Dillinger Escape Plan + Rolo Tomassi @ Birmingham Academy, 28th October 2010

The Dillinger Escape Plan

It’s really windy in Birmingham city centre today. Let’s see how many times I can get blown away…

It’s my first time in Academy 2 since it moved to its new venue, and I’m not sure I like the room as much as the other two. It’s long and thin, mostly due to the bar running down the right hand side of the venue. I walk into the room and it’s rammed, but after negotiating the bar, the room opens up a little, and this alcove between the bar and the toilets is where I spend the night – it’s pretty near the front, and I’ve got a set of speakers pointing at me. I hope it’s not too loud.

Rolo Tomassi are my first band this evening. Let me be upfront about this. I’ve seen them live before, and I didn’t like them. I’ve heard their recorded efforts, and I don’t like that either.

The band, from Sheffield, hit the stage a little late and fire straight into set opener “Tongue In Chic”, and it’s loud. Really loud. Possibly the loudest gig I’ve ever been to. And the sound mix is awful. It sounds like white noise is taking a crap in my ears. Once the quiet part of the song kicks in, I can hear much better. I like their quiet moments, but the loud mathcore parts I find are just too complicated to be enjoyed. I like the way some bands play about with rhythms and time signatures (DEP, Mr. Bungle, Between The Buried And Me) but I feel that RT are being overly complicated just because it’s cool, or maybe for other reasons that I just don’t understand.

Rolo Tomassi

My other problem is with vocalist Eva Spence. I think it’s great that someone who is essentially cute-as-a-button, a great singer, a great dresser and a very sexy dancer can front a band with the grunt of RT, but as soon as she starts her “yelping”, I just wish that she wasn’t there. Her vocal yelping sounds identical from track to track, and it instantly turns me off the band as a whole. But, as per usual, I’m wrong, the crowd seems to be loving every moment of their set. Their set closer “Party Wounds” is the crowd favourite, and gets everyone down the front moshing like mad. They go even crazier when vocalist / keyboard player James Spence jumps into the crowd for a quick crowd surf.

At last! Dillinger Escape Plan, from Morris Plains, New Jersey, take the stage, and they’re playing like their lives depends on it. They open their set with new album opener “Farewell, Mona Lisa” and everything’s going mental. Vocalist Greg Puciato has problems with his wireless mic pretty much from the off, the sound is still immensely loud, but slightly more listenable than for Rolo Tomassi, the crowd have gone batshit mental, moshing and crowd surfing as if it’s the last day left on earth, and the band are climbing on top of any available amp and box whilst seeming playing their hearts out. DEP are a band that have to be seen live to fully appreciate their fucked-up mathcore sound.

The Dillinger Escape Plan

“Milk Lizard” see the crowd chanting the line “This feels like never ending” whilst punching the air, and “Room Full Of Eyes” causes the obligatory circle pit to open up in front of the stage. Even though most DEP songs are an immensely complicated mish-mash of rhythms, the band are such a well oiled machine that each band member hits every note or beat perfectly in time, and vocalist Puciato screams his lungs out on every track that it’s required.

The set continues with their most accessible track “Black Bubblegum”, where it seems that every member of the crowd knows every word, and continues its madness until it reaches main set ender “Sunshine The Werewolf”, which results in Puciato standing in the middle of the pit, being jostled from all sides by the crowd.

The encore begins with the epic “Ire Works” album closer “Mouth Of Ghosts”, which sees guitarist Ben Weinman put down the guitar and start playing keys, and an extremely proficient keyboard player he is. Encore closer “43% Burnt” see the ending of the apocalypse, with Weinman firstly crowd surfing whilst playing guitar, followed by Puciato singing in the crowd, and ending with Weinman swinging from the lighting rig.

Another epic DEP show, and yet again I’m amazed how none of the band ended up killing themselves on stage. Simply awesome.

Dillinger Escape Plan set list:
Farewell, Mona Lisa*
Fix Your Face**
Milk Lizard**
Room Full of Eyes*
Chinese Whispers*
Sugar Coated Sour****
Gold Teeth On A Bum*
Widower*
Black Bubblegum**
Good Neighbor*
Lurch**
Sunshine the Werewolf***

Encore:
Mouth of Ghosts**
Panasonic Youth***
43% Burnt****

Review – Tony Hackett
Photos – Gobi Jhitta

* 2010’s “Operation Paralysis”
** 2007’s “Ire Works”
*** 2004’s “Miss Machine”
**** 1999’s “Calculating Infinity”

Review – Tony Hackett
Photos – Gobi Jhitta

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