Saturday night England’s The Darkness kicked off their twenty-eight date North American Dreams on Toast tour at The Pageant in St. Louis. The tour runs till November twenty-second in Denver, CO at Summit Music Hall. The band consists of Justin Hawkins on vocals and guitar, his brother Dan Hawkins on guitar and backing vocals, Frankie Poullain on bass guitar and backing vocals, and Rufus Taylor on drums and backing vocals. The band is on tour in support of their eighth album Dreams on Toast that was released back in March. This was the first show that Mark Daly and The Ravens have played in the U.S. and was drummer Kyle Hughes first show with the band as their previous drummer quit right before the tour.

The Darkness kicked things off with ‘Rock and Roll Party Cowboy‘ off their new album Dreams on Toast. The band followed up with fan favorite ‘Get Your Hands Off My Woman‘ with some crowd interaction and sing along. Frontman Justin Hawkins did a little back and forth with the crowd harmonizing with them and saying you cant do that with autotune. Justin knows keep the crowd entertained. Whether or not he was telling stories of playing the blues in Chicago with their touring guitarist several pints into a bender, standing on his head and clapping with his legs, or doing his best David Lee Roth flying splits he knows how to work the crowd. He even had the crowd face one way during the song ‘Walking Through Fire‘ and pretend to walk in that direction. After ‘Givin’ Up’ Hawkins told the crowed that he would not be singing the next song. He paused for a minute and then said that is the part that you are all supposed to boo and then repeated it to a thundering boo from the crowd. Instead drummer Rufus Taylor came out and sang ‘My Only‘ while the bands drum tech filled in on drums. It reminded me of the times I have seen the Foo Fighters and drummer Taylor Hawkins would come out and sing a song or two. The band closed out the set with ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love‘ the third single from their debut studio album, Permission to Land. The band came out for a one song encore of ‘I Hate Myself’.

Mark Daly