The Darkness (with Gun), Glasgow O2 ABC

The Darkness
The Darkness (Photo credit: Iain Purdie)

[Full set of Gun pictures / Full set of The Darkness pictures]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Gun live before and I didn’t know they were opening for The Darkness until we arrived and some of the songs sounded familiar. A shame we missed the first half of their set, but sometimes work has to take precedence and the ABC has an early curfew, so…

At least we managed to hear “Word Up“, their most famous single (although admittedly a cover!) rocked out by a cracking bunch of lads playing to a hometown crowd. They deservedly got a good response and left the stage to leave us stood there waiting for The Darkness.

Gun Setlist O2 ABC, Glasgow, Scotland 2012

For Ages.

OK, so I was expecting them on around half past eight. Fifteen minutes after that, the lights went down and “The Boys Are Back In Town” blared out. And kept blaring out. For about two-thirds of its length. Before finally being replaced by an introductory bagpipe-based intro.

Which went on. And on. And on…

Guys – ditch the sodding intro music and play another two songs next time! I suppose we shouldn’t complain so far seeing as Glasgow was the only city to get a headlining performance, the rest of the country having to make do with a support slot in exchange for a £50 Lady Gaga ticket.

Once the Brothers Hawkins, Ed and Frankie finally hit the stage, though, rock and roll hell broke loose for ninety lovely minutes. While the new album is definitely not as good as the first two, the songs from it weren’t bad and didn’t leave the crowd twiddling their thumbs waiting for another older song. Thankfully, all of the classics were present and correct.

There was one guy in front of us who really liked the band, spending the last half of their set going mental. Much to our amusement and the annoyance of those around him he kept knocking into!

While The Darkness will never reach their stadium-filling heights again, they’re great value for a live act. Entertaining, silly, loud, and fun. And, dare I say it, if ever there were a natural successor to Freddy Mercury then it’s Justin Hawkins. Spandex, goofy teeth, high-kicking, energetic, funny and a great vocal range. He should have been on that Queen tour, not some American kid from a dodgy TV show.

As I think I said in my review of their show last year, great to see them back and keeping good, old-fashioned rock and roll alive one show at a time.

The Darkness Setlist O2 ABC, Glasgow, Scotland 2012
Enhanced by Zemanta
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

3 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
trackback
February 10, 2013 9:23 PM

[…] made up for it in September with no fewer than five concerts. The Darkness were touring the UK with Lady Gaga (I know, WTF?) but as the tour wasn’t hitting Scotland […]

trackback
August 1, 2016 9:01 AM

[…] excellent cover of “Word Up” (which they still play live, or at least did when they supported The Darkness back in 2012), they’ll be on stage with The Virginmarys, We Were Hunted and Kieran Robertson on September […]

trackback
September 10, 2016 11:58 AM

[…] pore so that it floats into the audience. Last night was only the third time I’ve seen Gun (opening for The Darkness a couple of years back and the recent acoustic session being the others), but I would be more than […]