PHOTOS: The Darkness And Foxy Shazam At Metro
By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 16, 2012 5:00PM
The Darkness is one of those bands wholly unafraid to embrace the excesses of rock and/or roll. The high theater of the ridiculous is a tightrope they walk with panache. And they drink deeply from the cup of spectacle. Their songs are rooted in an earlier era; a time where men in catsuits stalked the earth the guitars were big, the bass was rumbling, the drums were thunderous and the vocal harmonies scaled epic peaks to poke through the heavens.
And yes, it can all look a little ridiculous. And when the band stumbles, as they did on the subpar follow-up to their excellent debut album Permission To Land, it's not pretty and people will get hurt. The band itself took years to recover but now they've regrouped, ready to reach for the stratosphere again. And judging by their show last Saturday at Metro they're in perfect form and confident of returning to the land of epic songs. The band took through crowd through a monster set and the new songs held up admirably next to the familiar classics, if songs less than ten years old can be called classics (and in The Darkness' case we argue they can be). This tour could have been a victory lap for a band that was once on top but instead it proved that The Darkness is truly back and are hell-bent on a successful return to the altar of rock and/or roll.
If The Darkness are kings of rawk than openers Foxy Shazam are its princelings. Their latest, The Church of Rock and Roll, is a tight collection tunes unafraid to mine punk, glam, metal and whatever else they can get their hands on and mold it into an androgynous ball of pumping swagger. Live, the band elevates the songs to a new degree as the entire band bounces around the stage, somersaulting between each other and never, ever taking a break for even a single breath throughout the entire show. It's a joy to behold.
Foxy Shazam is back in town to play Subterranean on April 7. Tickets are on sale Friday at 10 a.m.