It was a beautiful, clear February night in Atlanta last Saturday, and the Masquerade’s Hell venue was buzzing with Diet Cig, Great Grandpa and The Spook School in town.
The Spook School
The night started off with Edinburgh, Scotland’s The Spook School, who are currently touring in support of their brand new album, Could it be Different on Slumberland Records (January 26th). Their brand of indie pop coalesces well with the frenetic tempo that is in the same vein as The Buzzcocks. A large bulk of their songs lyrical content deal with the subjects of sexuality and gender identity.
Sometimes when a show attracts a large crowd or following, you can gauge the audience to see if they are there simply for the headliner. Thankfully on this night the crowd was fully invested in all three acts.
Great Grandpa
Next up was Seattle’s Great Grandpa. They are currently touring in support of 2017’s Plastic Cough on Double Double Whammy Records. In keeping with the motif of the night, they fall within the indie pop category. With Great Grandpa, I could say that some of their sound is derivative of the eardrum blasting guitars of J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. fame. Add in the sweet voice of Alex Menne, and you have a great sound that is sure to make waves in the future.
Diet Cig
The headlining act tonight was New York’s Diet Cig. Formed as a duo in 2014, they have formally expanded into a full four piece band and this is the first time touring in this format. Their earlier work, Over Easy, was stripped down to a simple electric guitar and drums. This led to a sound that had all the hooks and catchiness that you could squeeze out of being a duo but once the record caught on I think a lot of fans were clamoring for what it would sound like with a full band backing up Alex Luciano. That’s where their debut full length, Swear I’m Good At This (Frenchkiss Records 2017) comes into play.
Their set was tight, both in structure and flow. They pulled out a lot off of their debut album. The fans were just as excited for the new cuts as they were to hear Diet Cig’s singles and songs off the EP that originally captured fans attention.
Diet Cig ended their set with a rendition of one of their first big songs “Harvard” off of Over Easy. Instead of opting for your standard walkoff and encore, the crowd was met with the most genuine thank you from Alex, which lead straight into a medley of “Closing Time” by Semisonic. In my opinion a perfect way to end the set and to end a great night.
Written and shot by Peter Sigmund. Check out more of Peter’s photos from the show:
