Gig Reviews
Slift
Loppen, Copenhagen, DEN - 24/3
Album Reviews
The Dillinger Escape Plan
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support Cancer Bats + The Ocean
author AP
date 06/10/10
venue Markthalle, Hamburg, GER
Meanwhile in Hamburg, little girls were few and far in between as Markthalle prepared to host the menace known as The Dillinger Escape Plan. Myself and photographer Lykke have dutifully made the trip from Copenhagen to bring you this coverage as promised. Nobody likes to perform to a cold crowd though, and for warming-up purposes the mathcore legends have tapped support bands from other ends of the genre: German progressive hardcore collective The Ocean, and Canadian hardcore punk n' rollers Cancer Bats. With such fine acts on the bill as well, the trip should be worth the money, time and effort, but were their performances? Read on to find out.
The infamy that surrounds The Dillinger Escape Plan has grown into mythical proportions. People expect the band to lay waste to everything in their path, destroy their instruments, inflict serious injuries on unsuspecting fans, and be banned from venues; that causing controversy is at the top of their agenda. Judging from some of the Dillinger Escape Plan shows I have seen in my day, such expectations can be justified, but one should never forget that above everything else, The Dillinger Escape Plan is about creating some of the most innovative, trend-bending music on the market. Their prowess is often ignored by fans blinded by psychotic live sets.
With their most mature and eclectic record yet in tow, The Dillinger Escape Plan aim to put a stop to such misconceptions tonight. As "Farewell, Mona Lisa" rolls to its end nothing has broken, and no member has leapt into some poor fan's face knee-first. Make no mistake - the usual guitar swinging and amp stack climbing that has grown to be the Dillinger trademark is still happening at every opportunity. But the fury feels more restrained. Even when mathematic psycho tracks like "Fix Your Face", "Sugar Coated Sour" and "Lurch" are played, Greg Puciato is not hanging from the variety of scaffolding arching over the stage, and Ben Weinman is not surfing the crazed crowd. Instead, the former proves his might as a vocalist in league with Trent Reznor and Mike Patton, while the latter shows off the classical piano skills he acquired during his pre-"Ire Works" injuries.
You see, tonight is about "Option Paralysis", and the songs on that album are much more demanding, both vocally and instrumentally, than material from the band's cacophonous previous albums. But where the frenzy has been toned down songs like "Gold Teeth on a Bum" and "Widower" compensate with structural and instrumental rewards, as the constant escalation of tension toward a grand climax is just as engaging as watching five psychopaths kill everything. Still, "Sunshine the Werewolf" has a legacy to fulfill, having a reputation as the grand finale to a Dillinger Escape Plan show; the four minutes when all common sense is extradited out of the window and pure insanity takes control. Unfortunately, the mayhem that this song has brought with it in the past is not resurrected tonight. In its place is a subsequent three-song encore comprising the seldom heard "Mouth of Ghosts", the always gratifying chaos piece "Panasonic Youth", and one of the first songs Ben Weinman ever wrote for this band, "43% Burnt".
When the set draws to an end, I am left with a slightly bittersweet taste in my mouth, you understand. Having driven for four hours and - perhaps wrongfully - expected a second rendition of the infamous Mean Fiddler show in 2008, the show fails to satisfy my appetite for pandemonium. But looking at the show from a non-personal point of view, it is obvious that The Dillinger Escape Plan are in a league of their own, and no matter how "tame" this band allows itself to be, there still exists no other band with the capacity to execute a performance as energetic and flawless as this.
Setlist:
01. Farewell, Mona Lisa
02. Fix Your Face
03. Milk Lizard
04. Room Full of Eyes
05. Chinese Whispers
06. Sugar Coated Sour
07. Gold Teeth on a Bum
08. Widower
09. Black Bubblegum
10. Good Neighbor
11. Lurch
12. Sunshine the Werewolf
--Encore--
13. Mouth of Ghosts
14. Panasonic Youth
15. 43% Burnt