Before The Due Diligence began their set this past weekend at the sweaty Hot 97.4 warehouse space, their extremely eccentric front-person, Sir Isaac Diligence (a master of of audience inclusion) handed out mini tambourines to everyone in the audience, immediately forming a connection. The Due Diligence sounds like they’re straight out of the 1960’s-70’s, fusing classic rock with RnB influences including (but not limited to) Lou Reed and James Brown. Sir Isaac Diligence rejects the overly-pretentious atmosphere that runs rampant within Brooklyn’s scene through his eccentric presence, and general ability to let loose and not worry about being the hippest cat at the show. At the same time he made it perfectly clear how much fun it is to feel cool with the band’s latest single, entitled (you guessed it) "Cool", during which Sir Isaac asked the audience to close their eyes and think about the first girl or guy who ever made them feel cool. Audience participation is something hard to pull off in this self conscious city, but The Due Diligence definitely pulled it off, especially after their last song during which Isaac threw himself into the crowd, handed his guitar to Nick Kivlen of Sunflower Bean (who shredded for the last few measures of the song) and ran off to go buy donuts for everyone. You can watch their Dunkin Donuts-featuring video (it’s a pun…Due Diligence…Dunkin Donuts….now you get it) for "Cool" below. The video also features members of Deli favorites Ava Luna stuffing themselves with donuts. – Jake Saunders
