DIIV's End of the Road debut came with surreal warnings of late-stage capitalist doomsday

The Brooklyn shoegaze four-piece closed out the Big Top stage on the festival's penultimate day with an immersive set which showcased the harsh reality of a world enduring the consequences of late-stage capitalism. Having toured the album extensively with shows featuring distorted AI visuals and commercials with subliminal messages to elevate the content of their 2024 album Frog in Boiling Water, DIIV brought the spectacle to End of the Road for their debut show at the beloved Dorset festival.

The band played through tracks on Frog in Boiling Water, accompanied by visual displays which now incorporate videos of police brutality, news footage from Gaza and stills of “Death to America” and “America is Satan”. As one of many bands who have expressed their solidarity with Palestine in the midst of the ongoing genocide in Gaza throughout the weekend, vocalist Zachary Cole Smith changed the line “A flashing light” to “Free Palestine” in their track “Reflected”, with a flashing visual of the words against the Palestinian flag to match the sentiment.

Arriving five years after their 2017 album Deceiver, Frog in Boiling Water is described as their most laborious record yet, requiring an enduring four-year process that “nearly broke the band before the album was completed”.

End of the Road Festival concludes today with headline sets from Father John Misty; Black Country, New Road; John Maus; and Fabiano Palladino.