The Dirty Diamond
The Key Club
The Sunset Strip
West Hollywood, CA
January 14, 2008
By Victoria Joyce
(SugarBuzz Hollywood)
It’s a tough gig to open for Metal Skool. This decade-old cover band/cabaret act is still the biggest draw on the Strip. Mostly tourists. Local bands that brave the yuppie mob at the Key Club on Mondays get some nice stage time but it’s a tough sell for solid rockers.
Cue The Dirty Diamond. This local five-some has been playing clubs and such for a year or so, most recently The Derby and the Viper. This band blends influences from all over the map. Like Doobie Brother-like classic rock harmonies with a rockabilly beat resulting in some very pretty stuff.
The DD made a nice impression on the warm up crowd. “We’re the Dirty Diamond and we’re here to entertain ya!” from enigmatic lead singer and guitar Sam Babayan who opened the set with same name song “Dirty Diamond.” A bluesy rock thing with some serious drums and bass somewhere between Led Zep and the Knack. Ma-ma-ma my Shirona.
The Dirty Diamond has a mod look with Sam in a white dress shirt, and black jeans, stylish cap and signature squash blossom necklace. It’s a Navajo thing. The rest of the band; Adam S on guitar, Lee Butterfield on bass, Mike Schron on drums (thanks Tamara!) and Guido on keyboards wear all black shirts and slacks looking Jazz cool.
Next up was “Life’s a Breeze” and “Mr. Blue” both very pretty rockers. Lyrics are plain spoken and from the heart reflecting life, love, rain, friends, loss, me and you stuff. Fleshed out with vivid musicality from serious players with a polished delivery.
Break out song was “Liberated Puppet” a dreamy, buzzing, swirling song about manipulation. Starts with a riff from “These Boots are Made for Walking” and ends up big like something from “Tommy” with haunting undercurrents of a Middle Eastern influence here and there. Makes sense. Sam’s Armenian and commands a lot of local fans from that community. Huge we’re told. It’s so LA.
The Dirty D threw in a Led Zeppelin cover and the Key Clubbers loved that and wrapped it up with “Doctor’s Blues,” another solid rocker. Why do the blues always make us happy?
We caught up with Adam after the set loading gear into the van. All smiles and happy with the show. He told us, “It was a short set. We gave ‘em as much as we could. A few ballads.” They did good.