I confess, I thought this was going to be the weirdest goddamn venue when I got in — something about sitting for an entire concert is a wee foreign to me. That, and the fact that it felt as if there was barely anyone there when Diiv went on.

That said, the show ended up being rather amazing. I enjoyed the effect of having those huge-ass projectors' light beams streaming over me noggin, creating a kind of "ceiling of light" above the seats that was rather fun to behold. The only slightly odd thing was that the projectors, when cranked up, washed the small room with a ton of light — it would have been better, I think, if there was a way to get the same projector effects but have a darker stage / audience, which one likely gets in a larger venue (or at least, was my experience at the Pearl this past weekend).

The small stage also somewhat impeded the... panels'... ability to spin around quickly (more noticeable on songs like The Loop Closes). I was pleased with the relative restraint the audience had when it came to smartphones and/or standing (at least, where I was, which was about right in the center-middle of row G or so). Audience right was pretty standy — I'm glad I wasn't over there, as my 6'5" self would have pissed off about six rows' worth of people behind me, similar to the one uber-tall guy who felt that standing right in front of the first row for a song was the best course of action. Glad they tossed him out of there.



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