THE DARKNESS W/THE DEAD DEADS 4/8/22 AT BROOKLYN BOWL NASHVILLE

There’s a reason that Brooklyn Bowl was named the best new concert venue in Nashville for 2022. From the incredible light and sound system, the amazing food and drinks, the spectacular staff, and the fact that you can bowl while jamming out to your favorite bands, Brooklyn Bowl has it all! The 1200 capacity venue was packed to the brim on Friday night in anticipation of The Darkness’ Motorheart 2022 tour.

Opening up for The Darkness was Nashville’s own The Dead Deads, who are backing The Darkness for the entire 2022 tour, it just so happens this show was on their home turf. It’s easy to see why The Dead Deads have such a loyal following. The all-female trio brings an eclectic mix of all sorts of musical genres and packages it conveniently into one hard-hitting, in-your-face sound that is truly their own. Scanning the crowd it was clear to see that their fans, known as The Dead Corps, were out in full force to support their hometown favorites. They opened with “Thinkers and Preyers” off of the 2021 album Tell Your Girls It’s Alright and got the crowd ready to go. Next up was “Ghosts” from 2018’s Sketches and Animations, followed by my personal favorite of the night, their rendition of Pink Floyd’s In The Flesh, leading directly into their own title “Push Me”. They closed the night off with “Nope” off of the 2014 album Rainbeau and ended the night with a bang, leaving the crowd wanting more, the perfect compliment of the night to come.As the crowd started to gather and jockey for position for the main event, you could feel the excitement in the room.

The Darkness has a fan base that is second to none as I soon realized after chatting it up with a few fans. Hailing from England, The Darkness consists of Justin Hawkins (lead vocals, guitar), his brother Dan Hawkins (guitar, production, backing vocals), Frankie Poullain (bass, backing vocals), and Rufus Taylor (drums, backing vocals), the son of the legendary drummer for Queen, Roger Taylor. They draw their musical inspiration from bands such as Aerosmith, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, and most notably Queen, with a sound and feel of a classic rock and roll band. To compare them to any of those bands would be a disservice to their creative genius though, delivering a sincerely unique sound that can only be labeled as Rock and Roll.
Promoting their 7^th studio album Motorheart, The band is currently on a 34 date North American tour, with a stop here in Music City this past Friday, April 8^th. They opened the show with the song “Welcome Tae Glasgae” off of their new album, and quickly got the crowd moving with its fast beat and heavy guitar riff. They played 2 more songs off of the new album throughout the night, including “It’s Love, Jim” and the title track “MotorHeart”, all seemingly instant favorites for the crowd.

As the show progressed, singer Justin Hawkins became a Rock God on stage, jumping, dancing, wailing, and interacting with the crowd, only stopping the action briefly between songs to change into one of his many flamboyant outfits. What is a rock show without the proper uniform after all? During mid-show, they started to roll into the fan favorites such as “Solid Gold”, off of the album Pinewood Smile, as well as some of their more popular songs from the critically acclaimed and multiplatinum 2003 debut album Permission To Land. Hits such as “Growing on Me”, “Get Your Hands off My Woman”, Black Shuck”, Friday Night”, and “Love Is Only a Feeling” kept the crowd engaged as they absorbed the intense energy and passion that the band unleashed. As the show came to a close, they played my personal favorite of the set, “Barbarian”, from Last of Our Kind. Afterward, singer Justin Hawkins addressed the crowd, stating that Nashville is not necessarily a lot of bands’ favorite place to play, considering the number of musicians in the city, it has come to be known that we can be somewhat judgmental. Rest assured that is not the case, as he gave thanks and praise to the crowd for an amazing night. As they left the stage, everyone knew what was coming next. Bassist Frankie Poullain emerged to chants of “Darkness!, “Darkness!”, and went into an astounding display of synthesized bass, rubbing his strings up and down the microphone and creating an eerie effect as the rest of the band appeared to finish off the night with an encore of “I Believe in a Thing Called Love”. The crowd went wild and bounced up in down in unison at the direction of Justin. With the tour coming to an end in two weeks, if you can manage to catch them in a city near you, definitely check them out, They are truthfully one of the best live acts out there. Gimme a “D!”, Gimme an “arkness!”

THE DARKNESS

THE DEAD DEADS