Gig played on 08/02/06

For a band whose second album confounded critics and has sold below expectations, you could perhaps expect a sense of regret and penitence from The Darkness tonight, of making amends for their arrogance and starting afresh. Pshaw! Taking a lead from the Aerosmith and KISS live videos aired before their headline set, this is a blaze of glory spectacular with no rock clichés left unexploited. The 20 foot lighting rigs, of which there are five, are shaped like pitchforks. A pair of giant horns envelops Ed's drum kit. Behind him, a vast church organ occupies the centre of the stage. Pyrotechnics and showers of sparks accompany most songs - and Justin Hawkins makes his entrance to "Knockers" while hanging from the ceiling in a boat-sized pair of breasts with flashing nipples.

Welcome, then, to a metal panto par excellence, where even Justin's notable weight-gain (fare thee well, catsuits!) is offered up for public amusement. He unveils his "beergut of fury" (and matching love handles) with pride and an endearing sense of self-deprecation - you'd never get Gene Simmons doing that. Indeed, as Simmons' latest "Rock School" endeavours take him to The Darkness' home town of Lowestoft to craft a passable act from a class of hormonal cretins, Justin takes up his vacated rock god mantle and tweaks it, incorporating a humility absent from the KISS man's emotional caveman repertoire. It extends to stopping his one-man-and-his-piano rendition of "Blind Man" firstly to note the number of people popping to the bar and secondly to suggest they bolt the doors for tomorrow night's repeat performance.

The set opens with a brace of new songs, none of which are lost on the all-ages crowd in attendance, and comprises everything on "One Way Ticket" bar "Girlfriend" and everything from "Permission To Land" except "Stuck In A Rut" and "Holding My Own" - hits out for the lads, in effect. The short but desperately sweet "Friday Night" is the heart of the show, with the oldest swingers in north London twirling in a world of their own, and while the pyrotechnics don't always work in the band's favour - "(BOOM) with the hazel eyes /Ah-eh-ah-eh-ah-eh-ah!" - they're still a remarkable sight in the crappy convention centre atmosphere-vacuum that is Alexandra Palace. The meticulously mic'ed harmonies of the new, Roy Thomas Baker produced album are the first casualty of the venue but as Justin honks out "English Country Garden" on the smoke-spewing organ and takes to the air again for last track "Bald", you swiftly forget any flaws.

The outro music is "Dirty Dancing" anthem "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life", and you can't help but feel the less-than-subtle subtext is as much for the band's benefit as ours. They've got their knockers - no doubt about that - but like the eponymous canine hero of "Black Shuck", The Darkness don't give a f*ck. More firepower to 'em.

by Emma Morgan