As part of their long awaited UK tour, former uk no. 1 band The Darkness stopped at Edinburgh on the 18th of March, where I was lucky enough to catch them at their sold-out Usher Hall show.
Once I got past the round-the-block queue I stood, 20ft away from the stage and paced myself.
Warming us up for the rock n roll royalty about to take to the stage was ASH, an indie-rock band from Northern Ireland. These guys really knew how to get the energy going and had the whole crowd dancing.
As much as I couldn’t wait to see The Darkness, I felt this set ended far too soon, and have been playing “Girl from Mars” and “Burn Baby Burn” on repeat ever since.
At about 9, The Darkness themselves took to the stage (the one, the only). They opened with “Rock n Roll Party Cowboy”, one of the few pre-released songs from their brand new album “Dreams on Toast”. The chemistry between the band and the crowd was absolutely electrifying, with the head-banging and dancing starting as soon as we caught sight of them. The audience was a fair-ish mix of ages, with some obvious longtime fans, who saw the band through their glory days back in the 2010s and have stuck throughout.
The Darkness’ stage presence is something else, in the sense that that evening, I felt like this was the place to be in. Like I was part of the most glamorous and gorgeous event in the world that day.
The drum tech made an unexpected, very welcome appearance dressed as a wizard with a cowbell, and stayed on stage just long enough for us to begin to process his presence, before he disappeared into the shadows, before Justin made it extremely clear to any possible lurkers in the audience that Mumford, sons and fans were NOT welcome.
(Cue the “Here we, here we, here we fucking go!”)
They sauntered back, with an undeniably charming air of “if you insist” and launched into “Walking Through Fire”, during which Justin requested us to dance along with them. He also requested us to put our phones away for the next one and simply take in the moment.
Rufus Taylor, son of a rock god, teased “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” before he delved into a heartfelt solo that nearly made me cry. We then quickly sang happy “28th” birthday to Justin (excellent shape for a 28 year old I must say).
They went over “Friday Night”, “Weekend in Rome” and other fan favourites before the long-awaited “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” and, as any Darkness gig would, ended on “Love on the Rocks with no Ice”.
All factors considered, this was one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to, and I can’t wait to see them again, this time with all the songs from Dreams on Toast and more.
Hydro next time?
