Dillinger Escape Plan: "One the most intense live bands of all time"
Last Friday night, the Dillinger Escape Plan brought chaos to D.C. With the drop of the lights, the pit exploded, pushing the 9:30 Club stage back a foot as "Sugar Coated Sour" from Dillinger's full length "Calculating Infinity" blew up the night.
After five years of relentlessly tearing up the underground, The Dillinger Escape Plan played its first D.C. show in two years. Back in the United States after a summer that included a couple weeks of touring with System of a Down in Europe, this was Dillinger's "first time headlining a lot of large places," according to founding guitarist Ben Weinman. "The shows have been awesome."
On the ball since the member's original band Arcane broke up, Dillinger Escape Plan has found success in an unlikely way according to Weinman.
"I think the reason why things really moved so quickly was like with our old band Arcane...we were trying so hard to appeal to a certain group or to be in a certain scene that we were into at the time, and like when we started Dillinger it was like we finally gave up... when we started Dillinger we gave up on trying to appeal to a certain crowd and a certain type of scene, and said it's not going to happen, nobody's going to like us, nobody likes us, it's not the real deal, we can't deny our influences, we can't deny what we're into, and we can't deny the fact that a lot of this music has become very desensitizing," Weinman said.
"So I think the fact that when we finally just started writing music that was in our hearts, that would appeal to us, and that we felt true to, things just started moving really fast, without us even having to try," Weinman said.
With an ethos of using the band as a tool to dispel emotions to the fullest extent, the members of Dillinger craft a live show that most witnesses can never forget. From playing songs at breakneck speeds to fire-breathing (which often leads to burning stages), Dillinger is one of the most impressive aural and visual bands around. Needless to say, Friday's show was not a disappointment by any standard.
Taking over the 9:30 Club with "Sugar Coated Sour," the night's set began as Greg Puciato, the new Dillinger lead singer, threw the microphone stand into the center of the pit. Puciato's extreme vocal talent was not completely realized until a note-for-note cover of Billy Idol's classic "Rebel Yell."
Tackling such crowd favorites as "The Mullet Burden" and "Jim Fear," as well as a spectacularly received new song off the upcoming full length, Dillinger had its fans eating from its hands.
Choosing the song "43% Burnt" for its finale, Dillinger made no mistakes as Greg Puciato, with a huge, flaming torch and a gallon of kerosene, literally lit the place ablaze. In between the drumbeats during the breakdown of the song, Puciato would hand the flaming staff to members of the audience and spray the fire with a huge mouthful of kerosene, sending enormous fireballs across the entire club.
One of the most intense live bands of all time, Dillinger made Friday, Sept. 27 a night to remember. From the tempo changes of drummer Chris Pennie to the chaotic stage footwork of guitarists Weinman and Brian Benoit, and bassist Liam, to the manic intensity of new lead singer Puciato, Dillinger Escape Plan was in full force and completely in charge of the world.
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