Date: Friday, April 1, 2022
City: Sauget, IL
Venue: Pop’s
Opening act(s): The Dead Deads
Headlining act: The Darkness
The Dead Deads Setlist:
Thinkers And Preyers
Ghosts
Deal With Me
Dead Inside
In The Flesh / Push Me
First Tooth
In For Blood
Nope
The Darkness Setlist:
Welcome Tae Glasgae
One Way Ticket
Growing On Me
Motorheart
Open Fire
Solid Gold
Givin’ Up
It’s Love, Jim
Black Shuck
Heart Explodes
Friday Night
Love Is Only A Feeling
Japanese Prisoner Of Love
Barbarian
Get Your Hands Off My Woman
———————
I Believe In A Thing Called Love
Notes:
- First time seeing The Darkness live.
- I was supposed to see The Darkness in Kansas City, MO on May 20, 2020, but it was canceled due to the pandemic.
- Show #4 at this venue; first since June 25, 2021.
Videos:
Review:
To borrow from a prior review… 2020 was going to be a decent year for checking off some of my bucket list bands I haven’t seen live yet. The Darkness, Garbage, and The Rolling Stones were all on my schedule before shit went crazy and the whole touring industry shut down.
Thankfully 2021 gave me an opportunity to finally see Garbage, but the rescheduled date for The Rolling Stones didn’t work out in my favor. On the bucket list, they will remain.
The Darkness made good use of their time during the shutdown. They recorded a brand new album called Motorheart, which was released in November of 2021. They went on tour in the UK after that and in December, they announced a two month tour of the US for March & April of 2022.
They’ve been on my bucket list for damn near 20 years at this point. I first became aware of The Darkness when they opened for Def Leppard on the first UK leg of their X tour in 2003. This young new opening band was getting rave reviews for their live performance and it had me interested in checking them out. They released their debut album Permission To Land in the UK that summer, but it wouldn’t come out in the US until September 2003.
I was a junior in high school from late 2003 to early 2004 and it was one of the words periods of my life. It was an interesting time for me musically, as I was already starting to expand my musical tastes and the shittiniess of the year resulted in me getting into a lot of angsty post-grunge/nu-metal. That anger had to go somewhere.
At the end of that school year, I even tallied up what I considered to be my Top 75 Rock Songs Of Junior Year. It’s horrifying to look through now, as it’s full of bullshit music that fell off my radar very, very quickly. The angsty shit fell off pretty quickly, as my senior year was amazing and I had no use for that type of music. A few bands stayed in my rotation until I graduated, but most were gone in a very short period of time.
Looking back at that list of songs now, one stands out like a sore thumb: “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” by The Darkness. It was ironic that so many of those bands tried to emulate darkness with their music, while the band literally named after it was AC/DC meets glam metal, full of old school guitar riffs and sky high vocals with insanely catchy pop hooks for good measure. I had no idea back then that The Darkness would one day be one of my top 10 favorite bands.
It wasn’t immediate though. The first time I heard any of their music was by complete chance when “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” came blaring through the speakers courtesy of one of our pop stations, 103.7 WDBR. It was unlike anything else on the radio at the time and before the DJ had a chance to say anything, I KNEW it was The Darkness. Sure enough, I was right and I decided on the spot to pick up their debut album.
Permission To Land is an absolute classic album and I recognized that even at the time. I picked up their second album, One Way Ticket To Hell… And Back in 2005 and didn’t enjoy it quite as much. Still, I was disappointed when they dis-banded soon after, and was thrilled when they regrouped in the early 2010’s.
I’ve picked up every subsequent album upon its release, but one thing was still missing… Seeing them live. The band played St. Louis in 2004, when I was a broke McD’s employee/high school student that wasn’t as in the loop about when concerts were happening. Since then, the closest they’ve come on any tour has been Chicago and it has always fallen on a shitty weeknight or when I have other stuff going on.
Things finally seemed to be looking up in 2020 when they announced a tour that included a show in St. Louis… But the date was not going to work because I would have been out of town on a trip with the wife and her family. I felt like I was jinxed. But then as the wife and I got to talking, we put together an alternate plan. The Darkness was due to be playing a show in Kansas City the day before we were to go on the trip to Branson. We could leave a day early, see the show and stay the night in Kansas City, and then drive down to Branson the next day. It was a perfect plan!
Which was then ruined by a pandemic. The show was canceled. Of all my canceled shows in 2020, that was one of the most painful. Not only had I been waiting 17 years to see the band, they were going to be performing their excellent 2019 album Easter Is Cancelled (my second favorite of theirs) in its entirety along with a healthy dose of classics. Missing out on a show is one thing, but I knew that missing out on this particular show was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I would never get back. I’d have future chances to see them, sure… But never again would they be playing Easter Is Cancelled in full.
Ouch.
Thankfully the 2021-2022 Motorheart tour once again included a stop in the St. Louis area, this time at Pop’s in Sauget, IL.
I bought tickets as soon as they went on sale and anxiously awaited the show date.
Finally on April 1, the three and a half month wait had come to an end. As had the nearly two year delay since I was supposed to see them the first time and the 19 year wait to see them at all.
