Review: HORSE the band + Dillinger Escape Plan 12/10/2005

#50
December 10, 2005
The Dillinger Escape Plan
Between the Buried and Me
HORSE the band
Sonar

Fire spitting!!!

OK, now that that's out of the way: HORSE the band. Unfreakinbelievable again. I think they won over most of the audience (annoying high school girls excepted) with their crazy stage show and complex songs. The guy in front of me was headbanging like crazy. I took about a dozen terrible pictures before one of the bouncers told me I couldn't take any photos (this one is the best one, so it's just as well). The only other bad thing was that they didn't get to play very long. Oh, and the sound at Sonar is rather craptacular, but that's not their fault. I await their glorious return to the east coast. In the mean time, pick up their album 'The Mechanical Hand' - at the very least you can complete your vulture-themed mixtape.

Between the Buried and Me is fortunately not who I was thinking they were. Whew! And they're super cute. I knew several of their songs from listening to LAMetal on Live 365 all day, several days per week (when I'm not listening to Warrior Radio). I would describe them as emo (using the 1995 definition of emo, which was basically hardcore and sometimes had keyboards and singing) mixed with death metal.

Finally, headliners The Dillinger Escape Plan. I'd only seen them once before (#3) but it was so crazy! Recently they've been even more crazy! There was no heckling (good or bad) that I heard, just clanging guitars and screaming, followed by applause. I like their new stuff because it has more understandable vocals (I can only take so much sonic dissonance on its own). For me, DEP is more spectacle than musical enjoyment (although I have three of their cds). Their set was mostly from 2004's 'Miss Machine' (which I missed the cd release shows for because I was in Russia). They did play several songs off of 'Calculating Infinity' - of which '43% Burnt' is my very favorite. In addition to destroying cymbals, jumping into the audience, hanging upside down from a pipe, and throwing around equipment cases and the light box, Greg actually spit fire! It was crazy as hell! Pandemonium 2005!

I did finally pick up both 'The Mechanical Hand' (which came out the same day as GAIBSIV:VIFFTTEOM, so you can see the conflict there) and 'Miss Machine'. If I had known that DEP had totebags, maybe I wouldn't have purchased my new Rocawear bag...nah, I still would have because it's awesome (silver with all kinds of studs, a sequined heart, small zippered pockets on the front, and an inexplicable chain).

I was thinking about coming up with some kind of blog awards (either the Golden Raisin Roundies or the Geodes) - I think two of the winners are in this post....