Diiv at Arts Riot

Singer Zachary Cole Smith, who wites A LOT about his addiction with opiods, stopped in his tracks when he noticed a big poster on the wall that said “Heroin.” He commented how odd it was to see that in a venue in the middle of a national crisis, then got back to his thing. What he couldn’t see behind the crowd, and I couldn’t capture in the photo, were the negating words beneath. (Search the web as I might, I could not find the full poster anywhere 😔 )

I’m pretty sure I was introduced to DIIV from the sampler album CT5 from the record label Captured Tracks. It featured their single from their first album. This tour they were promoting their second. That mixtape also opened me up to Chris Cohen and Beach Fossils, who I fell hard for.

An aside, an ode to Arts Riot

At the time I was living on pine street in the big city (Burlington.) Arts riot was a half a mile walk down pine. The venue / art space / bar / restaurant was at it’s peak. It was getting great acts for 15 dollar shows and was plastered with art and murals throughout. But then it was sold, enshittified, and lost it’s magic. They didn’t bring any shows that inticed me to stop back after the sale. The pivot to a distillery brought some great visuals, but the pivot flopped. They closed May 2025.