Dillinger Escape Plan
Khann, Vox Palma
The Social, Orlando, Fl • January 15, 2008
Jen Cray
Thanks to Disney’s new policy against uber-aggressive metal shows, Dillinger Escape Plan was bumped off of the Orlando date of the Killswitch Engage/Every Time I Die tour. Not a band to sit around and sulk, the New Jersey boys threw Mickey Mouse’s men the middle finger and put on their own show earlier in the day, at a much more intimate venue downtown. Despite the early door time of 4:30pm, the fans followed the band and nearly sold-out The Social. Catching DEP without having to sit through Killswitch Engage sounded like a good plan for many of us, it seemed!
A pair of Orlando bands warmed up the crowd, and once again I found myself impressed by not only the versatility of talent within our little local scene, but by the amount of support offered by local fans for these otherwise unknown acts.
I walked in halfway through Vox Palma’s set and immediately wished I’d left my house 15 minutes earlier. Coming from the school of Pixies punk, this five-piece of greasy young’ins defied genres by smashing all aspects of dirty, greasy rock into one indefinable package. It was not at all the sound I had been expecting when preparing myself for the prog/metalcore onslaught of DEP, and I was floored by the small part of their performance I bore witness to.
The progressively bent, math metal offered up by Khann was more in keeping with the palate of the night. It straddled the line between screamo and pscyhadelic prog metal. In other words, it was often a bit difficult to discern a melody. Complexity is the name of the game for this new generation of metal.
The Dillinger Escape Plan live show is infamous for its eye-popping elements. This night’s show was lacking the fire breathing and rafter climbing that I’ve heard tales of, but for what it lacked in daredevil stunts, it more than made up for with sheer performance force.
The band was not on the stage for more than 30 seconds before beefed up frontman Greg Puciato had already dove into the outstretched arms of the audience. From there the chaos only escalated, with stage divers sharing face time with Puciato and the four other band members. I was not familiar with the band’s music and so I can’t tell you what songs they plowed through, but I can say that it was impressive–both musically and visually.
DEP brought their own bells and whistles for dramatic stage dress, blinding white lights, and smoke machines, but they hardly needed any help creating a memorable spectacle on-stage.
To see more photos of this show, and others, go to [www.jencray.com](http://www.jencray.com/bands_live.htm)
