Concert Review - The Darkness and The Dead Deads at The House of Blues Las Vegas on March 10th, 2022
Las Vegas, NV - On Thursday, March 10th, 2022 the British rock band The Darkness came to The House of Blues Las Vegas for a night of scorching guitars, blaring vocals, and thumping bass and drums that rocked the crowd from start to finish.
The first thing I can say about The Darkness is that they are 100% committed to make every show a full-blown interactive experience complete with a 90-minute strip tease from lead singer Justin Hawkins.
If you are unfamiliar with The Darkness, you have probably heard their eponymous song “I Believe In a Thing Called Love” which came out in 2002 (and then re-released to mass appeal in 2003) and has been featured on several different commercials, video games, and soundtracks. The music video is very much a testament as to what you get with The Darkness as well.
I myself have always liked their music, but I have to admit that I am not a hardcore fan. So, while I have listened to several songs and a couple of albums relatively frequently, I haven’t listened to all their albums by any means.
I mention that to say that even though I wasn’t a hardcore fan, I still THOROUGHLY enjoyed every minute of the concert (aside from the drunken scuffle that almost took place before Hawkins diffused the situation and jokingly…somewhat…stated that he would come down and beat everyone in the audience up if they didn’t calm down).
The band rolled through many of their hits from past albums, and they played a decent number of songs off their new album Motorheart including “It’s Love, Jim,” “Motorheart,” and opening with “Welcome Tae Glasgae” to name a few.
The Darkness have a wild ride over their history including rehab for Hawkins (Justin), a long hiatus, side projects, members coming and going, and a reunion of the original 4 members for a period of time.
Since 2015, the band has been consisting of the same 4 members (3 original members Justin and Dan Hawkins, bassist Frankie Poullain and the son of legendary Queen drummer Roger Taylor, Rufus Taylor on drums.
They have made 3 albums in this time, but the newest release seems to really be driving more and more attention back to the band as it is one of their best albums yet.
I won’t spoil all the antics that the band has up their sleeves, but let’s just say that between the banter, the wardrobe changes, the theatrics and the music, you will NOT be disappointed in any show that you ever go to see with The Darkness involved.
I give the highest of recommendations to go check them out while you still have the chance!
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Supporting act: The Dead Deads
The Dead Deads are a Nashville-based, all female rock band that is supporting The Darkness on their North American tour, and let me tell you they do one hell of a job.
This band came out and rocked pretty damn hard for about 6 or 7 songs with ferocity. They even covered a song by Pink Floyd from The Wall (“In The Flesh?”), but they change it up to make it a more party/concert friendly song as the point of the original was to alienate and patronize the fans of Pink Floyd.
The lyrics are changed to say “If I’d have my way, I’d buy all of you shots!” (with a few other tweaks to remove some racial slurs).
The other songs they played were fantastic and had great polish to their sound.
Songs like, “Deal With Me,” “In For Blood,” and “Push Me” you get a lot of rock, a lot of great timing, and some great lyrical depth (and some fun songs to listen to as well).]
If you get a chance to see The Dead Deads, I would definitely say it is worth the price of admission.