Review: The Darkness cook up 'Hot Cakes' at the Majestic

Brit rockers the Darkness brought their catsuits and scraggly hair to the Majestic Theatre Friday night, and put on a fun, free-spirited, hard-rocking 90-minute show for a hard-partying Detroit crowd.

The band hit the stage and thrust into “Every Inch of You,” the opening song from the band’s 2012 album “Hot Cakes.” It’s a perfect stage-setter for the band — it’s raucous, rude and sublimely ridiculous, just like the Darkness itself. “Black Shuck” and “Growing On Me” — a pair of songs from the band’s 2003 album “Permission to Land” — followed, and the band was off to the races, playing as loud and proud as ever. There were high kicks, big splits, and Justin Hawkins’ piercing falsetto, and the songs sounded as fresh as they did the first time around — especially “Friday Night,” which given the evening was especially timely.

Friday’s show was the Darkness’ second Detroit concert since the band’s 2011 reunion, and it proved the group’s first time around the block — or last year’s Saint Andrew’s Hall show — were no fluke. The band writes killer songs and performs them with pizazz, and the spirit of rock and roll charges through them at all times. They’re goofy, but they can throw down when they need to; just look at the band’s cover of Radiohead’s “Street Spirit (Fade Out),” which shreds in ways Radiohead never dreamed.

Friday’s show ended in typical Darkness fashion, with Hawkins riding through the crowd on the shoulders of one of the band’s crew members. While fun, it’s a gag the band pulled at both last year’s Saint Andrew’s show and at its 2004 Clutch Cargo’s concert, and if there was a downside to Friday’s show, it’s that there didn’t seem to be any new tricks in the bag. The Darkness has proved it can relive the past. The question is, where is it headed in the future?