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Bands leave Boston all the damn time (boo fucking hoo), but we were particularly bummed when Crash Midnight vacated our sleepy lil’ high-rise village for the bright lights and fresh ice of Las Vegas. The rock and roll band throw it back to a grittier, when sleaze was for sale and riffs alone packed the clubs. Crash Midnight seemed to forever be in a bit of a holding pattern here in Boston, but look like they’re about to reach cruising altitude out west with the launch of new single “Diamond Boulevard”, a devilish, booze-soaked spin around the old metal cross once draped around your youthful neck.
“This song has been a sort of rallying cry for us over the years and we close every show with it,” frontman Shaun Soho tells Vanyaland. “Early on in our career, we got into this place where we had a lot of people trying to tell us what we needed to be or how they wanted us to sound. We had several fucked up contracts pushed on us that we were naive enough to get backed into and it really hurt us for a while.”
That includes a lot of back-door hangups around 2014 LP Lost in the City, where “Diamond Boulevard” first surfaced. But this version finds the band back in the driver’s seat, and it’s a flasher dash across the Strip — one that links dirty Sunset with sinister Vegas.
“‘Diamond Boulevard’ is about those situations and how, to everyone on the outside, it looked like we were out on these major tours, playing big stages and all that, but behind the scenes we were getting completely fleeced,” Soho admits. “The music video shows all this footage from the road — our tours with Sevendust, The Pretty Reckless and Adelitas Way. I think it does a good job of capturing that sentiment. In a lot of the scenes everything seems so cool, but if you really look closely, we were absolutely exhausted and coming apart. As tough as it was at the time, I think now this song is more a reminder that we made it through and it means a lot to us.”
When Poison wanted to show the trails and tribulations of life on the road, they soundtracked the video footage with a softie ballad. But Crash Midnight prefer to kick the doors in and whip out some balls over crooning to a lost love.
The next door to fly open is at Vegas’ Brooklyn Bowl, where the dudes launch their Crash The Boulevard party this Friday night (June 1). The recurring series aims to bring together rock scenes and circles in a world where pop and hip-hop rules the clubs.
“We got together with Brooklyn Bowl on a concept to really galvanize the rock music scene out here in Vegas,” Soho says. “We based the night off of what made places like CBGBs or The Whisky A Go-Go so special back in the day — where you had all the coolest bands in town both hanging out and playing together at the same spot. We wanted to make something like that here so when Brooklyn Bowl gave us the green light to run with this thing, we approached bands that we thought had the right sound and vibe for the night and everyone we talked to just jumped on the idea.”
Bring your diamonds.
