WECB Live brings Diet Cig to the Paramount

Photography by Erin Christie

by Lily Hartenstein

Alex Luciano of the pop-punk duo Diet Cig bounced around in a technicolor jumpsuit, doing high-kicks as she shredded catchy riffs for the students gathered in the Paramount Theatre on Thursday night. Her bandmate Noah Bowman sat behind her onstage, matching her energy in his own way with his steady drumming.

“Rock and roll is for everybody!” she called out between songs. “Your art is so important, regardless of skill level.” 

This sentiment is certainly one reflected throughout Diet Cig’s career, which started in the collegiate house-show scene in upstate New York, where the duo met. Their roots reflect the environment many Emerson students are familiar with: DIY basement shows with less-than-perfect sound quality, but a lot of passion for music. It’s the type of gigs the band Sunsetta, a newly-formed group of Emerson students, typically play. Thursday night, however, Sunsetta was onstage at the Paramount, rocking the opening set for Diet Cig. 

Luciano and Bowman reflected on the transition they experienced as their band grew, going from basement gigs to full stages. They noted that they appreciate getting to use better equipment, allowing them to focus on the performance itself. But overall, they avowed, it’s not that different. 

“We’ve always approached playing live with a lot of energy, and I think that’s sustained whether we’re like playing at a house show or playing in a huge theatre, like tonight, I feel like we keep our energy up and we have fun and it’s always like that’s our favorite part of performing, is having a high-energy show,” Luciano said, “Which maybe stemmed from playing in house shows and stuff. I think that has really carried through.”

Energy is certainly Diet Cig’s strong point. With just two of them on the giant Paramount stage, performing to the theatre’s 590 seats, they managed to dominate the space with Luciano’s bouncing around and endearingly adolescent narratives. In all accounts and coverage of the duo’s five-year career, their explosive energy in live performance is always noted. In one notable description of the band, Albert Testani of Alt Citizen writes:  “If you took packet of Skittles, poured them into a two-liter bottle of Sprite covered in glitter, then drank the entire thing in under two minutes, you still wouldn’t be able to attain the seismic sugar rush that is Diet Cig.”

In this sense, Diet Cig is the perfect live performance for a college like Emerson to host. The values of their band are not about being the best, but loving what they do the most, and allowing the rest to follow. Their presence on stage shows their passion, their energetic expression of love for what they do. It was infectious to witness, standing in the Paramount theatre, and it is certainly what has driven them beyond the hazy house shows of their inception. 

Backstage, before the performance, as Alex sat cross-legged on a stool before me, she really summed it all up: “Be yourself and love what you’re doing because there’s no formula in making it work, and if all you can do is make music you love and have fun doing it and work hard that’s all you need.”