Concorde 2 Sunday 24th February 2008

Excited by rumours of light shows, fire breathing and stage dives with guitars smashing into faces, it was with trepidation and some nerve that XYZ’s Nats Spada ventured into The Dillinger Escape Plan at Concorde2…

“I couldn’t help but feel really excited but also a little nervous about going to this gig. The one subject that came up when talking about DEP to any of my friends the past week was the Reading Festival incident back in 2002 when their singer Greg Puciato did a ‘number two’ on stage, smeared it all over himself and then stage dived. I decided perhaps I wouldn’t get –too- close to the front of the stage, just in case fate had written my name out in turd. Even if I’d wanted to, I would have had to push my way through the heaving masses, I hadn’t seen a band pack out Concorde 2 like this in a while! These ‘Metalcore’ monsters must be worth all the hype they’ve been given over the years.

Blinding white lights powered down as DEP took the stage, their energy immense; an inimitably powerful display for the last show of their current UK Tour. As they launched into their third song, ‘Fix Your Face’, singer Greg Puciato was stage diving into the arms of those punters who were bravely standing in the pit at the front. Each song was delivered with such passion and verve that you believed every single word he sang. Guitarist Ben Weinman, founder and only original member of the band, played the guitar like a crazy man possessed, swinging it around and performing some pretty curious hand waves, it was as if he was ‘worshipping’ on stage! As they launched into their last song for the evening, I realised that trepidation and poo rumours aside, I had been totally and utterly sucked into the world of DEP and tonight, finally I had become a fan.”

Words by Nats Spada. Pics By Joel Smedley.