I think The Darkness may have ruined every other concert experience I will have in the future - they were legendary.
I lined up for The Darkness about 45 mins before the doors opened and was 100m from the door. By the time the doors opened, the line went down Roe St, along Milligan St, and up back around James Street - more than 400 metres. I helped my sister cut into where I was in the line (I hate people who do that 
) and we managed to get seats on the balcony directly above centrestage. The view was awesome.
I’d seen the Darkness at Big Day Out ‘04 and they were my favourite performance that day, but this was something else again. Metro City was packed with obvious fans who hung on every note of the show and would sing along perfectly when Justin Hawkins tried to get the audience involved.
I was worried to hear that the band had kicked out bassist Frankie, but the new bass player Richie more than made up for the loss and even took center stage for a couple of AC/DC covers - in fact, the beginning of Thunderstruck that segued into a Darkness song was the highlight of the night for me.
The music was highly polished - I didn’t think they’d be able to get the same sound as their albums into a live performance. Justin’s banter with the crowd was excellent - he involved us in the show, rather than just shouting out nonsense like “It’s great to be here in [insert venue city here]” like other bands do. There were a lot of humourous moments too, like playing different tunes between songs, such as Van Halen’s Jump.
The Darkness themselves were impressed with the show. Their lead-guitarist Dan Hawkin’s tour diary said of the perth gig - “The whole show was one big highlight”, “our favourite place to tour in the world”, and “the crowd were the loudest we’ve ever encountered “.
