Diamond Rugs is a supergroup consisting of a handful of artists ranging in diverse musical backgrounds that blend together amazingly. The band is John McCauley and Robbie Crowell of Deer Tick, Ian St. Pé of The Black Lips, Hardy Morris of Dead Confederate, Bryan Dufresne of Six Finger Satellite and Steve Berlin of Los Lobos. Contrived from genres including punk, grunge, indie-rock, alt-country, cowpunk, and synth-based post-hardcore, Diamond Rugs is a rare ensemble that weaves their atypical sound into a seamless high energy rager of a show.
About halfway through the tour following the release of their sophomore album “Cosmetics”, Diamond Rugs ripped their way through the midwest with an amazing performance at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall. The evening started off well with support from opening acts Justin Collins and New Madrid. Collins, an emerging artist on the Nashville scene and producer of several John McCauley albums from Deer Tick and Middle Brother, was well accustomed to the scene and welcomed the accumulating crowd with a dreamy, psychedelic voice and Lo-fi psych-rock of a true and unpretentious sound. His music is stripped of anything unnecessary and reflects a flowing psychedelic sound of early Velvet Underground. The crowd filed in, grabbed their beers and began to connect with the night.
New Madrid, a young experimental psych-rock group from Athens, Georgia followed Collins for the second set. Their smooth, psychedelic riffs accompanied spacey and airy vocals creating a feeling of euphoria. New Madrid, who have been described as “a dynamic mixture of underwater psych-rock”, released their sophomore album Sunswimmer in 2014 and played several tunes for the Lincoln Hall show. While many of their songs are low tempo and groovy, there was just enough relation to the evenings general motif of sound to keep the crowd pumped for the feature of the evening, Diamond Rugs.
The mixed crowd of hipsters, rockers, punks and regular joes filled in with just enough space to raise a beer to the lips without the worry of bumping and spilling. Anticipation rose as a few D.Rugs members plugged in and did some final tuning. Then, it was on. Loud cheers, hoots n hollers and fists pumped through the air of Lincoln Hall. To get the ball rolling was a new tune Voodoo Doll. The deep swinging sax and punk rhythm immediately got the crowd rolling and moving in closer to the stage. This song is truly the epitome of this band as it holds true to every band members influence. The second song, Give Me A Beer, seemed to be a perfect fit, for the punk was heavy and the party was on.
The multi-genre selection of songs continued to unfold with Couldn’t Help It, a more swinging and 50’s rock influenced song and Live And Shout It, a kind of rockabilly alt-country tune. Then to follow was a brief story of a man castrating himself which seemed be a bit of background to the dark and horn heavy song, Motel Room. The band raged on alternating through sounds of punk, grunge and country-rock. Country Mile started out as slow alt-country and morphed into a deep, almost metal sound. The band gripped their instruments tight and hammered on the keys, string, sax and drums. McCauleys face grew into a resemblance of demonic possession and everyone, including the crowd, thrashed. The end of the set resulted in an onstage malay accompanied by front row headbangers and fists punching through the air. To close the night, Collins joined the band and sang his sad and sorrowful tune, Totally Lonely, which features Diamond Rugs on his 2014 album Home, Boy. Following was a rockin’ crowd sing along Killin’ Time and final encore of the night, Christmas In a Chinese Restaurant.
Diamond Rugs is nothing more than a bunch of buddies, who happen to be badass musicians, having a blast on stage. One could only imagine that the recording of their album “Cosmetics” was impromptu, improvised and most of all, fun. Each member of the band presents their strong points in musical influence and combines them into something gritty and raw. They are still going strong on tour and have several more stops to make. If the chance is there, don’t miss it.
Remaining Tour Dates:
APR 8 Cleveland Heights, OH Grog Shop
APR 10 Washington, DC Black Cat
APR 11 Brooklyn, ny Brooklyn Bowl
MAY 4 Austin, tx The Belmont
MAY 5 Dallas, TX Gas Monkey
MAY 7 Nashville, TN Mercy Lounge
MAY 8 Athens, GA 40 Watt Club
MAY 9 Atlanta, GA Shaky Knees Music Festival
MAY 10 Atlanta, GA Shaky Knees Music Festival
