Article and photos by Wendy Podmenik Woodell

NORFOLK, VA– When a show has incredible energy, killer music and brings joy, concert goers leave with smiles on their faces and a great buzz- and The Darkness delivered in Norfolk, VA. In the midst of their first leg of their North American tour promoting March album release Dreams on Toast, The Darkness proved they deserve the crown as one of the best live shows around.

The Darkness blew into the rock scene in 2000, with brothers Justin and Taylor Hawkins handling vocals and guitar, and the band currently includes Frankie Poullain on bass with Rufus Taylor handling the drum kit. Their debut studio album Permission to Land planted them right in the spotlight with the release of the catchy single “I Believe in a Thing Called Love”, which has had enduring worldwide success.

Justin Hawkins’ incredible five octave vocal range continues to be flawless, as impressive as his physically demanding stage antics. He made multiple jumps, kicks and pick tosses with a constant audience engagement, and performed an actual headstand on the drum riser. Glam rockers that they all are, in flared pants, scarves and glittering boots, The Darkness doesn’t take everything too seriously…but they are indeed serious musicians. Their social media posts are also all in good fun, creative and great to watch.

The set list of the evening was interspersed with quick snippets of covers, sliding in some Warren Zevon “Lawyers, Guns and Money”, Van Halen’s “Jump”, even some Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, and Led Zeppelin. Musically, at times the performance was playful, teasingly delivering interpretations of their hits as ballads, reggae, or doing different vocal effects before easing into the original.

The evening started with one of the tracks from their newest album release, “Rock and Roll Party Cowboy”, and it’s a banger.

Audience participation is one of the core facets of a Darkness concert, and Justin Hawkins is the choreographer and conductor, as he had the Norfolk crowd dancing in step together, singing key lyrics and catching his guitar picks- and everyone had a ball. The band obviously had just a great of a time onstage, too. The full set totaled 17 songs (2 as the encore), pulling an impressive 7 songs from Dreams on Toast, attributing to the strength of the album- as listeners were dancing and singing along to the newest material with ease and familiarity.

The first leg of the tour concludes on November 22^nd in Denver and picks back up in February. For full tour information, please visit https://www.thedarknesslive.com/.