For a chaser in between D.R.I. episodes Nik and Keefy unbox and review a ton of new records they have been buying!
Tag Archives: Justin Hawkins
The Darkness – Jennie Vee: Live at The House of Blues, Boston
Sunday Funday turned into Girls Night Out over the weekend when one of my best friends and I ventured into Boston to catch The Darkness. Everyone knows that you can’t have a real GNO without British men in tight pants…Or British men in no pants, as we would soon discover.
The only opening band was Jennie Vee. They sounded like something that you would hear in a coming of age teen movie. It would probably star Ellen Page or something. It was your typical pop rock, nothing groundbreaking or shocking. There was no way that they were going to be able to compare to the energy of The Darkness. Someone else might more interested in them than I was, their music just didn’t move me.
I had not seen The Darkness since the Hot Cakes (Wind-Up) tour, where they played a small venue called The Paradise. That show had been absolutely insane and I had mixed feelings about them playing the House of Blues; I was glad that there was such a demand for them but I am also very selfish and like keeping bands to myself in tiny venues. Mine! Anyway, the boys opened their set with ‘Barbarian’ off of their latest record, The Last of Our Kind (Canary Dwarf Limited), before switching gears with one of my personal favorites; ‘Growing on Me’. You can bet I sang every word. Three other tracks off the new album appeared in the set, including; ‘Mudslide,’ ‘Roaring Waters,’ and ‘Open Fire’.
I got lucky with a few other favorites of mine in ‘Every Inch of You’ and an extra long version ‘Love on the Rocks with No Ice’ complete with crowd interaction and another round of Justin-Rides-a-Fan in which Justin Hawkins plays guitar atop a tall crowd member as they make their way through the audience. Always amusing. Speaking of amusing, shout out to whoever kept demanding that Justin take his pants off because he definitely did. Go you, anonymous audience member!
So, there you have it, British men in tight pants, British men in no pants, it was a party. Listen, I might live and die by stoner rock and the 90’s, but I love the big hair and men in tight pants that come with glam rock. I will never apologize for that (much to my editor’s dismay).
WORDS BY ALEIDA LA LLAVE
The Darkness Recruit New Drummer, New Album Due In March
The Darkness
Emily Dolan Davies
The Darkness have recruited Emily Dolan Davies (Bryan Ferry, Tricky) as their new drummer, replacing Ed Graham, who left the band in late 2014, due to health and personal issues. The band has just completed recording its new album, tentatively titled Cliffhanger, for a March 2015 release via Wind-Up.
Davies, who has previously worked with Bryan Ferry and Tricky, has “revitalized” THE DARKNESS, according to frontman Justin Hawkins. “She’s a hard hitter,” he tells UK’s Classic Rock magazine. “She’s got the chops and the attitude that you need to be THE DARKNESS’s drummer. She also makes us feel like dirty old men.”
Regarding THE DARKNESS’s split with founding member Graham in late 2014, Hawkins says: “Ed has had some well-publicized health problems in the past. And for one reason or another, he wasn’t capable of doing his job anymore. We’re still friends with Ed. But now that we have Emily in the band, the worry is gone.”