LIVE: THE DARKNESS + RAGEFLOWER – Fremantle | Walyalup, 4 March 2026

LIVE: THE DARKNESS + RAGEFLOWER – Fremantle | Walyalup, 4 March 2026
Metropolis Fremantle, Western Australia
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
Photography by Damien Crocker

Music matters. No matter how terrible your day or week, put the right record on and you’ll start to heal. That goes quadruply so for live music. The power of your favourite songs or favourite bands are enormous, and there aren’t too many chest beating, adrenalin stirring, good time ensuring outfits as infallible and reliable as The Darkness.

Sydney songwriter Madeleine Powers and her band Rageflower open proceedings and capture attention immediately. They’re very good and pretty eclectic – some songs rock, some are dreamier or almost shoegazey, some are more delicate, some hint at a country groove. It’s an assured and cool set that put Rageflower on a lot of people’s radar in the same way that The Darkness taking Southern River Band around the country in 2022 helped up their profile.

Then it was time for The Darkness to rev the sardine-packed Metro Freo up to eleven. They open with recent single Rock n’ Roll Party Cowboy, literally everyone present clapping, whooping and stomping from the off.

Growing On Me and Get Your Hands Off My Woman go off, reiterating what we already knew: debut album Permission To Land is their finest piece of work, and tonight they’ll feature six shows from that record – though, strangely, not a single one from overblown and snowblind follow-up One Way Ticket To Hell… And Back.

The presence of an equal six tracks from latest album Dreams On Toast – plus a smattering of other tracks – rarely lower the energy levels and prove that their first record is far from the only thing to define them.

Heavily tattooed, falsetto wunderkind frontman Justin Hawkins delivers eloquent spiels in between songs – early on he declares the band “so grateful… we can make these memories together,” does a handstand, gloats to the crowd, “you’re mine now!” Another time he bemoans photographers “sticking their lenses in my face and pissing me off” and aims a playful kick at 100% ROCK’s camera, seemingly amusing himself no end.

Walking Through Fire comes complete with ‘walking’ choreography that takes almost as long as the song to teach the crowd to follow; bassist Frankie Poullain looks dapper and uber cool throughout in a white suit and sunnies; guitarist Dan Hawkins pogos and riffs relentlessly; drummer Rufus Tiger Taylor is as fierce on the kit as his Dad Roger Taylor (who plays in a little up n’ coming outfit called Queen, in case you didn’t know).

Barbarian and Love Is Only A Feeling all but blow the roof off the joint, the band basically conquering Vikings by this stage, while Taylor sings My Only – it’s no I’m In Love With My Car, but it’s sweet and almost has a doo wop feel. Heart Explodes is another favourite from more recent album Easter Is Cancelled.

The only flat moment is a rather overwrought and maudlin cover of Jennifer Rush’s The Power Of Love which isn’t all bad as it provided ample time for a toilet break.

Every other song amplifies the party atmosphere, and the slide towards home base is fun, indeed: The Longest Kiss, Friday Night, Japanese Prisoner Of Love – and Hawkins shows ample humility when he admits that he mistakenly threw a table tennis bat he’d used as a guitar slide into the crowd that belonged to a lady in the front row. He profusely thanked the audience member who sent it back to the front and to the equally thankful owner.

The main set concludes with possibly the hugest moment of the night: I Believe In A Thing Called Love. Well, after a slow and jazzy intro, but when the real riff kicks in the energy, temperature and sweat in the room go through the roof.

“Welcome to the second half of the show” Hawkins teases when they return for a short encore of I Hate Myself (plus a little of Led Zeppelin’s Heartbreaker) – but not before he jokingly sings the chorus of Louis Armstrong’s We Have All The Time In The World.

It’s an inspired show, much beloved of the all-but-full house, and yes – all vestiges of any pre-gig bad mood erased, such is the power of this band of rock n’ roll party cowboys.

Setlist – The Darkness:
Rock and Roll Party Cowboy
Growing on Me
Get Your Hands Off My Woman
Mortal Dread
Motorheart
Walking Through Fire
Barbarian
Love Is Only a Feeling
Givin’ Up
My Only
Heart Explodes
The Power of Love
The Longest Kiss
Friday Night
Japanese Prisoner of Love
I Believe in a Thing Called Love

Encore:
I Hate Myself

Setlist – Rageflower:
Hands On
Sign Of Life
Hot Glue
Somebody New
I Don’t Believe In Love
Push Pin
Angel Things
Kerosene
Desk Job

Category: Live Reviews, Photo Galleries