Friday Night' and 'English Country Garden' were absolutely flawless to witness, as Justin had grabbed the audience by this point and it was full steam ahead for the rest of the night. 'Every Inch', 'Rack Of Glam', 'Get Your Hands Off My Woman' and 'Stuck In A Rut' rounded out the tail end of their main set.
Image © Shayarah BrownBut you couldn’t end the main set without their biggest hit to date; 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love'. This was the song that made the audience go absolutely nuts.
A three-song encore was planned to end the night on a high. 'Open Fire', 'Street Spirit' and 'Love On The Rocks' were jammed into together, as Justin fed off the crowd more and more as each song went along.
If Angus can go into the crowd playing guitar so can Justin, as the fans were starstruck by being millimetres away from touching him. The night could not be any better as a full-on, rock & roll fest just the way Adelaide wanted it.
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