You know what was awesome? Seeing Diamond Rings at the Biltmore in Vancouver on Friday night. There was a positive energy emanating from him that had everyone giddy and all smiles.
PS I Love You opened for Diamond Rings and ripped up a stage that wasn’t big enough for that much guitar shredding power. The band rocked out to every song, showing of their instrument playing abilities. There was only one problem with the set: the over-exaggerated intonations of lead vocals Paul Saulnier were slightly…a lot…off key. His album voice is fantastic. In fact, I like the band in general but was really disappointed by the vocals of their set and hope that they were just having a bad night. Best song of the set was when Diamond Rings came one for the last track, “Leftovers”.
The crowd at the Biltmore was the most diverse and eccentric that I’ve seen in awhile at a concert. You know what that means? It means that Diamond Rings’ music reaches a wide spectrum of listeners from various different genres. In other means, he is awesome.
Diamond Rings’ set was truly fantastic. He was thrilled to be back in Canada after the American leg of his tour and Vancouver was lucky to be the first stop of this modern Depeche Mode genius. He played all ten tracks off his album Special Affections, adding “Show Me Your Stuff” to the set list. The highlights were the sexy “Wait and See”, the upbeat “Something Else”, and “Give It Up”, which is usually accompanied by keyboards and synths but on Friday was stripped down and played on a guitar: 
his deep, tremendous voice was hypnotizing. Other highlights were “Play By Heart” and “Pre-Owned Heart”, the latter of which he claims he doesn’t play often and thus is special. And let’s not forget the dance moves he passionately busted out.
If Diamond Rings is playing in your city, go see him. He’s totally cool and it’s impressive that he is so great at only the onset of his musical career.
Diamond Rings Setlist:
Play by Heart
On Our Own
You Oughta Know
Wait and See
Something Else
You And Me
It’s Not My Party
Pre-Owned Heart
Show Me Your Stuff
Encore
Give It Up
All Yr Songs
