Photos by Ken Lackner/Review by Jen Hues
The Darkness’ Dreams On Toast tour hit Atlanta on September 2nd, drawing a great crowd for a Tuesday night at The Masquerade in Heaven. Dreams On Toast, released March 28th on Cooking Vinyl, is the band’s 8th studio album and features the singles “Rock and Roll Party Cowboy,” “I Hate Myself,” and “Walking Through Fire.” The album has received critical acclaim for retaining the band’s signature glam rock and face-melting guitars, while also celebrating how The Darkness’ sound has matured over the years since “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” introduced them to the world back in 2003.
The show started with the cheeky “Rock and Roll Party Cowboy,” which lead singer Justin Hawkins has called a satire on rock and roll cliches. The sound was incredible inside the venue, as was the lighting, which rivaled that of a stadium show. Justin Hawkins, along with guitarist Dan Hawkins (his brother), drummer Rufus Taylor, and bassist Frankie Poullain, were straight-up fun to watch on stage, each member of the band giving his own unique energy to the crowd and keeping them engaged. I went into this show only knowing one song, but The Darkness was so captivating, it did not matter that I couldn’t sing along to the majority of the set. After that first song, Justin ripped the setlist from the stage floor and offered it to a lucky fan up front, then changed his mind while laughing, “I don’t want you to know our secrets,” he joked before giving it away.
“Growing On Me” and “Get Your Hands Off My Woman,” from the band’s 2003 debut album Permission to Land kept things going, with Justin milking the crowd and having an absolute blast on stage, doing handstands on the drum kit and leading the audience with hand claps to the beat. During “Walking Through Fire,” he directed fans to turn left and right during the song to “march” along and most of the audience happily complied.
“My Only” changed things up with Taylor leaving his drumset to sing lead on the ballad, while Justin returned to abruptly start singing “The Power of Love” (yes, the Celine Dion song), encouraging the crowd to join him while he showed off his incredible vocal range. The band got back to its own catalog with “Heart Explodes, “Japanese Prisoner of Love,” and the fun “Friday Night,” which had the crowd singing even louder than Justin.
“Can we put the phones down for one song and just be here together in the moment?” Justin asked the audience before the iconic “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” to which the crowd responded with an emphatic yes, only for Justin to stop the song after about 30 seconds to call out one fan. He then told the crowd he’d let them take a photo of him, posing dramatically on stage for a bit before starting the song over and encouraging them to bounce and sing along.
There are so many bands that follow the formula of just getting up on stage and singing while neglecting to engage with their fans, but The Darkness have mastered the art; this is one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen, and again, I only knew one song. The Dreams On Toast tour still has plenty of dates across North America, so do yourself a favor and get out to see this band perform! Get your tickets at the link below.
Buy/Stream Dreams On Toast now!
