Material: Chemical Diary is a cover band (except one original that was just okay) playing music from very well known acts like Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, the Police and more.
Musicianship: Chemical Diary, comprising a guitar, bass and vocals, were also accompanied by backing tracks on a computer. They started out the set with "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd and, by the end of the song, people were shaking their heads as if to say in agreement that a train wreck was coming or had just happened. Low and behold by the midway point of the second song, Chemical Diary grabbed hold of their proverbial balls and kept the ship from sinking. Roland and Dudee Numbers (are these guys for real?) are both very good musicians in their own right playing their instruments like pros. By the end of the second song everyone was looking forward to the next song and the next and the next.
Performance: The performance was a bit lackluster as Roland had to set up the next tune by having to go to the computer. Their audience engagement was not great until midway through the set. The duo had finally settled down about the mid-point and felt a bit more comfortable and talked to the audience a little more. Dudee just stood there and played guitar, while Roland set up the songs on the computer, talked to the audience, played bass and sang. Not a very good performance overall, but there’s a lot of potential.
Summary: The Chemical Diary have a few original tunes on YouTube and probably were short-handed not having a drummer at The Whisky on Saturday night and had to resort to cover tunes to fill their time slot. Their recorded material seemed okay and it would have been nice to hear more of it. The performance was really uninspiring but they did have a nice sign with their name on it that was lit in the background.
The Players: Roland Numbers, bass, vocals; Dudee Numbers, guitar.
Venue: The Whiskey A Go-Go
City: West Hollywood, CA
Contact: [email protected]
Web: YouTube.com/ChemicalDiary
