November 1, 2011
The Wiltern, Los Angeles

Disclaimer: This Means Nothing to The Dillinger Escape Plan

The first time I saw The Dillinger Escape Plan play live was during Nine Inch Nails‘ set at Bonnaroo, June 2009.  If you’re going to share the stage with Nine Inch Nails, you need to know how to make people lose their shit.  That doesn’t mean jumping around maniacally and screaming, merely to put on a show.  While they do tear around the stage violently, The Dillinger Escape Plan knows that in order to make people “lose their shit,” you need to genuinely connect with them.  It doesn’t matter how much the band moves if they can’t move the crowd.

The next time I saw The Dillinger Escape Plan was during Nine Inch Nails’ final show, September 10, 2009, at The Wiltern.  Here’s the brilliance of The Dillinger Escape Plan: I remember them from those two shows and made it a priority to see them again.  I hadn’t experienced the band previously, I had no vested interest in them, I wasn’t a “fan”.  They more than held their own on stage with NIN.  The Dillinger Escape Plan added something to those shows.  Nine Inch Nails is arguably one of the best live bands ever.  It takes a lot to be additive to a Nine Inch Nails show, especially the final Nine Inch Nails shows.

2 years and hundreds of live show experiences later, I found myself at The Wiltern, once again seeing The Dillinger Escape Plan. This time, it was their set; they were playing their songs.  They didn’t have to win over potentially skeptical NIN fans.  They were playing to their fans and those of Mastodon, the band they were opening for.

The Dillinger Escape Plan gives you more than your money’s worth. You feel rewarded for buying the ticket, paying the exorbitant 60% service fees per ticket, standing in line, paying $5 for a 50-cent bottle of water.  Even if you don’t like their music, what The Dillinger Escape Plan does from start to finish is make people lose their shit.  There’s no ramp up to the show.  They come out full force and do not stop until they leave the stage.  Their entire set is performed at the energetic level of an encore.  At the end of the show, feeling like the band “paid” me, I bought a sweatshirt. That’s what you want – as an artist and a fan. The money, sure, but getting people to give a shit and therefore getting them to DO something – that’s the real pay off.

The Dillinger Escape Plan is raw.  Real. Authentic. In the moment. Rock climbing, skiing, mountain biking on the edge of cliffs – all things I’ve done – force you to be present.  When you’re truly experiencing life on the edge, anything other than what’s right in front of you disappears.  You are fully immersed in what’s happening, to the point where “beginning” and “end” dissipate. The only  remaining setting is “ON!”  That’s how The Dillinger Escape Plan plays.

Access to the pit at The Wiltern is generally GA, first-come, first-serve.  You exchange your ticket for a wristband and you’re in.  Once the pit hits capacity, you can stand on any one of several tiered levels (assuming you have a floor ticket).  The first tier crowd, above the pit, was going insane.  “How come you guys aren’t down here?” Greg Puciato asked them.  “Because of the tickets you have?? That’s ok, I’ll come to you.”

The Dillinger Escape Plan knows how to express their appreciation to their fans. Yes, it includes jumping over walls, walking on heads, and screaming in the faces of fans, but that’s what they came for.  And when the fans couldn’t get close enough, the band came to them.  “I would stay out there the whole time – I just can’t do it,” Puciato added as he jumped off the hands and shoulders of fans, over the wheelchair access ramp and wall dividing the pit, returning to the stage.  When you see the videos below, you’ll understand why it’s not sustainable to play the entire show, balancing on a ledge, crowd surfing, and head walking.

That said, if they weren’t climbing in  the crowd, they were scaling the amps or somehow levitating above it all.  As ticket sales across the board continue to decline, it’s bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan who will endure.  They know how to connect with their fans. They know how to make people lose their shit.