DIIV returned to Philadelphia for the first time since opening for Depeche Mode last fall, bringing with them songs from their incredible newest album, “Frog In Boiling Water”. DIIV had previously played Underground Arts before the pandemic, so making the step to Union Transfer has been eagerly awaited by fans, as the band has been on a meteoric rise lately, playing huge tours across both Europe and the US, as well as headed to South America this fall.
Full Body 2 kicked off the show, a Philadelphia experimental outfit that has been making waves lately in the local scene and well beyond. Their perfect blend of dreamy, ethereal, cascading walls of sound conjures up both nostalgic memories and dreams of the future. Sounds of times past and sounds of the future combine into a new aesthetic that escapes genre, but fans of shoegaze and vaporwave would be highly encouraged to listen. Jack’s bombastic drumming, Dylan’s hypnotic guitar swirls, and Cassidy’s entrancing basslines and intertwining vocal play are pioneering new sonic territory with every release they’ve put out, and their newest, “Infinity Signature” provides a perfect jumping-off point to immerse yourself into the world of Full Body 2. To add to the hypnotic factor, the band has a full light rig behind them that draws you into their dream-like energy in both sound and flashing rainbow light. FB2 is currently making stops in Sweden and the UK, proving that fans worldwide have a thirst for new shoegaze-adjacent sounds that tickle a certain itch. Boston’s Horse Jumper of Love took the stage next, with their unique take on the shoegaze genre. Frontman Dimitri Giannopoulos invites you into their reflective world that is full of crescendoes up and down. Slow, acoustic, and melancholic at times, and intense and churning at other times. Heavy and gentle combine into a beautiful mixture that combines indie-rock and shoegaze into their signature blend that is unmistakably HJOL. Dimitri’s introspective and poetic lyrics and beautiful melodies along with the sounds of the rest of the band create something memorable that sticks with you.
Lastly, Diiv triumphantly took the stage, but not before exhibiting some of their comedic-yet-unsettling cult-like videos in the promotion of “Frog in Boiling Water”. In the promotion of their newest album, the band has created a whole world of mystique and lore and a ridiculously complicated website akin to alternative reality games like Cicada 3301 or guerrilla marketing campaigns. They then took the stage and started with the first track from Frog in Boiling Water, “In Amber”, a song that echoes the sounds of the classic DIIV we all know and love. Frontman Zachary Cole Smith’s dreamy vocals draw you in as guitarist Andrew Bailey’s animated guitar playing and hypnotic riffs entrance you into a shoegaze swirl of hauntingly beautiful melodies. Ben Newman’s pulsating and passionate drumming mix with Colin Caulfield’s thunderous baselines provide the backline that really solidifies DIIV as titans of the newest resurgence of shoegaze in the past decade or so. Their newest fourth album will be remembered as an instant classic for years to come like their first album “Oshin” was in 2012. The band even played some staples from that first album, like “Doused” and “Sometime”. Their set also features two cuts from their landmark second album “Is the Is Are”, as they treated fans to old favorite tracks “Take Your Time” and “Under the Sun”. Staples of DIIV’s set from their third album, “Deceiver” were played, too, with the set ending with other fan-favorite tracks, “Blankenship” and “Acheron”. After a roaring applause, the band came back out for an encore to play 3 more tracks and ended with the classic Deceiver track, “Horsehead”. Its hypnotizing, grungy guitar tones, catchy melodies, and dreamy vocals really cement DIIV as a powerhouse of the genre and will continue to captivate audiences worldwide now and for years to come.
DIIV
Horse Jumper of Love
Full Body 2
