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Archive for the ‘The Dillinger Escape Plan’ Category

The Dillinger Escape Plan (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, October 15, 2026) [Philly Music Week]

Posted in Aphex Twin, Caged, Ministry, Philadelphia, PA, Philly Music Fest, Pyrrhon, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Underground Arts on October 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 15, 2026] The Dillinger Escape Plan

When this show was announced as part of Philly Music Week, I grabbed a ticket immediately.  I had seen The Dillinger Escape Plan ten years ago when the opened for Mastodon and it was one of the most memorable shows I’ve seen–even if I was very far away and it was so loud I had to leave my spot to buy earplugs.

They have only played Philly twice since that show.  Once a couple months later at Union Transfer and once two years ago at FMH again.  shouted out Philly venues they played when they were first starting out, especially Stalag 13 (which I’ve never heard of but was a legendary DIY punk location 1996-1999 apparently).

Speaking of Philly Music Fest, a festival that is nominally about Philly music, The Dillinger Escape Plan are (proudly one might say) from New Jersey.  But that’s okay and lead singer Dimitri Minakakis shouted all of the people in Philly who have seen them at so many clubs along the way (he listed a whole bunch).

They opened with the noisy sounds of *#.. and then splashed right into the incoherent screams of Destro’s Secret.  And the place exploded.  I didn’t realize (and coudln’t really tell since I don’t know the album very well) but they played three songs in a row from Calculating Infinity (just not from the start of the album).  For all of the speed and chaos, DEP is tight as anything.  They way they shifted from chaos to quiet in The Running Board was really impressive.

I didn’t realize that this show was going to be basically a Calculating Infinity tour.  They played the entire album as well as the EP they released before the album, Under the Running Board.

The midsection with wild drumming and wild guitar of The Mullet Burden was incredible to hear live.  And then it was back to the album sequence with Clip the Apex, including the static and samples, and Calculating Infinity, a song that slowed things down for a couple of minutes and gave S a rest.  But wow, so much noise and chaos in about 15 minutes.

Minakakis took a break from time to time to address the crowd, thanking everyone for coming and for being with them all this time.

And it certainly didn’t stop there.  They jumped to the opening of the album, Sugar Coated Sour, and then back to Under the Running Board for Sandbox Magician. (more…)

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Cave In (acoustic) (Alkemy Coffee Co., Flemington, NJ, April 20, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Alkemy Coffee Co., Cave In, Flemington, NJ, Suicidal Tendencies, The Dillinger Escape Plan on April 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 20, 2024] Cave In

I wasn’t aware that there was a coffee shop in Flemington, NJ.  But it doesn’t surprise me.  My wife sent me a link to an article about the new coffee shop that was being opened.  Well, it turns out that I’ve seen the new owner live.

Benjamin Weinman, founder, guitarist and songwriter of metalcore band Dillinger Escape Plan (who also plays with thrash band Suicidal Tendencies), and his fiancée Valentina Killough are opening Alkemy Coffee Co. at the former home of Factory Fuel Co. in Stangl Factory.

Amazing! (more…)

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The Dillinger Escape Plan (The Electric Factory, Philadelphia, PA, May 5, 2016) [MASTODON]

Posted in Faith No More, Mastodon, Mike Patton, Mr. Bungle, Philadelphia, PA, The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Electric Factory on May 6, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 5, 2016] The Dillinger Escape Plan

2016-05-05 19.48.27I bought The Dillinger Escape Plan’s first album way back in 1999.  It is an abrasive, unpleasant, noisy, harsh record.  The band is known for playing “mathcore” which means their songs have lots of stops and starts and weird rhythms.  They are also really fast and the chords are more like screeches than actual guitar chords.

I didn’t listen to that album very much and I pretty much forgot about the band, but I saw their name pop up here and there.  And now, here they were opening for Mastodon.

I didn’t know that they had been making records for all this time–with many, many line up changes, including a new singer since that first album.  As I looked through their discography, I found out that Mike Patton, singer for Faith No More, Mr. Bungle and a dozen other even weirder bands, sang for them on an EP.

And then their new (and current singer) Greg Puciato took over.  On the songs that I’ve listened to from their later albums, Puciato sings in many styles.  There’s a lot of screaming, but there’s also some crooning and vocals that sound an awful lot like Patton’s (no mean feat).

Reviews said their newer albums were more melodic, so I was interested to hear what they’d do. (more…)

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Metal Evolution

Posted in Anthrax, Arthur Brown, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Deftones, Dream Theater, Faith No More, Genesis, Helloween, Iggy Pop, Iron Maiden, King Crimson, Korn, Marilyn Manson, Mastodon, MC5, Megadeth, Mercyful Fate, Metallica, Motorhead, Queensrÿche, Rage Against the Machine, Raven, Rush, Saxon, Sepultura, Slayer, The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Stooges, Tool, Venom, Yes, Yngwie Malmsteen on December 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »

[WATCHED October-November 2012] Metal Evolution

metal evolutionVH1 aired this series last year and I was intrigued by it but figured I had no time to watch an 11 hour series on the history of heavy metal.  Of course, this being VH1, they have since re-aired the series on an almost continual loop.  So, if you’re interested, you can always catch it.

This series was created by Sam Dunn, the documentary filmmaker who made the movie Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey.  I had heard good things about the movie, but never saw it.  After watching the series, I’m definitely interested in the movie.  Dunn is a keener–A Canadian heavy metal fan who is really into his subject.  He knows his stuff and he knows what he likes (heavy metal) and what he doesn’t like (glam metal, nu metal).

The sheer number of people he interviews is impressive (as are the number of locations he travels to).  Part of me says “wow, I can’t believe he was able to interview X,” and then I remember, “X is really old and is nowhere near the level of fame that he once had.”  Given that, the few hold-outs seem surprising–did they not want to have anything to do with VH1?  Are they embarrassed at how uncool they are now?  Just watch the show guys, you can’t be as low as some.

The only mild criticism I have is that the show relies a lot on the same talking heads over and over.  Scott Ian from Anthrax, whom I love, is in every episode.  Indeed, he may be a paid VH1 spokesman at this point.  There are a few other dudes who show up a little more than they warrant, but hey, you use what you got, right?

What is impressive is the volume of music he includes with the show.  I assume that he couldn’t  get the rights to any studio recordings because every clip is live.  This is good for fans in that we get to see some cool unfamiliar live footage, but some of it is current live footage which often doesn’t compare to the heyday.  Having said that, there’s a lot of live footage from the early 80s–of bands that I never saw live anywhere.  And that’s pretty awesome.

With an 11-part documentary there’s the possibility of exhaustion and overkill, but Dunn is an excellent craftsman  he jumps around from old to new, talks about how the history impacts the current and, because of his own interests, he makes it personal rather than just informative. (more…)

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