SHOW REVIEW: Hannah Diamond @ The Moroccan Lounge

Hannah Diamond

During my teenage years in St. Louis, Missouri, I came of age alongside PC Music. But I didn’t have access to the sweaty dancefloors and mosh pits where this community of pop oddballs gathered — instead of seismic bass and strobe lights, I fell in love with this underground world through the blue-light glow of my iPhone screen.

PC Music figurehead Hannah Diamond knows this feeling of digital yearning well. “I don’t wanna be alone in my bedroom / writing messages you won’t read / I don’t wanna be alone in my bedroom / waiting to say ‘Hi,’” Diamond sings on “Hi,” one of her earliest and most famous singles.

On Oct. 17, I put on my best girlish British accent and belted these lyrics directly to Diamond at the Moroccan Lounge in DTLA. The show was one of two that made up Diamond’s LA stop on her mini-world-tour commemorating the release of her sophomore record Perfect Picture.

Since her first release ten years ago, Diamond has maintained her pixel-perfect image both within and outside of her music. Consequently, Diamond has sometimes seemed limited to her 2D form, her entire persona built upon being unreachable, almost too pristine to be true. Because of this, seeing her step onstage in her strappy pink bodysuit and white miniskirt felt particularly surreal.

Perhaps appropriately, I attended Diamond’s show alone. Mistaking the advertised “show time” as the show’s start time rather than the time doors opened, I found myself to be the absolute first person there for Diamond’s set. I was rewarded for my accidental patience, however, with a front-row spot. Miss HD in HD.

Diamond’s set included a mixture of singles from Perfect Picture as well as highlights from her 2019 record Reflections and a handful of standalone singles. I was surprised by Diamond’s vocal prowess, which indicated her status as a veteran performer despite the signature simplicity and artificiality of her music’s vocals. In a world now-oversaturated with hyperpop “performers” who often rest on imitation and gimmick, Diamond’s show was a reminder of who came first.

Maybe it was the sappy nostalgia I hold for my teenage years, or maybe it was the beer I bought to pass the wait time until the show, but throwbacks like “Every Night” and “Make Believe” brought me right back to the intoxicating thrill of PC Music’s heyday. I didn’t realize how many lyrics I had in my mental archive until I found myself belting them face-to-face with Diamond.

The show’s highest-energy stretch was triple-whammy “Fade Away,” “Concrete Angel,” and 100 gecs collaboration “xXXi_wud_nvrstøp_ÜXXx (Remix).” When “Concrete Angel” escalated from its subdued build-up to its explosive hardcore outro, I saw even the pit security guard crack a smile. Ten years into her career, Diamond’s ability to transform from cutesy pop star to rave queen is still turning heads.

In some ways, Diamond’s association with the now-infamous PC Music has stunted her as much as it has nurtured her — too often, she has been dismissed as a cog in a larger machine or as a satirical “project” rife with “commentary” (think Lil Miquela, or even Hatsune Miku). Unlike fellow hyperpop icons such as Charli XCX and Slayyyter, Diamond never broke beyond her niche following or rode PC Music into the mainstream, and her legacy is frequently overlooked as a result.

While her hyper-glossy and artificial aesthetics undoubtedly helped shape a pop music revolution, Diamond has always approached her music with a sincerity absent from many of her PC peers’ work. This contradiction between clean aesthetics and messy emotions has been central to Diamond’s unique point of view.

No one is more tuned-in to this tug-of-war between image and reality than Diamond, who tackles this theme repeatedly on Perfect Picture. Perfect Picture marks one of the final releases from PC Music, which will officially disband at the end of the year. In a casual conversation I had with another solo concert goer at the front of the pit, he referred to her tour as “PC Music’s swan song.” But Diamond’s set felt more like a celebration than a funeral.

In a recent interview with PAPER Magazine, Diamond said that “There's PC Music the business, which is what the label function part was. Then there's PC Music, the group of friends, which is not going to stop. We're not all falling out or not talking to each other. Just because the label isn't going to release music anymore doesn't mean these other parts cease existing. It doesn't really feel like it's ending in some ways.”

At the conclusion of the show, Diamond played Perfect Picture deep cut “No FX,” dedicating the song to her friends at PC Music and her fans who see the human under the pristine shell. It was a heartwarming send-off for an era that changed pop music — and me — forever, and a hopeful omen for the future. PC Music may be dying, but Diamond isn’t ready to “Fade Away” just yet.

 – DJ Danny Darko AKA Fitz Cain

Photo by Fitz Cain.