The Dillinger Escape Plan w/ Three Trapped Tigers and Maybeshewill at The Garage 5/11/13

Maybeshewill are probably not the bad you’d expect to open up this bill, as you walk into a room filled with the sound of their instrumental post-rock.  It’s not always quite that ambient though and these guys do have the ability to get heavy.  It’s hard to review this kind of music in the live environment because you either get it or you don’t.  What is clear is when around half way through this set you could turn your head to the left or right and nearly every single person who was paying attention was standing nodding their head in time with the music, without seemingly being aware of doing it.  Definitely one that might be worth checking out.

Up next is Three Trapped Tigers who are another entirely instrumental band, who come onto the stage with no less than three laptops.  Their music again varies between the heavy and the light and it’s strange listening to it in a room full of people drinking beer and getting ready to go bat shit to Dillinger Escape Plan.  In the right atmosphere these guys could be spectacular but tonight might not be that time.

The Dillinger Escape Plan are one of the best bands on the planet.  That’s just a fact.  Last week was an example of exactly why they are.  They blend insanity with huge melodic choruses and they do it better than nearly anyone else.  It works so well that it doesn’t matter whether they are on the stage, climbing on to the crowd or leaping from balconies (both of which go down at this gig) it never actually takes away from what makes them so great live, the music.  Its a night that see’s the new tracks getting a run out and cuts like “Nothing’s Funny” and “One of us is the Killer” sit side by side with old classics and don’t seem even slightly out of place.  While the old classics like “Milk Lizard” and closer “43% Burnt” are still just as good as they were the first time you heard them.  Meanwhile the always brilliant “Black Bubblegum” shows that these guys are so much more than unhinged insanity but have a genuine grasp of melody and know how to pen a track that appeals to the masses.]

If you look at bands who have really made their name in the last ten years and attempt to pinpoint who will be remembered as the most influential you find many that will be able to compete with Dillinger.  Last week that showed exactly why that is the case.  This is a set chock full of fantastic mathcore songs that just make you want to fuck shit up.  They are one of those live bands that it doesn’t even matter what you think of the music, the energy and intensity that comes off them as they rip through their set will make sure you have a fantastic time anyway.  If they are anywhere near you any time soon, don’t be an idiot and make sure you get along.