skoosh

Went to watch these guys last night after becoming a fan of both studio albums, have to say that they were bloody excellent live, better than I'd hoped and the vocals were top notch and as per album.

Support bands excellent too - THE ARK, swedish theatre rock with superb backing vocals and JULIETTE & THE LICKS, sort of punkish feel and never new the actress had sooooo much energy.

The Darkness were superb as a live act although a few too many pyrotechnics for my liking to the point that they lost the wow factor with them. "I believe in a thing called love" was awesome, don't ever remember bouncing that much to a band ever.

Anybody else go along......?

Si.

SupaMiniCupa

I went to the last show at the NEC (believe they're playing again tonight, once was enough though), and had a great time!

Especially watching Ash, who supported.

RJMS

iTrader: (2)

I was there last night - they were good - but TBH I enjoyed the last time I saw them (at Wembley late 2004) a bit more. I think the problem is that the new album is so much better quality production wise it is harder to reproduce live. I was also very claose to the front and my left ear has still not recovered from the onslaught!

Thought the audience as a whole were a bit "flat", we saw Oasis on Monday and the whole experince was that much better I'm afraid. Which is not to say that I would not go and see them again - I've been a bit spoilt over the last few weeks having seen the Darkness, Oasis, Goldfrapp and Babyshambles, all good gigs but for different reasons.

djuk

Off to the NEC to see them tonight, sounds like it'll be a good show

SD

Saw them in Brighton on Wednesday night. Gotta say it was the wife who booked the tickets as she was the one who wanted to see them. After seeing them at Reading Festival in 2004 I've got to say it just confirmed for me that I don't like 'em. Agree about the overuse of pyros and yes they do put on a show but for me there's not enough tune and too much inaudible lyrics. Oh, and the support band were fecking awful. Couldn't wait for the lights to come up again.

Simon

_RIP_

Dont rate them myself. Personal taste though, but I've seen far better (real?) rock bands over the years. Good on them I suppose, as there are very few groups like this about now.

Les H

I saw them at Brighton on wednesday and I have to say I thought they were excellent. That was the fourth time I have seen them and they delivered a great show each time. I did notice that the crowd was a little flat though but I put that down to Brighton centre being such a crap souless venue.

Too many folk seen to write them off as a bit of a joke which is so wrong. Catch them live if you ever get the chance.

skoosh

I must partially agree, I've been lucky enough to see Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Metallica etc etc......but got to admit that for energy and enthusiasm these guys were on a par with all of the above.

The Darkness are probably one of the very few hard-rock bands that still believe in what they do, and do it well live, aswell as having a very tongue-in-cheek attitude that so many rock stars take too seriously. Quite surprised at the heaviness of the live show and thorougly enjoyed the night.

Si.

SD

Hmmm, I agree that it was a crap venue. About the crowd though - the biggest cheers they got were when they started to play the opening bars of Jump (Van Halen) and similar. That did get my interest!

We've got the albums and I'd have to say Permission to Land is the better, but still don't really rate them. Can't blame them for trying though.

Simon

djuk

I thought they were absolutely fantastic last night at Birmingham. Wasn't entirely sure on 'The Ark' but Juliette and the licks had bags of energy which got the crowd warmed up.

Justin's entrance on a giant pair of breasts suspended from the ceiling was a bit of a laugh to start things too

Great show all in all, we were about 10 people from the front of the stage so the atmosphere was energetic, hot and sweaty, and a real buzz. The other thing which was nice compared to other 'big' live bands was the amount of stage time they actually played, there just seemed to be no end to the performance.