DIIV by Shervin Lainez
Beyond what might or might not be a generous paycheck and the ephemeral prospect of “exposure,” opening for an arena act seems a thankless job. Audiences are at best uninterested, arriving late and gabbing during your set. At worst they’re openly hostile, booing and jeering that the opener is not who they paid a fortune to see.
And so last October when DIIV handled warmup for Depeche Mode at the Kaseya Center in Miami, it was impressive to see how the band approached their opener status for a legendary band whose music couldn’t be more different from their own. DIIV just didn’t give a fuck. They played their dreamy, effects-pedal-heavy brand of shoegaze for 30 minutes as though it was just another show, completely indifferent that no one in the gargantuan arena was there to see them. They were just there to make beautiful music. Whether it was a basement rehearsal or thousands of people clad in black waiting for “Enjoy the Silence” seemed to make no difference to them.
The four-piece began in Brooklyn in 2011 with the more spellcheck friendly name of Dive. Over the ensuing thirteen years they put out a quartet of dream fuzz albums that seemed to drink from the same well of inspiration as My Bloody Valentine and Lush, with androgynous vocals backed by dense melodic instrumentation.
Their newest collection of songs, Frog in Boiling Water, is a concept album in the tradition of Radiohead’s OK Computer or Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Its through line is a world going to hell and a population largely blinded by capitalism and self-involvement to the increasing state of emergency. The album’s first video, for “Brown Paper Bag,” features a mock Saturday Night Live performance with DIIV introduced by Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst, of all people, followed by a mock commercial of a company called Soul Net, also the title of a new song.
DIIV will bring this music and worldview to more intimate settings where, as headliners, they should have the audience’s full attention.
DIIV, Horse Jumper of Love and Dutch Interior play 8pm Sunday, July 21 at Revolution Live. diiv.net ~ David Rolland
