In 2003 i was lucky enough to play Austin’s SxSW festival. Our show was fine, but the real highlight of that festival is the chance to see new and up and coming bands from all genres. It’s typical for an Austin bar to do theme nights during the festival, and one was doing All British Night. Fancying myself an anglophile i was completely excited! Would i hear the new Smiths?! Or the new Clash?! Or even the new Blur?! Nope. What i heard was familiar yet foreign to my personal tastes and i couldn’t get enough. The new Queen was more like it, long before the other Queen-ophiles like Mika, and before Muse stopped trying to be Radiohead and started to imitate Freddie et al, there was The Darkness…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRYNYb30nxU]
Half of the crowd loved it while the other half didn’t know what was going on. I was somewhere in the middle. I liked it, but i was confused as it was totally unexpected. Later that year they finally released their debut album in the states and the race was on. It seemed to me that it was ok to like if it was ironic, but no one could quite tell if it was a joke or if The Darkness were serious! It turns out that it was serious, with the tongue pressed firmly inside the cheek. Whatever it was, it didn’t last, but it sure was fun while it did…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YMrDE8SW4s]
Tony
Media Producer
PlayNetwork, Inc.
