Rocking You, Rocking Me: The Darkness Descends on Providence (4/4/04) Apr 06 '04    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Music Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast From $8 Mai by Eri Sugai From $4 The Bottom Line "More bras, please!" - Justin Hawkins “Irony is over,” Jarvis Cocker declares at the end of Pulp’s This is Hardcore, one of the best albums of the '90s. Pulp’s next album, We Love Life, seemed much more sincere, and, for a while, it seemed like Jarvis’s forecast was correct. The late nineties, with the Y2K scare, was a perfect time for melodrama, but, we’re four years into the aughties, and angsty, navel-gazing bands continue to dominate the music scene. Grim music isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, three of my favorite bands, Radiohead, Muse, and The Manic Street Preachers could certainly be accused of taking themselves too seriously. Before The Darkness burst onto the scene, rock music was in dire need of some fun. With a rhythm borrowed from classic metal bands like AC/DC combined with the grand falsetto of Freddy Mercury plus the stage antics of David Lee Roth and a little bit of Spinal Tap thrown in for good measure, The Darkness are simultaneously derivative and fresh. Lead singer Justin Hawkins looks like what would result if Robert Plant and every other front man in the history of rock somehow mated. The Darkness’ debut album Permission to Land has sold an incredible 1.3 million copies in the U.K. and, despite Spin Magazine’s prediction that American audiences “wouldn’t get it,” gone gold stateside. Spin ate its words just one month later, putting Hawkins on the cover. It turns out that Americans can appreciate irony after all. The American leg of the Permission to Land tour has sold out in every city. I couldn’t get tickets to see Britain’s top band play in Boston, so, Katy, Curtis, and I made the rainy, one-hour drive to Providence, RI to see The Darkness play at Lupo's, an old fashioned theater in the city's "art district," which is, apparently, Rhode Islandian for "run down area." As my friend Marisa pointed out, Lupo’s has a nice, wide stage, enabling more people to be near the front. My friends and I were about 25 feet away, just behind the low area in front of the stage, up two small steps. Unfortunately, people kept pushing in front of me, so I found it difficult to see at times. Justin changed his outfit three times -- from a shirtless ensemble with tight pants that revealed flame tattoos peaking out from his crotch like fiery pubes to a Cher-like catsuit with mohawk-shaped fur running up its back to a red and white striped one-piece. He had incredible stage presence and led the crowd in arm swaying and cheerleader call and response such as "Give me a 'D'! Give me an 'arkness!'" As a lead-in to "Get Your Hands off of my Woman, [Motherf*cuker]" Justin asked, "What's your favorite swear word?" and had us repeat the ones he likes best. "C*nt! F*ck! Sh*t! Titty! Boobie!" It was very cathartic. At the end, he taught us the correct intonation of the final "MOTHERF*CKER!" (It goes up at the end.) With typical New Millennium ambivalence, The Darkness have both re-embraced the concept of tacky groupies (oh, wait, that’s redundant...) and written a popular song about genital warts called “Growing on Me.” The final song on Permission to Land is a Def Leppard-esque power ballad called “Holding My Own” about surviving a break-up... Oh, and it’s also about masturbation. Sadly, The Darkness didn’t play that one at Lupo’s. I would have liked to see the lighters waving. After a couple of girls threw their undergarments on stage (ironically, of course), Justin called out, “More bras, please!” with the manners of a schoolboy asking for a second helping of...er...spotted dick. During the encore, they played a really long version of "Love on the Rocks," and Justin had a bouncer carry him around the crowd. At one point, he was about ten feet away from us! People crowd surfed a bit, but the crowd wasn't that wild, overall. It was a contained hysteria. The brilliant thing about The Darkness is that they are undisputedly talented musicians, so they are more than just a joke. Justin’s brother Dan, wearing a Thin Lizzy t-shirt, wailed away on guitar, occasionally stepping to the front of the stage when prompted by his brother. Bassist Freddie Poullain barely cracked a smile despite his ridiculous headband and handlebar mustache that made him look like a cross between Prince and the leather man in The Village People. Drummer Ed Graham is steady but non-descript, and I kept expecting him to spontaneously combust, leaving behind a little green globule on his drum seat. Starting with the album’s scorching opener “Black Shuck,” The Darkness played nine of ten songs from Permisson to Land plus a couple of B-Sides. The Darkness toned things down for power ballad “Love is only a Feeling,” which is actually quite pretty, and the overtly nostalgic “Friday Night,” during which you’ll hear the phrase “extracurricular activities” in a hair metal song for the first and only time ever. They wisely saved their biggest hit, “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” until just before the encore. The opening band, The Wildhearts, who are apparently very popular in the UK, were comically noisy and as earnest as the Darkness are ironic. They kept saying things like, "This song is from our latest album and is going to be released as a single," and then launching into the same three, deafening power chords that had made up their previous song. Katy and I couldn't stop laughing. The Wildhearts, who have been wreaking havoc since 1990, are notorious for their rampant drug use and have a history that reads like a parody of VH1’s Behind the Music. The Darkness might trash their hotel rooms, too, but they’d do it with cheeky grins on their faces.

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