The Dillinger Escape Plan
16 June 2008, Nosturi, Helsinki, Finland
If you like your hardcore old school, chaotic and full of energy then The Dillinger Escape Plan are just the band you should or even have to watch on a Monday evening. Many accepted the invitation and thus the not quite sold out Nosturi club quickly turned into a sea of arms, legs and hair. Doubtlessly, one can assume that several extremities had to be treated and immobilized after the gig. A live experience of a particular kind!
But first Medeia from Tampere tried to establish a basis for Messrs Puciato, Weinman and co. But with their all too typical death metal the band couldn´t really impress anybody, this kind of music you can hear in every corner bar here. What could, however, set the band apart from the masses are the synths and the female backing vocals, but of that you couldn´t really hear anything during the gig. Improvement needed!
Before the gig of The Dillinger Escape Plan started one was already wondering at the quite unusual stage setting – all boxes were either placed at the front of the stage or next to the drum kit, leaving a lot of space in the middle. After the band entered the stage everything suddenly made sense. Singer Greg Puciato moved, shortly before the gig kicked off proper, back and forth over and over again like a tiger in a cage – the calm before the storm. Suddenly, without warning, that storm burst upon us, the guys jumped to the front, to the sides, on boxes, moshed, screamed and, also somehow were able to play their instruments at the same time. Incredible! Also the crazed crowd was with the band from the first second on and formed a giant mosh pit in front of the stage, which never really came to rest. Breathing pauses or pee breaks can be had after the gig!
The band itself also still had time to test the statics of the building with their acrobatic-artistic feats – thus Greg climbed up the stage railings and simply sang from up above, hanging from a speaker box. Also guitarist Ben Weinman didn´t seem to suffer from vertigo, he clambered up a 3 m high wall of boxes, played there and jumped those 3 m down again – all the time playing his instrument, of course. The band also socialized with the audience – Ben gave his guitar to the crowd so the fans themselves could try to play some notes or they simply played from the middle of the crowd. Musicians nuts, audience nuts – brilliant show!
After the musicians had left the stage, the crowd still screamed for more and made Greg to come back to the stage, saying thanks and regretting that they had no more songs to play. In a talk with STALKER after the gig he confirmed once again that this gig was his “favorite thus far”. On this note “we want more, we want more!”
