Concert Review: The Darkness at Emo’s, Austin: UK rockers brought riffs, falsettos and wisecracks with bombastic set off their Tour De Prance tour.

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If you regularly peruse entertainment sites, you’ll read a lot of naysayers speaking of rock and roll being on the decline. But no one who was at Emo’s last night would agree–as we all witnessed that hard rock is still very much alive.

Openers Diarrhea Planet boast both an unfortunate moniker and four guitarists (because, why not?). The SXSW darlings were warmly received, tying eardrums in knots with their carefully orchestrated guitar cacophony.

The Nashville sextet were all smiles–fitting given they were opening for a band who buck the trend of the scowling rock star.

The Darkness arrived in their expected splendor, with frontman Justin Hawkins rocking a leopard print pant-suit. They blasted off into overdrive with The Cult’ish opener Open Fire, before launching into Permission to Land power ballad Love is Only A Feeling, followed shortly after by that album’s AC/DC’ish bruiser Black Shuck.

The setlist largely pulled from that 2003 début, from expected hits like Get Your Hands Off My Woman and Growing On Me to deep-cuts including the expletive laden addiction anthem Givin’ Up (my personal favorite) and the wistful ballad Friday Night.

The band also highlighted several tracks off last year’s release Pinewood Smile, including the single All The Pretty Girls, the stomping Buccaneers of Hispaniola (perhaps their heaviest song to date) and Solid Gold (featuring the chuckle-inducing chorus: and we’re never gonna stop shitting out solid gold).

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Fans hoping for any selections off the group’s oft-overlooked sophomore album One Way Ticket…To Hell and Back were left with only the title track. Likewise the only inclusion from their 2012 comeback album Hot Cakes was the stomping Every Inch of You. Barbarians (off 2015’s Last of Our Kind) was another crowd pleaser, with Hawkins’ impossibly high falsetto cutting through the din like a razor blade.

Throughout the set Hawkins was his usual court jester self, all smiles, banter, leaps and hand stands, and, at one point, riding a security guard’s shoulders throughout the crowd.

He also directed the audience into mirroring his high-pitched wails (my throat is killing me as a result), and improvising a game of throwing guitar picks (or “plectrum” in his Brit parlance) to stick on bald fan’s heads.

The group returned for an encore with Hawkins, bassist Frankie Poullain and drummer Rufus Taylor (son of Queen’s Roger Taylor) all clad in soccer shorts emblazoned with the Texas flag (straight-laced rhythm guitarist Dan Hawkins abstained), blasting a triple song attack including Pinewood Smile tune Japanese Prisoner of Love, and beatific renditions of I Believe in a Thing Called Love and Love on the Rocks.

The crowd left with ringing ears and wide grins (or pinewood smiles, as it were) as the Dirty Dancing anthem (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life) played over the monitors. That pretty much sums it up, because if you leave a Darkness show in any less than a jubilant mood, you need professional help.

Darkness Emo’s Set List:

Open Fire
Love Is Only a Feeling
Southern Trains
Black Shuck
One Way Ticket
Givin’ Up
All the Pretty Girls
Barbarian
Buccaneers of Hispaniola
Friday Night
Every Inch of You
Solid Gold
Stuck in a Rut
Get Your Hands Off My Woman
Growing on Me

Encore:
Japanese Prisoner of Love
I Believe in a Thing Called Love
Love on the Rocks With No Ice