THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
Diet Cig and Daddy Issues, Will’s Pub, April 18
Diet Cig are an emerging New York band that first launched on respectable boutique label Father/Daughter Records (who also released the last album by Orlando’s own notables Saskatchewan) and just now stepped out with their first full-length work (Swear I’m Good at This) on esteemed indie powerhouse Frenchkiss Records.
This duo’s music is youthful earnestness delivered with directness and abandon on a headlong joyride of punk and pop. Even if you think you can feel it in their music, you don’t really know shit until you see them live because their light is a thousand times more blinding in person, like Matt and Kim’s little punk cousins or something.
That may all sound a little like death by giddiness, but it’s hard to argue with something so pure, especially when it’s delivered with this much verve and scrap. Frontwoman Alex Luciano is just an unstoppable supernova of world-changing will who turns sweetness into empowerment. Leveraging vulnerability into power by pouring their hearts out alongside ear-to-ear smiles and high kicks (!), Diet Cig beam the kind of fresh-faced, wide-eyed optimism that’s immaculate proof that we’re not all totally fucked. Who of us couldn’t use a big ol’ shot of that right now?
Opening were tourmates Daddy Issues, a Nashville band on Infinity Cat Recordings, the label run by JEFF the Brotherhood. The trio kick out grunge-pop that drives good, expressive melodies with fat guitar power and a lot of horses under the hood.
The era influences are many – the grunge textures, the ‘90s indie-rock melodics – but their rendition and blend are less overtly slavish and more reinterpreted anew than their many contemporaries. And that makes these ladies a very promising act. Though not quite as finished as their headlining billmates, Daddy Issues’ music could’ve stolen the night were it not for Diet Cig’s practically peerless incandescence.
And this is what happens when your show's finale is a collision between Diet Cig and Daddy Issues:


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This Little Underground is Orlando Weekly's music column providing perspective, live reviews and news on the city's music scene.

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