DIIV and The Paranoyds played a SOLD OUT show last week at Gasa Gasa. The two bands were quite different to say the least, but still managed to pull off a solid show.
The Paranoyds are an all-girl garage punk band from Los Angeles, CA, headed up by model-turned-singer/guitarist/bassist Staz Lindes. Towards the end of their set, Lindes switched from guitar to bass and finished off the rest of the evening that way. The power punk band amped up the audience and served as a great opener.
DIIV (Dive) hail from NYC and formed in 2011. They are an alternative shoegaze band that seem to me to be a combination of Sonic Youth and New Order. Their name was taken from the Nirvana “Dive,” but the band chose to stylize the name, as there was most likely another band out there with the same name. Showing love for their inspiration, lead singer and guitarist Zachary Cole Smith took to the stage wearing a Nirvana shirt and a Beach Fossils hat (a band he once played guitar with).
The rest of the band includes Andrew Bailey (guitar), Devin Ruben Perez (bass), Colin Caulfield (keyboards, guitar) and Ben Newman (drums). The band has released two albums, their debut Oshin in 2012, as well as this year’s sophomore effort Is the Is Are after a prolonged and anxious development period. The set was pretty much split between the two albums. At one point near the end of the set Smith jokingly asked for requests. Having only two studio albums doesn’t give a band much wiggle room, but they still managed to have a great time. While it nice that they introduced almost every song, the inclusion of “We’re DIIV and we’re from New York” grew a bit tiresome. The joke didn’t pan out past the first few songs.
DIIV has gone through some tough times and to say that I was happy to see them would be a major understatement. I was just happy to see they managed to get through their turmoil to play live again. It really could have been one of those “I wish I could have seen” moments, much like the Nirvana shirt Smith was wearing. It was truly a great show and the Bowery knocked another one out of the park.
