The Darkness

The Darkness 3/9/22

MY 300TH POST!!!

The Darkness were originally set to stop in San Diego on 4/24/20 to promote the Easter Is Cancelled album but that whole pandemic thing happened…so in a way this was a make-up date for that show. It sucked the original show was cancelled but the fact that they were playing at one of my favorite places to see a concert in San Diego, they now had an even newer album less than four months old to promote (Motorheart) and this was the first date of the tour more than made it up for the delay. I had only seen them one other time back in 2015 so what was two more years anyway?

Bob and I entered the venue in time to see most of opening set from The Dead Deads, a no-frills band of three ladies that rocked. The super snarling guitar tone didn’t hurt anything as far as I’m concerned.

For whatever reason this show was not overly crowded so after the Dead Deads, Bob and I posted up fairly close to the stage right in the center and had plenty of breathing room. The Darkness were simply fantastic. These guys ARE rock and roll – the look, the swagger, the chops. Though I was bummed they only played one song from the Easter Is Cancelled album that I grew very fond of I have to respect the fact that they went full steam ahead with four tracks from the newer album. Even more impressively they ended up playing seven of the 10 songs from their debut Permission to Land.

Bob made the comment that every song felt like a grand finale and I think that is part of what makes this band so special. They are built to rock large stadiums but put in the same effort even for a smaller venue like this. Justin Hawkins and his three full costume changes (if you can call his last outfit of hat and undies an outfit) kept jumping off the drum riser at the end of nearly every song but I was never prepared to take the perfect picture of him doing so while doing the splits ala vintage Steven Tyler or David Lee Roth. Rock ‘N’ Roll is supposed to be dangerous and loud but these guys remind you that when the right band comes along it can also be a hell of a lot of fun.

SETLIST: Welcome Tae Glasgae, One Way Ticket, Growing On Me, Motorheart, Open Fire, Sticky Situations, Givin’ Up, It’s Love Jim, Black Shuck, Heart Explodes, Friday Night, Love Is Only A Feeling, Japanese Prisoner Of Love, Solid Gold, Barbarian, Get Your Hands Off My Woman, I Believe In A Thing Called Love

Coronavirus Concert Casualties

Gatherings of 250 people became officially banned in San Diego as of March 13th, 2020. Nationwide lockdown followed shortly after. The list of concerts below are the ones I intended to attend that have been impacted (so far):

3/13/20 Local H @ Belly Up – RESCHEDULED to 10/10/20 – Local H was set to open for Soul Asylum in support of their album Lifers that was about to drop on 4/10/20

UPDATE 4/24: Local H decided to let fans on their Facebook page vote on an entire album from their catalog for them to play live from their “bunker” in Chicago. The album that received the most votes was Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles? and they livestreamed their performance on both Facebook and YouTube. I would have paid good money to see this live so this was quite a treat as the first livestream concert I ever watched. The picture quality was better on Facebook but the sound was better on YouTube. HHH

3/28/20 Rage Against the Machine @ Pan American Center, Las Cruces, NM – POSTPONED – Before Rage announced a full tour there were originally only five shows scheduled: El Paso, TX, Las Cruces, NM, Phoenix, AZ and as the headliner for both weekends of Coachella. I had no interest in going to Coachella due to the expense and “scene” that I am very much not a part of so Phoenix was the logical choice due knowing people that live there and distance but New Mexico was on a Saturday. That was enough reason for a group of us to decide that a trip was in order.

UPDATE 5/1: The rescheduled tour dates have arrived and it looks like I will not be seeing Rage Against the Machine until May 2021!

4/4/20 Loudermilk @ The Uptown Theatre, Richland, WA – POSTPONED – This was to be the first time I had been “home” in over nine years and with The Ladybird Unition set to open it was going to be like I was 17 years old all over again.

4/13/20 Pearl Jam @ Viejas Arena (SDSU) – POSTPONED – Pearl Jam was one of the first bands that decided to halt their tour. This was to be only my second time seeing Pearl Jam and ironically at the same place that I saw them the first time. This tour was slated in support of the new album Gigaton released on 3/27/20.

4/24/20 The Darkness @ Observatory – POSTPONED – The Darkness was set to tour for their newest effort Easter Is Cancelled, which turned out to be a prophetic title.

UPDATE 5/15: CANCELLED – Well Poop2

5/8/20 The Rolling Stones @SDCCU Stadium – POSTPONED – This was to be the second time I had the pleasure of seeing the Stones. As a bonus this was going to be the opening night of the tour within walking distance of my place on a Friday…

5/22/20 System of a Down, Korn, Faith No More and Helmet @ Banc of California Stadium – POSTPONED – This was a one-off concert in L.A. that had such high demand that a second show was added.

