On the second leg of a pretty huge tour supporting their second album ‘Is The Is Are’, DIIV took a stronghold of Camden’s Electric Ballroom for an evening of shoegazing, krautrocking madness.
Opening up with the atmospheric Druun Pt II, DIIV ascended into a complete dream of a set. Following on we were greeted to the quadruple hit of Under The Sun, Human, How Long Have You Known? and Dopamine before requests from the crowd for rarely played track Air Conditioning off debut ‘Oshin’.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_9uS39YHyQ&w=720&h=422]
The NYC dreamboats seemed to really be enjoying themselves also, with the energy they were giving off resonating with the audience, making for a wholly mental show. In a bid for more interaction, lead singer Zach Cole Smith took to asking the crowd what songs they wanted to hear, and duly launched into Bent (Roi’s Song) at their request.
In between slating the newspaper The Guardian for stigmatising his drug use, Zach continued to question the crowd on what songs they wanted to hear, responding with a trio of tracks from ‘Is The Is Are’, including Mire (Grant’s Song), Incarnate Devil, and potentially the most beautiful live song; Healthy Moon.
Continuing on with their Oshin-heavy set, DIIV launched into a sinister rendition of title track Oshin (Subsume), before the atmospherically mind bending Dust, Waste Of Breath and Take Your Time from their sophomore album. Pure krautrock action was to come with the set up of Follow & Sometime providing sheer shoegazing dreaminess.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI79GPXAICM&w=720&h=422]
Edging closer toward the end of their main set, we were thrown into a thunderous rendition of Doused, for which the crowd were absolutely rabid. Back on stage after cheers and screams for an encore, we were given dream pop at its most supreme level as DIIV launched into Past Lives and Wait to make for a near on paradisiacal evening, with the band on top form.
Holed up in the Electric Ballroom, DIIV found that perfect mixture of a setlist with tracks fans can go crazy to nestled in with ones you can sway and lose yourself in.
An absolute dream.
Words by Jasmin Robinson