Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Friday 13 March 2020
Reviewer : Grant Ottley
Photographer : Adam Sivewright
Dateline Friday the 13th, with Corona Craziness, and toilet paper madness sweeping the world, I was wondering if this gig would even go ahead tonight.
But now that The PM has drawn the line in the sand and shut everything down from Monday, we get one last weekend of rock & roll before we hunker down & wait for it all to blow over. The Darkness ‘Easter is Cancelled’ tour certainly has a lot more significance to it now than when it was announced.
I’d not heard of The Southern River Band before, but the boys from Thornlie in WA seem to be making a bit of noise with a string of high profile supports culminating in a national run with The Darkness. Singer Cal Kramer comes across as a bastard offspring of Bon Scott & Suzi Quatro… raised on Aerosmith.
Like all great frontmen, you feel like you want to punch him when he first comes on, but by the end of the set, he’s won you over. If I had a nit to pick, it would be that the rest of the band (who do a great job by the way), look like they’ve just come from work, while the singer is an out & out Rock Star!
But with songs like ‘Cigarettes (Ain’t helping me none)’ , ‘Second Best’, and the “Herbert F#king Shookespeare” approved (© Cal Kramer) ‘Chasing after love (I‘ll burn a hole in your shoe) , The Little Southern River Band sure leave a lot of the crowd talking about them once they’re done.
The Darkness are back in Australia! It seemed at one stage, after they originally burst on to the scene and then equally spectacularly imploded, that we wouldn’t see them back here again, but a sold out Enmore attests to the fact that these guys have a great fanbase out here, and even with ‘virus paranoia spreading faster than the actual bug, the fact that the venue was still full was really heartening.
The set was split into two parts, the first half was the Easter is Cancelled album in full, and the second was a selection of previous hits. To call the new album ‘ambitious’ is probably an understatement, this was underlined by umpteen guitar changes during the first song ‘Rock and Roll deserves to die’ alone. This song, and ‘Heart Explodes’ are probably the picks from the album, and were also the highlights from the first half of the set. If anyone needed reminding, Justin Hawkins proves himself an out & out Guitar Hero, and even though technical issues had him swapping his trademark White Les Pauls multiple times in just about every song, he reminded everyone just how much flash he has in his playing.
In the second set, the band had changed from their all white outfits to more regular clothing, Dan Hawkins in his obligatory Thin Lizzy t-shirt, and Justin in his ‘Supré’ Catsuit (looking more like 70’s Steven Tyler with every passing year). Kicking off with ‘One Way Ticket’, introduced with a Frankie Poullain Cowbell intro, we also get my personal favourite, ‘Growing on me’, ‘Japanese Prisoner of Love’ from 2017’s Pinewood Smile, a phones in the air ‘Love is only a feeling’, Dan Hawkins’ favourite riff to play ‘Giving up’, before finishing with ‘Get your hands off my woman’ with a Freddie-esque call & response on the last high “mother F….”
The encore of ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ with Cal Kramer guesting, was a great way to end, sending the crowd off on a high. If this is your last gig for a while, then is was a good way to go out.
THE DARKNESS
SOUTHERN RIVER BAND
