Photo Gallery: The Darkness at Park West • Chicago

Brassneck | April 1, 2022

The Darkness
Park West
Chicago, IL
March 30, 2022

Recap and photos by Curt Baran

When The Darkness debuted in 2003, they set off an are-they-are-they-not-sincere debate. Their Glam-Rock compositions were so over the top, it was hard to distinguish between flattery and parody. Fortunately, the one thing that was never in doubt was that once they hit the floorboards, the legitimacy of their live performances was never in question. To coincide with their latest release, the British quartet’s same-named “Motorheart” tour touched down at the acoustically pristine Park West and proceeded to shake the normally buttoned-up shutters of Chicago’s surrounding Lincoln Park. It’s rumored that days later, singer Justin Hawkins’ impossible falsetto was still reverberating through the brick-paved alleyways. Nashville-based trio The Dead Deads stepped on their distortion pedals repeatedly to help set up the evening’s raucous tone.