The perpetually-on-tour Nashville sextet Diarrhea Planet rolled back into San Francisco on May 27th, with Philly’s Left and Right and NoCal’s Sun Valley Gun Club in tow. Needles to say, it was a heavy, heavy guitar night.
As mentioned, Diarrhea Planet tour A LOT. It feels like it’s been forever since they’ve been in the Bay Area, but their last show here was barely 10 months ago. It’s a wonder they find time to write any new songs. Technically, one would say they’re touring in support of their most recent EP, last year’s Aliens in the Outfield, but it’d be more accurate to say they’re touring in support of the need to rock the fuck out. And without a new album to promote, the setlist was pretty much evenly split between Aliens and their two LPs, plus their now-standard and excellent cover of Baba O’Riley. If DP aren’t the best live band around right now… actually, forget it, let’s just say they’re the best live band in the world right now. It’s a rare thing to find a four-guitar band, and even rarer that every one of those guitars seems completely necessary. Speaking of guitars, just when you thought the band couldn’t rock much harder, singer/guitarist Jordan Smith added a Flying V, bringing him ever closer to achieving full Axel Steel-ness.
While it’s great for the band that they’re headlining bigger rooms like The Independent, their live show seemed to surfer a bit from the spread out crowd and the lack of rickety stacks of speakers for the members to climb on. This was also the first Diarrhea Planet show I’ve seen completely devoid of crowd surfing, both by the crowd and the band. Let’s chalk it up to the crowd, as the band seemed as energetic as ever.
Three Match Breeze 