The hipster troubadour love child of Veronica Lake, Rimbaud, and Bowie rocked Glasslands in Brooklyn last night.
John O’Regan, a.k.a. Diamond Rings, wants to stir your soul, make you dance, and cause you to go weak in the knees. And he just may succeed.
At his intimate show last night at Glasslands, O’Regan played the role of earnest host and glam rock idol with equal dedication, operating a manual smoke machine while filling the room with a warm voice that is much deeper in person than I expected (think Leonard Cohen, If I may).
Seen live, there’s a poetry to Diamond Rings that is lost in translation in the video work he is known for. All limbs in red skinny jeans and a bright red leather jacket, the hipster earnestness falls away on stage and a latent creative genius emerges that is less about the androgynous ballyhoo and more about a desire to connect with anyone in earshot—and people are listening.
[Photos by Blake Martin]
June 26, 2012 at 5:15 pm, Diamond Rings returns with Mortal Kombat-chic video | Death and Taxes said:
[...] } Music Tweet Pin ItDiamond Rings returns with Mortal Kombat-chic video By Doug Bleggi 1 min agoDiamond Rings is back with a new song and video which looks and sounds like outrageous arena-pop circa 1989. The [...]
October 09, 2012 at 4:00 pm, Diamonds Are Forever: An interview with Diamond Rings | Death and Taxes said:
[...] By Doug Bleggi 1 min agoCanada’s John O’Regan dropped on the music scene in late 2009 as Diamond Rings and has since become a symbol of glam iconography with his androgynous looks and increasingly [...]