Now that Nurse Diesel is entering its sixth year as a band (and its third year in its current lineup), maybe it's time to start calling them a Long Island institution. Bands start and break up with alarming frequency on the Island, biting dust wholesale. What causes some bands to start up and break up in record time, and others to rack up hundreds of gigs and rack up a lifespan of years instead of weeks or months?

In Nurse Diesel's case, a number of factors come into the equation. First, the guys in the band (guitarist Donny Waller, bassist Tommy Dolan and drummer Steve Stavros) actually like each other and seem to get on with the business of being in a band without any of the attendant drama that a lot of other bands seem to go through.

Another reason is that the band doesn't stand still long enough to let any stylistic moss grow, keeping boredom from setting in. The crowds who come to see Nurse Diesel know that they'll hear a lot of different material every time the see the band - classic and modern rock, metal, reggae, blues, punk, grunge, new wave, you name it. It's become both a point of pride and a source of energy for the band, who recently came into their Holiday show with nearly 20 new songs in the show. Expanding the show comes as naturally to Nurse Diesel as turning on their amplifiers - something that may or may not happen when you see them now that they've started doing acoustic sets in their shows. And add their originals to the mix, and you've suddenly got a band that can give you quite a different show from your run-of-the-mill club band.

Now, more than ever, you owe it to yourself to see The Nurse.