The Dillinger Escape Plan
One of the most interesting and influential bands of the last ten years, alternative icons The Dillinger Escape Plan close the Saturday of Hevy Fest, despite severe sound technicalities, in their usual mind-blowing manner. Opening with a frantic 'Farewell, Mona Lisa', all five members of the band fly out of the traps with sheer ferocity and total lack of remorse, climbing speaker stacks piled several feet high, rebounding off either side of the stage and remarkably never missing a note. Frustratingly the microphone levels are extremely low and vocalist Greg Puciato has to really battle with this fact for a good chunk of the set, visually it's a Dillinger Escape Plan show, one of the best the world has to offer the live circuit, but sound-wise the vocals are at times slightly inaudible and the music certainly quieter than it should be. Being the talented boys they are however, Puciato's voice is so loud and stage banter so cool ('Posers better go and get a chicken wrap because shit's about to get shitty') it almost doesn't matter while the music, particularly visual guitar wizard and inspiration Ben Weinman, is so precise that the songs still shine through. From the mind-bending 'Panasonic Youth' however the sound becomes a lot better and the band power through like a stampede of pissed-off rhinos, 'Milk Lizard' and 'Black Bubblegum' provide the most unorthodox sing-a-longs before set highlight 'Sunshine The Werewolf' sees Architects' Sam Carter and an in-crowd The Bronx's Matt Caughthran screaming along to its 'DESTROYER!' breakdown in brutally devastating fashion. The fact that the band then simply dive head-first into classic '43% Burnt', completely destroying the stage in the process, sees them utterly lay waste to the Saturday evening of Hevy Fest. Although this may not have been quite up there with the very best of Dillinger shows thanks to the poor sound, it's certainly among the most fun and is a perfect reminder of how vital and significant this band are to modern music.