Despite this being the band’s 19th show in 14 days (yea, you read that right!), its members were all in good spirits and full of energy. Brit Daniels and Dan Boeckner bounced around the stage taking turns behind the microphone. The two laughed and smiled like young musicians thrilled to be performing on stage for the first time. They, however, are rock veterans and their entertaining and domineering stage presence showed that.
Drummer Sam Brown was so rock steady that he was hardly noticed in the back. Never missing a beat and providing that strong rhythmic foundation to every song.
Despite being a relatively new band, fans already knew the words to half their songs. “My Love is Real” and “Would That Not Be Nice” were obviously favorites and garnered some serious sing-a-long-ing. The former was especially exciting as Boeckner abandoned his guitar to put all his energy & focus into belting out the lyrics to the crowd.
As is often the case for bands with only one album under their belts, they played several covers in addition to their own material. A killer rendition of Frank Ocean’s “Lost”, a fitting tribute to Rolling Stones with “Sway” and a moving show closer in Rowland Howard’s “Shivers” (made famous by Nick Cave and also found on their album).
Supergroups come (always with a lot of hype) and go (often very quickly) but this is one that will stick around. There are obviously not egos butting heads and the members each have a very evident passion for making and performing great music. That is a recipe for success and we can’t way for the NEXT thing called Divine Fits.
*** Merge Records is putting A Thing Called Divine Fits on sale today for 25% off the regular price at the Merge store for 24 hours (starting at 12pm EST). Enter code 25OFF at check out.
Divine Fits – “My Love is Real”
[youtube id=Y7ToJdWmntc showinfo=0]Divine Fits – “Baby Get Worse”
[youtube id=6MaKO4HFk6Y showinfo=0]Divine Fits & Bradford Cox – “53rd & 3rd” (Ramones)
[youtube id=TWfDzZwHg3Y showinfo=0]Setlist
- Neopolitans
- Baby Get Worse
- The Salton Sea
- Flaggin a Ride
- What Gets You Alone
- Civilian Stripes
- Lost (Frank Ocean cover)
- My Love Is Real
- Lucky
- Like Ice Cream
- Would That Not Be Nice
- For Your Heart
Encore:
- 53rd & 3rd (Ramones cover w/ Bradford Cox)
- Sway (The Rolling Stones cover)
- Shivers (Rowland S. Howard/Nick Cave cover)