We made sure to arrive at the venue early since it was all general admission and I was determined to get a good spot for my long overdue first time seeing The Darkness. After a 15 minute wait, we were let inside and managed to secure a spot on the balcony so we could enjoy the convenience of a seat (much appreciated in our mid-30’s) and unobstructed view for the entire night.
Had we gotten to see The Darkness in 2020, the opening band would have been The Dead Deads. Surprisingly, they remained on the bill for the 2022 tour as well. I had slacked on checking them out ahead of time, which I would later regret. For the second straight concert, following Plush opening for SMKC in February, the opening band was comprised of all females. Plush won me over as a fan that night and I was curious to see if The Dead Deads would as well.
They hit the stage shortly before 8PM and were heavier than I expected being just a three-piece band. Having looked them up after the fact, it seems they used to have more members but have downsized for some reason. Still, they sounded great.
To give my phone a test, I decided to film the second song and I was glad I did as I really enjoyed it.
The singer greeted the crowd after that, saying “thanks for coming early tonight… Something I haven’t said in awhile…” Which made me laugh. And I wish I would have kept filming for the third song, “Deal With Me,” as I loved it even more.
I was all geared up for them at that point, but then they slowed things down considerably with “Dead Inside,” and it didn’t quite land with me. They picked up the pace after that and I ended up really enjoying them.
Between seeing Plush and The Dead Deads, my daughter will have my full support if she decides to start a band when she gets older. I mean, she always would have… But she will even more now.
Thankfully the changeover between bands was short and The Darkness were ready to hit the stage even earlier than I expected. I’m excited for nearly every concert I attend, but after the pandemic took them all away… Shows have a different feel for me now and some bands, such as Garbage and The Darkness, have brought an extra level of excitement since I’ve had to wait so long to finally experience them live.
Following an extended intro, The Darkness hit the stage and kicked off the show with Motorheart opener “Welcome Tae Glasgae.”
Bassist Frankie Poullain grabbed a cowbell to kick off the second number, “One Way Ticket,” which was one of many highlights on the night and had me smiling from ear to ear.
Since that song runs all the way back to 2005, it really put in perspective how long I’d been waiting for this opportunity.
A feeling that only hit harder with the next song, “Growing On Me.” That was always one of my favorites from Permission To Land and I love it as much now as I did back in 2003. You know, more than half my life ago. Sheesh.
The band lept from the first album to the most recent by playing the title track from last year’s Motorheart, which sounded as good live as anything else the band played on the evening. While Motorheart hasn’t reached the highs for me that its predecessors Pinewood Smile and Easter Is Cancelled did, it’s still a damn good album and I was happy to hear anything from it live.
Two other latter-era classics followed, as they went back to 2015’s Last Of Our Kind for “Open Fire” and then the 2017 Album Of The Year winner Pinewood Smile for “Solid Gold.” Which is my favorite song from that album, so I was glad it made it into the set.
It took a minute for The Darkness to get into “Solid Gold,” as frontman Justin Hawkins had already done so much dancing around the stage that he shredded the setlist that was taped next to his mic stand.
Hawkins addressed the crowd once again after the song, talking about gaining weight during the shutdown and not giving a fuck. So he tossed his shirt aside and got the band started on “Givin’ Up,” another Permission To Land classic.
The third and final new song of the night was “It’s Love, Jim,” which was my favorite of the three that were played. I really wish “Jussy’s Girl” and especially “Speed Of The Nite Time” had made the cut, but that’s ok.
The end solo gave Justin a chance to sneak off stage for a wardrobe change, as he re-emerged in a shiny, frilly leotard ready for the next track “Black Shuck.” Which is one of the best rockers from Permission To Land.
Hawkins gave a shoutout to many members of its crew, all of whom apparently have mustaches. And he cracked a joke about drummer Rufus Taylor just getting his mustache in today. Then a crew member joined the band on acoustic guitar for the lone Easter Is Cancelled song to be featured, “Heart Explodes.” I was happy to have anything from it at all in the set, but hopefully some day I’ll get a chance to see “Choke On It,” “Live Til I Die,” and more from it live.
The most fitting song of the night was, of course, “Friday Night” from Permission To Land. That’s another track that was an early favorite when I got the album back in the day and it always takes me back. As does the semi-ballad “Love Is Only A Feeling” that followed.
The Darkness got right back to rocking Pinewood Smile‘s “Japanese Prisoner Of Love” and Last Of Our Kind‘s “Barbarian,” one of the best songs they’ve ever released.
The main set closed with “Get Your Hands Off My Woman” from Permission To Land.
After a brief encore, the band returned to close the evening with the all-time classic, the song that started it all, “I Believe In A Thing Called Love.”
Of course the song went down a storm, but the entire show was brilliant and well worth the wait. The 90 minute performance was over before I knew it. I really wish it could have gone longer, especially knowing the show I would have seen in 2020 would have been at least 20 songs long.
But again, I was just happy to be seeing the band at all, especially in light of what has transpired over the last two years. The Darkness were fucking amazing and I can’t wait to see them again.
Links:
- Setlist.fm
- The Darkness Concert Statistics
TurnToDust86 