The Darkness Brings Rock ‘n’ Roll Spectacle to Austin: Photos

The Darkness brought their Dreams on Toast tour to Austin, Texas on Saturday, delivering an electrifying rock ‘n’ roll spectacle that reasserted their status as one of the best purveyors of killer riffs and arena-sized hooks in the business.

You can see our exclusive photos from the show below.

The Darkness kicked off their nearly two-hour set with “Rock and Roll Party Cowboy,” the opening track off their new album Dreams on Toast. Frontman Justin Hawkins leaned into the aesthetic, donning a red western shirt and cowboy hat as he prowled the stage and fired off sizzling riffs and fleet-fingered solos from his low-slung guitar.

The set drew most heavily from Dreams on Toast and the band’s star-making debut album, Permission to Land. If Hawkins is bothered by the fact that a 22-year-old album still eclipses the rest of the Darkness’ discography in terms of popularity, he didn’t show it on Saturday. On the contrary, he acknowledged it with a wink and a smile.

“This one is for the people over there who have only listened to the first record,” Hawkins said before launching into “Givin’ Up.” “And I love that. That first record paid for my house — and my Porsche.”

READ MORE: Justin Hawkins on the Darkness’ Early Days: ‘It Was Pandemonium’

The Darkness got to have their cake and eat it too on Saturday at Emo’s, a roughly 1,700-capacity club that could house the band’s supersized light show while still allowing them to interact directly with the audience. Hawkins relished the opportunity, repeatedly teasing Jeffrey Osborne’s “On the Wings of Love” and borrowing a Members Only jacket from an audience member near the stage.

This mixture of tightness and looseness, of seriously unserious shredding, has been the Darkness’ calling card for more than two decades now. They’ve got the guts to be camp and the chops to melt faces, blending the blunt-force riffage of AC/DC with the larger-than-life theatrics of Queen. The audience ate it up on Saturday, (mostly) obliging Hawkins when he ordered them to put their phones away and jump during “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” and indulging the frontman during a mellow mid-set interlude that morphed into a climactic cover of Jennifer Rush’s “The Power of Love.”

The Darkness made headlines a couple months ago when Justin and guitarist Dan Hawkins criticized Yungblud‘s performance at the MTV VMAs’ Ozzy Osbourne tribute as inauthentic. Some people interpreted the brothers’ feedback as a bitter, jealous outburst — but truth be told, if anyone’s fit to offer feedback on the state of live rock ‘n’ roll, it’s these guys. Love ’em or hate ’em, they’re the real deal, delivering hard rock histrionics with tongue-in-cheek flair, a tightrope act few of their peers have been able to pull off.

Or, as the bloke behind me in the bathroom line succinctly put it: “He’s the best frontman in rock ‘n’ roll.”