DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH 'MISFIT' TRADES IN FREQUENT L.A. GIGS TO CONCENTRATE HIS ENERGIES ON SUCCESS.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

You used to be able to see the Toledo Show every Monday at the Gig in West Los Angeles.

That was when the acid jazz ensemble, founded by the craggy front man Toledo Diamond, was underground. But just seven weeks on the Warped Tour has changed all that.

With his band's independently released album ``Misfits Lullaby'' now circulating among teen-agers across America, Diamond has canceled his local shows to focus on the next phase of his career - making it.

The Toledo Show, which sounds a lot like Tom Waits would if he were fronting Funkadelic and which features provocative dancers, has been a mainstay in the underground for the last five years. In that time, the band has also ventured on club tours across the country and released a pair of CDs: ``Fishnets and Cigarettes'' and its most recent ``Misfits Lullaby.''

Both albums paint biting portraits of what it means to be desperate and lonely in the big city - be it the junkie on the curb, the boozer or the guy cruising a dive bar for a hooker.

``The songs are about me and the people I've met,'' Diamond says. ``Like, I've been sober for eight years. So all the stuff that has to do with drugs are old memories.

``It's not fresh like it was on 'Fishnets and Cigarettes,' '' he says. `` 'Fishnets and Cigarettes' was like an autobiography, whereas 'Misfits Lullaby' is actually really light.'''

When the Toledo Show performs these songs on a live stage as it did at the Gig, part of its performance is in setting the mood.

Behind dark sunglasses and a mask of smoke coming from his cigarette, Diamond speaks his lyrics while his scantily clad dancers shimmy and slither around the stage.

When Diamond took the show on the Warped Tour, an outdoor summer concert festival, he was surprised at how the mostly young crowd responded to the performance by mobbing the merchandise table after his show for a copy of the CD ``Misfits Lullaby.''

``All these kids really dug it,'' Diamond says. ``I was telling my partner Mallic - he sings with me and helps me create - how it goes from 8 to 80. Age and color doesn't matter, you know? People respond when you're coming from the truth.''

But seeing the response that some of the bigger bands got was also surprising for the 40-year-old singer.

``A band with a song on the radio like Green Day was a whole other program because people were singing their songs,'' Diamond says.

That's when Diamond decided to get serious about his own career.

All he needs now is a hit song.

``A song on the radio as opposed to a song on the ground makes all the difference in the world,'' he says. ``It allows you the freedom to do more of the things that are in your heart without feeling like you're selling out.''

Diamond began writing new material a few weeks ago while on the tour and says he's come up with a few possibilities.

But nothing is set in stone.

All he's really sure of is that he wants to be a hit.

``I've decided I'm going to be on MTV,'' he says. ``So I'm putting it out there in the universe. And I believe that it'll manifest itself into that if I really believe it will.''

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Toledo Diamond, lead singer for the acid jazz ensemble the Toledo Show, used to perform weekly in L.A., but not now.