SOAD

UPDATE 5/22: RESCHEDULED – This event will now happen on the same date in 2021 as if this year never happened at all. SKFH

6/10 Styx @ San Diego County Fair – CANCELLED – This was set to be my second time seeing Styx but the show and better yet the entire county fair for 2020 was cancelled.

7/12 The Black Keys @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – CANCELLED – This was to be my third time seeing these Ohio natives. Good thing I was able to see the beginning of the “Let’s Rock” tour back in November.
7/19 Incubus and 311 @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – CANCELLED – Two bands that I like on the same bill is always a treat. I guess this would instead fall under the category of trick.
7/23 Motley Crue @ Petco Park – ??? – On May 1st Motley Crue released a statement saying “Our goal is to have an official update to everyone by June 1 outlining exactly how we will proceed.” All signs are pointing towards an inevitable postponement/cancellation.

UPDATE 6/1: POSTPONED – Shocking! Motley

7/24 Weezer/Green Day @ Petco Park – POSTPONED – What was to be a rare concert on a Friday night is no more…until 2021
7/30 Ministry @ House of Blues San Diego – RESCHEDULED – There is a website called bandsintown.com that I am on the email list for and this was how I learned that the Ministry show got rescheduled to April 29, 2021. Hopefully Uncle Al is still around.
8/1 Primus and Wolfmother @ Open Air Theatre – POSTPONED – This was going to be a unique show with Primus undertaking the task of replicating Rush’s 1977 classic album A Farewell To Kings. I was also looking forward to seeing the entire Wolfmother performance after the last one got cut short.
8/8 Guns N’ Roses @ Sofi Stadium – POSTPONED – This was going to be my second time seeing GNR and first time visiting the new gazillion dollar monolith stadium in L.A. where the Rams and Chargers will play.
9/1 Disturbed @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – POSTPONED – This tour was to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of the debut album The Sickness, which now seems like an even more apt title.
10/9-10/11 Aftershock Festival @ Discovery Park, Sacramento – CANCELLED – See you in 2021!

11/1 Aaron Lewis and Sully Erna @ Del Mar Fairgrounds – CANCELLED – Just when I thought I was going to get some sort of live music even this got cancelled…

The Darkness 10/9/15

FINALLY! This band came onto my radar when my cousin Earl showed me the video for “I Believe In a Thing Called Love” back when their first album came out. It had me in a fit of laughter because it was one of the most ridiculous videos I have ever seen but musically speaking this band was good. Just how good was confirmed when I bought the first album and I had wanted to see them ever since then but it was never in the cards until now. Pomona is roughly a two hour drive from San Diego so Bob, Ken and I decided to make the trip. At the last minute Ken said he was going to drive himself because he could not get off of work soon enough but Bob and I received a text on our drive up that he was not going to make it after all…his loss. After a few hours of fun Friday traffic we arrived. We needed beer and food so I walked down the road for beer and then decided to order a pizza. I later found out that I ordered a pizza from the wrong Pizza Hut when I went to pick it up. On my drive across town to the correct Pizza Hut I got a frantic call from Bob that he had lost his wallet. Long story short I got the pizza and found his wallet in my car. Disaster averted. After a quick puff of the good stuff (my first time in almost a month due to a pre-employment drug test) we were off. Neither Bob or I had ever been to this venue and I must say it was AWESOME. Super small and intimate with great sound. The show was not as packed as I would have expected but I was glad to have more breathing room than usual.

The Darkness had a DJ as an opener but I’ve been to enough concerts to know when to time things so we can get right to it. Just enough time to get a beer, listen to their pre-concert music “The Boys are Back in Town” by Thin Lizzy and here they come. SIDENOTE: nobody told us that we had to find the “ID checker guy” before we could get a beer. Instead we waited for a bartender to take our order and then found out. Seems like it may have been easier for the guy checking our ID to get our will-call ticket to just give us a wristband but I digress…The Darkness were touring for their fourth album Last of Our Kind which was released at the end of May. They opened with the song “Barbarian” which was fitting since it had been stuck in my head for about a week. This band KILLED IT. They had the energy of an arena rock show in a small place. Total pros and tight as shit. The dual Les Paul’s through Marshall stacks sounded fantastic against the rhythm section. Though I’m not sure of the exact setlist in the order they played everything, I can tell you they played nearly the entire first album by the end of the night and the rest of the songs were a nice mix from the other three albums including a cover of Radiohead’s “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” and one of my favorite songs off the new album called “Roaring Waters.” The most surprising moment for me came when they played a super amped up version of “English Country Garden” with singer/guitarist Justin Hawkins behind a keyboard. It was truly magical. It was also pretty damn cool that Justin rode around the floor on the shoulders of a guy whilst playing his guitar during “Love on the Rocks With No Ice” near the end of the show. AWESOME.

Check out the link to this guy’s review for video footage: http://metalsludge.tv/1-way-tix-to-hell-in-the-heat-the-darkness-live-review-at-glass-house-pomona-calif/