A month before ZIRP! lands, DIIV brings A.G. Cook’s production to Town Ballroom in Buffalo — and if “The Fountain” is any indication, they are pushing into territory they have not mapped before without losing the shoegaze grain that made Deceiver a landmark for the form.
About the Show
Smith formed DIIV in 2011 after playing with Soft Black and Beach Fossils, pulling from shoegaze, Krautrock, C-86, and the Malian guitar tradition alongside the more obvious My Bloody Valentine and Nirvana thread, a combination that has always given the band more range than their peers. The Brooklyn-based quartet (Smith, guitarist Andrew Bailey, bassist and vocalist Colin Caulfield, and drummer Ben Newman) issued Deceiver in 2019 and watched it become a touchstone for what shoegaze sounded like going into a new decade. Their 2024 follow-up Frog in Boiling Water extended the reach; ZIRP! goes further.
For ZIRP!, due October 30 via Fantasy Recordings, the band brought in A.G. Cook, who came in with a specific method. He insisted on recording live drums before most songs were even finished, leaned on intricate guitar parts and specific pedals, and kept computer work to a minimum. “I became obsessed with their live sound,” he said. The result Cook calls “a utopian, dystopian mantra”: thematically knotted around zero interest rate policies, Palantir, societal breakdown, and streaming culture; music for what the band describes as the age of “a VC-funded super deluxe remixed AI-enhanced algorithmically perfected” industry. Lead single “The Fountain” arrives with what Consequence described as “sprawl and squall” paired with a “jolting rhythmic guitar section that has arena-filling potential.” Second single “Kid,” whose video was shot partly by Smith’s son Roy, continues the preview.
The September 30 show is the second date of a brief headline run (the band plays Brooklyn on September 29) before DIIV joins Interpol for North American dates running through October 17. Support comes from voyeur.
Venue & Logistics
Town Ballroom at 681 S. Main Street has been the steady room for national acts passing through the western New York circuit — standing room only, which matters for a band that makes records where the layers don’t resolve until they’re right on top of you. Doors at 7 p.m. Ages 12 and up; anyone under 16 must be accompanied by a parent. Government-issued ID required.
Tickets
Tickets start at $37.87. Buy tickets