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Live Reviews : The Dillinger Escape Plan & Jack The Stripper @ Prince Bandroom, Melbourne 28/08/2015

By on August 29, 2015

Conflict of interest alert! (It’s like a trigger warning, but it contains actually useful information) – I already think Jack The Stripper are one of Australia’s best bands and I know some of the members. I also think The Dillinger Escape Plan are objectively the best band on earth, and I don’t know any of the members though one time I yelled really loudly at Billy Rymer and he yelled something back but I couldn’t hear what that was.  

Jack The Stripper did a really admirable at what was never going to be an easy. Fuck death metal fans; Dillinger fans will not stuff about with opening bands nonsense. The only time I have seen other bands on the bill with Dillinger get a comparable response is either when the crowd is an even split of different fans, or when they other band is headlining over them. And even then. 
Jack played tight, hard and with an enthusiasm that is missing from most bands on the local scene. They were also oddly quiet, and compared to Dillinger I think they may have just been using stage noise. But when the heavy sections of Nibiru or Grinning Death hit, they hit hard, and fuck these stuffy Dillinger nerds, I enjoyed myself. 

The vibe of the venue changed the instant the lights dimmed, and the intro music kind of just started, merging from the background music without fanfare. This band is a religion; from the mosh pigs up the front to the tech-aficionados up the back, every single person in the venue worships this band in their own way. And Christ what a sermon.  

Playing mostly older songs from Miss Machine, the set was balanced surprisingly well. There wasn’t an overload of singles or “new album tracks”, it just the best songs they’ve got. And fuck me dead, not only did they play Happiness Is A Smile, but they played Baby’s First Coffin, which is objectively their best song (fight me). If you’ve never heard it, check it out on Youtube, then imagine actual humans playing it live, in one take, while they and a few hundred others fling themselves around a room like bored orangutans. 

There is no other band like The Dillinger Escape. There were bands like The Chariot, who were as fun to watch live, but whose music suffered because of it. There are bands like Between The Buried And Me, who sound album –tight but don’t really do much to write home about. But Dillinger, god damn Dillinger Escape Plan, will pull off the music excruciating musical passages, smearing a grin on every musical nerd watching from the sound desk, while they swing from the fucking piping or lighting rig (which actually happened) and land on the happiest of moshkids. 

There is an unspoken respect for the fans that I think make Dillinger just that much better than most bands. You can feel the genuine love the band has for the crowd, and the crowd has for the fans, and the feedback loop that ensues results in the best gig of the year, whenever and wherever it happens. I don’t trust music fans that don’t make it a priority to see Dillinger whenever they come out. Go and see them and just fucking try to prove my gushing nonsense wrong. 

dillinger escape plan tour 2015

About

Mitch is a 26 year old vegan, socialist, atheist, utilitarian, reductionist metalhead, stand up comedian and philosophy major that hates labels. When he isn't being politely ignored at dinner parties he's being politely ignored on comedy nights around the country.