The Darkness at Club Nokia on 10/24

Last Wednesday, I took off my heavy metal blinders and ventured to Club Nokia to see The Darkness perform. I really like their music, especially Justin Hawkin's screeching vocals, but I wasn't sure what to expect from a live show. Fortunately, the show was hellaciously awesome and blew away all of my expectations!

Maybe you don't like The Darkness because you think they don't take themselves seriously enough as musicians, but my response to that would be that you take yourself too seriously. Like a lot of glam bands and hair metal, The Darkness' musicianship gets over looked because of the band's silly, over the top glam style and the fact that they're not really "heavy". But that doesn't mean that these guys don't know how to shred! Everything I saw Wednesday night demonstrated that they can and do play guitar (and bass and drums) very well. If I had to make a comparison, I'd say that the Hawkins brothers' guitar style is little reminiscent of AC/DC's Angus Young. Maybe it's not full of sweep picking but it's original, competent, and respectable. And when Justin Hawkins plays a solo, it's still an impressive guitar solo.

Even if you're a super serious metalhead, you have to admit that it would be nice to see mainstream rock go more in this direction than the horrendous path it's taken towards DJ point 'n click music that's composed on a Mac or PC. I hope that more bands like The Darkness, Gypsyhawk, and Scorpion Child can start to gain momentum in the popular and alternative music realms because a hard rock and glam revival is just what this world needs. It's more palatable to the generic masses than thrash metal and it's genuinely good music. Who knows? Maybe The Darkness fans of today will become the Accept and 3 Inches of Blood fans of tomorrow?

Steel Panther at The House of Blues Every Monday

Here's a possible scenario for you: 

Maybe you love going to metal concerts but you hate comedy clubs. And maybe you have a friend who's one of those "comedy club people" who would rather go listen to people tell jokes than see a totally bitchin' metal concert (I know, it sounds unbelievable but it happens). Well, I have the perfection solution for your hang-out hang-ups:  if you and your friend both go see Steel Panther you will both somehow miraculously agree that you witnessed a killer show full of heavy metal shredding and raunchy jokes! 

I saw these guys perform on Monday night at the House of Blues and (just like the last four times I've seen them) they definitely blew away the expectations of everyone in attendance. All jokes aside, these guys rule! Steel Panther is singly-handedly keeping glam metal alive and well on the Sunset Strip by fully embracing and owning the comedy of the hairspray-spandex era. Songs titles like "Just Like Tiger Woods" and "Asian Hooker" consistently keep every audience shocked and laughing while guitar player Satchel's undeniably impressive guitar skills keep any skeptical metalheads fully engaged and impressed by the music. This is not a show for the pious, though. The humor is definitely R rated and so are the occasional displays of nudity by the random drunk women who crawl onto the stage. Whatever, I just go for the music.

The next event on my concert calendar is The Glory Stompers on Friday, September 7th, at The House of Blues.