Images: The Darkness, RavenEye, Mercy Music April 15, 2016 at the House of Blues

When I arrived at the House of Blues, I could tell the crowd for this show was going to be a bit different than what I’m use to. I felt a bit out of place, not wearing a stitch of animal print clothing. I wasn’t phased though, because I’m sorry – but if you didn’t like The Darkness’ “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” you have no sense of humor or appreciation for fantastically unnecessary shredding.

First off though, I was happy to see that when I looked around, there was actually a pretty decent sized crowd awaiting our local opener, Mercy Music. This was my first time seeing Mercy Music with their new(ish) drummer Rye Martin (shows how much I get out to shows). Their sound has become so solid it’s unreal. The chemistry between lead singer Brendan Scholz and bass player Jarred Cooper is really a show in and of itself. About half way through the set they played a great previously unreleased song, “Sewn Up,” that I had just seen a video for that day. They closed out with an old favorite of mine “Fine,” and Brendan serenaded the crowd with a mind melting solo.

Next up was Raven Eye. They had such a great stage presence, smiling during the entire set like they were having the time of their lives. These guys were seriously channeling Led Zepplin, and they were probably the perfect pick for direct support for The Darkness. Towards the end of their set they got the crowd clapping, and even the drummer came out from behind his set to get everyone going. As the clapping peaked, the bassist crouched down and the guitar player got on his back. They rose from this position and continued the song with guitar player on the bassist’s shoulders while the audience roared. The crowd was more than hyped up for The Darkness.

As the lights came up and the light panels that had been sitting on the stage dormant blasted the venue with light, The Darkness was about to begin. As they walked out on stage I noticed every member had their own unique outfit and style. The next thing I noticed was the lone pineapple on the bass player’s amp. Still not sure what was up with that. They immediately just started tearing through songs. During one of the first few songs those big light panels I had mentioned started flashing words, mostly ones that rhyme with punt and duck.

About midway through their set the singer addressed the crowd and began flicking picks left and right. Justin Hawkins spent a lot of time in between songs heckling people. One man in the crowd was attempting to heckle back, while the singer goofed on him for having a paper bag on his beer, to no avail.

For the last song they were getting the crowd all pumped and asked everyone to start jumping up and down. They then announced if the entire crowd was jumping they would play everyone’s favorite Darkness song. So once everyone in the crowd was bouncing they broke into “I Believe in a Thing Called Love.” They left the stage in a dramatic hurry, and I remember thinking, “that’s the exit of a band who wants an encore.” Surprise! They came back out and played through a few more songs before the lights went out.

Although this wasn’t one of the typical punk shows I’m usually at, it was probably one of the most high energy shows I’ve seen outside of the punk rock world, and I’d definitely see The Darkness if they rolled through town again.

-Anthony Constantine | https://www.facebook.com/anthonycphotography