Diane Coffee gets groovy at Founder’s Brewing Co.

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Last Thursday at Founders Brewing Co., the band Diane Coffee played a free show for 100 or so attendees. 

Coming on at around 10:45  p.m., the band strode through the bar and up to the stage,  where they remained for the next two hours.

The band opened with songs  from both their inaugural and  sophomore albums, titled “My  Friend Fish” and “Everybody’s a  Good Dog” respectively, before jumping into two of their recently released singles, “Get By” and “Poor Man Dan.”

The band hails from San Francisco, and their sound can be clearly traced back to their roots  on the West Coast. Founded by  Shaun Fleming, who also plays  the drums in the band Foxygen, in 2013, Diane Coffee has toured extensively across the country. Diane Coffee and Foxygen both share a ‘60s vibe that is prominent in many of their songs, but from there, the bands diverge.  Foxygen has shaped their music to take on a more mellow and rock-like feel, while Diane Coffee’s sound verges on pop music.

Diane Coffee’s upbeat and catchy tunes somewhat resemble their contemporaries, Fitz and the Tantrums, but their adherence to the ‘60s vibe clearly differentiates their sounds. 

On the stage, Diane Coffee’s  frontman and founder Shaun Fleming has the makings of the  next David Bowie. Wearing a mixture of face paint and make up that only added to his bizarre behavior, Fleming demonstrated  his ability to handle the crowd well. He made sure to keep the  audience interested in the show whenever the band was gearing  up for another song, and never let a dull moment pass by.

As a band, Diane Coffee commands the stage in both their presence and performance.

The live music they per formed was head and shoulders above most of their album cuts. It may be that due to either several years of extensive touring together or the natural progression of their music, but that is irrelevant.

See this band for yourself if they are in town near you. Their music is new and exciting, and although they may have come  onto the music stage 50 years too late, their unique style and  flair would make even the most vehemently opposed audience member tap their foot to the  beat.