Dillinger Escape Plan: Awesome

Being one of the most inventive, exciting, and challenging metal acts in the world, the Dillinger Escape Plan need only take the stage and play their songs in order to put on a great show. However, I could tolerate a set of James Blunt covers were they played with the amount of ferocity, danger, and enthusiasm that Dillinger Escape Plan bring to their shows. Maybe.

Rescheduled after guitarist Ben Weinman's broke his foot, Dillinger finally made their first New York appearance since the release of the must-hear Ire Works, December 16 at the Gramercy Theatre. As always, their were no boundaries between the band and the audience, and no foreseeable limit to Dillinger's live insanity.


Kicking things off were Shat, former DEP bassist Jeff Wood's joke-hardcore project. Dressed (barely) in outfits that couldn't appear in a PG-13 movie, their joke-metal sounded as if Shat had taken the dirty half-song limericks that they made up while out drinking and actually recorded them. It was a blast to watch and listen to their randy odes to naked girls, as it was to watch the puzzled hardcore kids try to make something of the bizarre show and avoid looking at Wood's exposed testicles.

Next up was Genghis Tron, an electronic-metal trio with a drum machine who just signed to Relapse. Their sound was unique and a little unfocused, but their talent and potential was always apparent. I'm guessing that in three years, they'll have a record that's a as good as their name.

A Life Once Lost were heavy enough but too derivative to leave a big impression. Their repertoire sounded like Hatebreed trying to be Meshuggah, coming off somewhat better than the former and worse than the latter. Calling them 'A Lamb of God Once Lost' may be a bit harsh, but not totally unwarranted either.

Finally, lights dimmed as the band we'd been waiting for took the stage. Preceded by a few minutes from a creepy black & white movie (my accomplice thought it was Un Chien Andalou, I wondered if it was the Ruth Snyder execution), the band ripped into the instantly blaring 'Panasonic Youth.' As is usual w/DEP shows, the band was even more violent than the audience, running over the front row, stepping on heads and screaming along with the fans.

Frontman Greg Puciato is both unlike any metal singer today and a throwback to the most deranged bandleaders in history, recalling Iggy Pop or a young Eddie Vedder with his stage-diving, spontaneous outbursts and need to destroy the stage equipment. But whether he was climbing into the rafters or annihilating a helpless part of the stage, Puciato remained intensely focused and ingrained in the music, keeping time on his fingers and belting out screams, wails and croons with the forcefulness of Trent Reznor tackling Mike Patton. Weinman seemed all the more eager to be performing since his inconvenient injury, and noticeably upped his intensity level from previous performances. Swinging around his ESP and crashing into the front row, it's fair to compare his treatment of his instrument to Jerry Lee Lewis on a piano. Guitarist Jeff Tuttle and drummer Gil Sharone, both on their first-ever Dillinger tour, were obviously eager to take part in the havoc. Tuttle was as wild and as musically precise as any of his bandmates, and Sharone nailed the timing of former drummer Chris Pennie, taking the band in a direction that lacks Pennie's intricacy but takes DEP's rhythmic sensibilities to new heights.



For the most part, Dillinger avoided their recent forays into melodic songwriting, choosing not to change the pace or distract from their high-energy performance. Proving that Ire Works is as uncompromising as their earlier experiments, new standouts like 'Lurch,' and 'Milk Lizard' were easily as aggressive as anything they played that night, including Calculating Infinity's furious noise blasts like 'Sugar Coated Sour' and '43% Burnt.' The exhilarating 'Fix Your Face' was accompanied by a surprise appearance from original vocalist Dimitri Minakakis, and the skin-crawling scariness of 'Setting Fire to Sleeping Giants' reached a new level in live form. Before closing with 'Sunshine the Werewolf' (of course, no encore), Puciato ran off the stage mid-song and returned with a large torch. Spewing out liquid in rapid bursts, massive flames shot out of his mouth as he handed the torch to the crowd and crawled over the audience, exhaling a fireball that could have easily engulfed anyone in the room. Deadly, stupid, and REALLY exciting, it was a sight that no concertgoer could ever forget, and almost as enthralling as just watching these five guys play their instruments.

Metal radio legend Jose Mangin lent his talents to DEP's video for 'Setting Fire to Sleeping Giants.' He's a much more affable guy than the video indicates, and DEP are usually much more aggressive than the video suggests.