The Darkness Brings Rock ‘n’ Roll Spectacle to Austin: Pictures

The Darkness introduced their Desires on Toast tour to Austin, Texas on Saturday, delivering an electrifying rock ‘n’ roll spectacle that reasserted their standing as among the best purveyors of killer riffs and arena-sized hooks within the enterprise.

You’ll be able to see our unique photographs from the present under.

The Darkness kicked off their almost two-hour set with “Rock and Roll Social gathering Cowboy,” the opening observe off their new album Desires on Toast. Frontman Justin Hawkins leaned into the aesthetic, donning a purple western shirt and cowboy hat as he prowled the stage and fired off scorching riffs and fleet-fingered solos from his low-slung guitar.

The set drew most closely from Desires on Toast and the band’s star-making debut album, Permission to Land. If Hawkins is concerned by the truth that a 22-year-old album nonetheless eclipses the remainder of the Darkness’ discography by way of reputation, he did not present it on Saturday. Quite the opposite, he acknowledged it with a wink and a smile.

“This one is for the folks over there who’ve solely listened to the primary file,” Hawkins stated earlier than launching into “Givin’ Up.” “And I really like that. That first file paid for my home — and my Porsche.”

READ MORE: Justin Hawkins on the Darkness’ Early Days: ‘It Was Pandemonium’

The Darkness acquired to have their cake and eat it too on Saturday at Emo’s, a roughly 1,700-capacity membership that might home the band’s supersized mild present whereas nonetheless permitting them to work together instantly with the viewers. Hawkins relished the chance, repeatedly teasing Jeffrey Osborne’s “On the Wings of Love” and borrowing a Members Solely jacket from an viewers member close to the stage.

This combination of tightness and looseness, of severely unserious shredding, has been the Darkness’ calling card for greater than twenty years now. They have the center to be camp and the chops to soften faces, mixing the blunt-force riffage of AC/DC with the larger-than-life theatrics of Queen. The viewers ate it up on Saturday, (largely) obliging Hawkins when he ordered them to place their telephones away and soar throughout “I Consider in a Factor Known as Love” and indulging the frontman throughout a mellow mid-set interlude that morphed into a climactic cowl of Jennifer Rush’s “The Energy of Love.”

The Darkness made headlines a pair months in the past when Justin and guitarist Dan Hawkins criticized Yungblud‘s efficiency on the MTV VMAs’ Ozzy Osbourne tribute as inauthentic. Some folks interpreted the brothers’ suggestions as a bitter, jealous outburst — however fact be informed, if anybody’s match to supply suggestions on the state of reside rock ‘n’ roll, it is these guys. Love ’em or hate ’em, they’re the true deal, delivering arduous rock histrionics with tongue-in-cheek aptitude, a tightrope act few of their friends have been in a position to pull off.

Or, because the bloke behind me within the rest room line succinctly put it: “He is one of the best frontman in rock ‘n’ roll.”