Deep Sea Diver at xBk Live, Des Moines (July 27, 2025)

Back in May, I had the pleasure of discovering Deep Sea Diver for myself (think how we view Columbus today vs. how Columbus viewed himself in 1492, you know, after sailing the ocean blue) when they kicked off The Current’s Happy Hour series for 2025 at Nine Mile Brewing Company in Bloomington (review here).

At that show it was only two-fifths of DSD; luckily one of those fifths was Jessica Dobson, the creative force behind the band and those two-fifths were impressive. Fast forward to the end of July, and I have become enthralled with their 2025 release, Billboard Heart (Sub Pop), to the point that I was willing to drive 3 and a half hours to Des Moines to see all five of the fifths play as a complete band. xBklive, an unassuming ~250-person capacity venue near Drake University, played host to the band along with opener, Meernaa.

Unfortunately for me, when driving from 3.5 hours away, little delays add up and I wasn’t able to get to the show until Meernaa’s second-to-last song. Cary Bond, the voice and guitarist of Meernaa, representing one and a quarter-fifths of the band, was the only member of the quartet on this tour and she did a wonderful job. Momentary aside: (skip ahead if you want to get to the rest of the review). My brother recently saw Peter Hook, the bassist for New Order play at a small club in Pittsburgh, and while he is an even one-fifth of New Order, he is not the lead singer, so while the bass playing melted my brother’s face, the singing was not great. So, pro tip for all of you bands out there who choose to play in fifths, be they one-fifth, two-fifths or one and a quarter-fifths, make sure one of the fifths is the lead singer. OK, back to the review. Cary has a rich soulful voice, and while I would not classify Meernaa’s music as my jam, she was a lot of fun to listen to live. The crowd was enthusiastic and supportive, letting Cary build a nice rapport with them. She did the appropriate shout-out to DSD and acknowledged that this was the last night of the tour for her, which was met with cries of “don’t go” from Jessica who happened to be standing next to me.

Obviously, I took advantage of standing next to Jessica to talk to her. I reminded her that we spoke back in May; I had been the one to ask her insightful questions such as “How old are you?” and “Do you validate parking?”. OK, joking aside, when we spoke back in May I told her that I had first heard DSD just hours before. This time I let her know how impressed I was by her music and how much I enjoyed the new album. She seemed genuinely pleased to hear that, which I find endearing. It’s nice to know that someone as immensely talented as she is, is still appreciative of acknowledgement of her craft and effort. She thanked me for driving all the way from Minneapolis to see the show and then was gone, never to be seen again.

Deep Sea Diver took to the stage around 8:15 and was greeted by an excited audience. They launched into “Billboard Heart”, the title track, and we were off. As compared to the two-fifths show, there were, obviously, more layers, which honestly made me appreciate that show all the more. Having said that, though, hearing the band in full is a spectacular experience. They clearly have fun playing together; on multiple occasions a pair would catch each other’s eye, start grinning and then do some goofy physical acknowledgement across the stage. Peter Mansen is a very entertaining drummer. I found myself going back to watch him time and time again. I won’t go through every song, see the set list to the right, but one of the highlights for me was the existential song, according to Jessica, “What Do I Know?”. A song I love is “Tiny Threads”, which Jessica described as coming out of a session after they had finished recording the album but she just didn’t feel like the album had the right spirit and almost scrapped the entire thing. She didn’t quite say it, but it felt like she was implying “Tiny Threads” saved the album. Thanks “Tiny Threads”! “Be Sweet” was performed as a solo by Jessica with the rest of the band sitting sweetly together on the stage watching. Although, Peter did provide drums briefly for part of the song. I like to think he was responding to Jessica’s request in the song “So please walk through the fire with me, so I don′t hesitate”. What a good husband.

They invited Carly (you know the one and a quarter-fifth of Meernaa) up on stage to jam with them. Setlist.fm lets me know that this wasn’t the first time but I like to imagine it was unique. Regardless, it was fun to watch them all working off of one another. At one point, Elliott Jackson (percussion, synthesizer, and guitar) came out into the audience to play cowbell with one lucky member. Of course, they played “Shovel”, the song I’ve heard most on the Current, and, as always, it’s amazing to hear. It’s nice when a band sounds like they do on the album, but there are bands that are able to expand and build a different version of the song that fits the moment. DSD clearly has that ability. Jessica’s voice, guitar playing and stage presence along with the skill of the rest of the band make the live performance its own wonderful creation similar to but distinct from the studio album. It was a show that was well worth 7-hours in the car.

Deep Sea Diver at xBk Live, Des Moines (July 27, 2025)

Deep Sea Diver at xBk Live, Des Moines (July 27, 2025)

Deep Sea Diver at xBk Live, Des Moines (July 27, 2025)