The Masquerade in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, opened their September slate of concerts on Tuesday night with the return of British rockers The Darkness. Out on the road in support of their eighth studio album released back in March, this was just the fourth stop on the band’s Dreams on Toast 2025 Tour, which had opening act Mark Daly & The Ravens in tow. Established in 1989, The Masquerade provides a unique concert venue experience, offering up four different indoor rooms which can handle a wide variety of capacities, individually named Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and Alter. The largest general admission venue space, Heaven, played host to the evening’s live event (as it did back in April 2022).
With the clock slowly approaching 8:00pm, the house lights went dark to welcome Irish rocker Mark Daly to the stage. Otherwise known as The Ravens, Daly’s touring band was rounded out by James Brown (guitar), Kyle Hughes (drums), Cillian Plummer (guitar), and Jack Ross (bass). As a piece of musical trivia, Brown, Plummer and Ross are also part of Geoff Tate’s (former Queensryche lead singer) touring group, which happened to be how I last caught Daly live back in January 2023.
Opening with his latest funky and punchy rock single “This Is Love,” Daly delivered an 8-song set that highlighted his continued growth as a talented songwriter. Just a year removed from his latest album, Devil’s Arm (2024), the band featured four songs pulled from that release, including the title track, “Better Off Alone,” “Brighter Days,” and “I Wanna Be More.” However, it was the recently released banger “Superhero” that really stood out to me. Daly & The Ravens were a solid musical choice for an opening act, and their active stage presence clearly amped up the early audience in advance of the headliners.
Mark Daly & The Ravens
Mark Daly – Lead vocals, guitar
Jack Ross – Bass
James Brown – Lead guitar, backing vocals
Kyle Hughes – Drums
Cillian Plummer – Rhythm guitar
Setlist:
1.) This Is Love
2.) Devil’s Arms
3.) Better Off Alone
4.) Brighter Days
5.) Crazy
6.) Superhero
7.) I Wanna Be More
8.) Don’t Look Back
Following the completion of the equipment turn, The Darkness’s large logoed backdrop was lit up around 9:00pm to signify the pending stage appearance of the band from Britain. With brother Dan Hawkins (guitar), Frankie Poullain (bass), and Rufus “Tiger” Taylor (drums, and son of Queen drummer Roger Taylor) casually taking their positions to immediate excitement in front of the Atlanta crowd, Justin Hawkins (lead vocals/guitar) arrived, grabbed his Atkin axe and launched the group into “Rock and Roll Party Cowboy” from their latest release, Dreams on Toast (March 2025).
If you’ve never been to a Darkness concert, you don’t know what you are missing. I have friends that like to claim the band is a semi-campy cross between Queen and AC/DC, which is a description that might be hard to debate, but in the end they are simply a fun rock and roll contingent that is unduplicated and unmatched in its creativity and showmanship. With a touring focus highlighting their latest release, the flamboyant 50-year-old Justin Hawkins lead the band through energetic performances (including a drum riser headstand) of additional newer tracks from Dreams on Toast in “Mortal Dread,” “Walking Through Fire,” and “The Longest Kiss” sprinkled throughout their pre-encore set.
The Darkness has maintained a dedicated and adoring fan base since their debut studio album Permission to Land hit back in 2003, and the band never fails to celebrate that affection. With Justin Hawkins’ ever-present falsetto at its core, The Darkness mixed in “Get Your Hands Off My Woman,” “Growing on Me,” “Love Is Only a Feeling,” “Givin’ Up,” and “Friday Night” from that lovable first release. Not to be overlooked, the band also handed the mic over to Taylor for “My Only” mid-set (a bonus track to Dreams on Toast), as well as including the infectious “Barbarian” from 2015’s The Last of Our Kind.
However, it was the commercially successful favorite “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” from Permission to Land that capped off the band’s enthusiastic main setlist. Just prior, Justin Hawkins did encourage the audience to “put down their cell phones” and just “be in the moment” before “playing their best song,” to which he stopped their performance twice early on to call out a few fans that didn’t listen, all with a big grin on his face. Then following a few minute break, The Darkness reappeared on stage for a one song encore, which was a return to Dreams on Toast with the track “I Hate Myself.”
The Dreams on Toast 2025 Tour is scheduled to run in two segments, concluding its initial run on Sunday, September 21st, in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Agora Theatre and Ballroom. The tour will then resume on Friday, November 7th, in Houston, Texas, at the Warehouse Live Midtown, before wrapping up on Saturday, November 22nd, in Denver, Colorado, at the Summit Music Hall.
The Darkness
Justin Hawkins – Lead vocals, lead guitar
Dan Hawkins – Rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Frankie Poullain – Bass, backing vocals
Rufus Tiger Taylor – Drums, backing vocals
Setlist:
1.) Rock and Roll Party Cowboy
2.) Growing On Me
3.) Get Your Hands Off My Woman
4.) Mortal Dread
5.) Motorheart
6.) Walking Through Fire
7.) Barbarian
8.) Love Is Only a Feeling
9.) Givin’ Up
10.) My Only (sung by Rufus Taylor)
11.) Heart Explodes
12.) The Longest Kiss
13.) Friday Night
14.) Japanese Prisoner of Love
15.) I Believe in a Thing Called Love
Encore
16.) I Hate Myself
Follow Mark Daly Online
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Elliott is a music photographer covering shows in Atlanta, Georgia, and the surrounding area. The highlight of his photography career was back in the early ’90s, when he sold Neil Diamond the rights to his negatives from a show and then purchased a set of tires for his 1979 280ZX during college with the money.