Touring ‘Frog in Boiling Water‘, their first album in five years, DIIV brought their thick, slow-dripping sound to life with a set that doubled as a collage of cult consumerism, protest, and digital rot. Across the huge screen behind them, ads flickered like computer viruses: Soul-Net, ExxonMobil, fake slogans, anti-slogans. Aesthetics lifted from American mall culture and scrubbed in technological decay; video footage seemingly pulled straight from the most bland corporate training videos. It wasn’t subtle, and it wasn’t supposed to be.
Opening the night was Eora/Sydney’s post-punk garage band Negative Gears – and if you want to see a set that’s 4D in emotional range, high energy, and dripping with angst, they’re a great place to start.
The mood was heavy, especially in contrast to the Mall Grab DJ set happening simultaneously across the lot. DIIV entered to a recorded introduction from Fred Durst, then a steady stream of prepared guitars, rippling and coiling – four silhouettes that could’ve been lifted from a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 montage. Zachary Cole Smith’s vocals barely rose above the layers, but that’s the point: it’s not about any one element, it’s all immersion.
The set leaned into FIBW, which made sense given its emotional and political weight. ‘Brown Paper Bag’ and ‘Raining On Your Pillow’ hit especially hard live – looming, dissonant, and strangely gentle too. Tracks blurred into each other with no pause beyond the absurd video montages, the spell intact as DIIV kept the fog machine running and the fourth wall firmly in place. At one point, a Free Palestine graphic flashed across the stage. Another moment: direct critique of America. The band never needed to address it out loud.
For long-time fans, there were nods to earlier eras, ‘Deceiver‘ (2019) and ‘Is There Is Are‘ (2016) – recognisable enough to stir the memory centre, but not enough to derail the intentional slow-burn pacing. It wasn’t a greatest hits show in any way; it was a statement piece, and I couldn’t help but feel grateful that they brought this version of their work to Australia in whole. I’ve never seen a crowd look more attentive. They ended with a three-song encore of ‘Raining on Your Pillow’, ‘Horsehead’, and ‘Doused’, before signing off with another Soul-Net ad.
If you are willing to meet them there, it was one of the most beautiful, quietly political, and strangely human sets you could’ve seen all month – a fantastic compliment to the enticingly thoughtful performances that took over Vivid this year, including Anohni and the Johnsons, Ichiko Aoba, and Sigur Rós, just to name a few.
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