By Matthew T. Eng, Offbeat NOVA
Have you ever had that feeling when you’re having a panic attack and your heart is jumping into your throat? You feel like you can’t breathe and your mind is spinning out of control? That’s how I would describe listening to the mathcore band Dillinger Escape Plan.
And honestly, I am probably being conservative with my explanation.
If you put on any Dillinger record, you are in for a wild ride. Throughout their twenty-year career, the New Jersey band brutalized audiences large and small with their aggressive blend of mathcore and metalcore, often using odd time signatures and elements of progressive rock, bossanova, and jazz intermixed with piercing vocals. They aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but they were for me. Their debut album, Calculating Infinity, is still in my goto rotation when I am mad at the world and just want to listen to somebody else scream so I don’t have to. If you ever feel that way, I highly suggest it.
If you were into underground or indie music in the early 2000s, you knew of two main bands you didn’t want to sit in the front for. The first was Les Savy Fav. Of course, the performances I saw were always electric and fun, but that didn’t stop the lead singer Tim Harrington from trying to suck face with you while wearing only underwear. The other was Dillinger Escape Plan. No, the lead singer would definitely not make out with you, but he might violently attempt to bash your head in with a microphone stand.
Anybody who saw Dillinger in the early 2000s knew to stand clear of the front, because everyone from the singer to the guitarists would repeatedly smash their instruments like weapons on unsuspecting fans. I can recall seeing a young fan get hit in the head with the backside of a guitar neck in the early 2000s. If metalcore had a “most dangerous band” award, they would be the undisputed winners. I only managed to see them a few times before they broke up a few years ago, but every time was both impressive and scary to watch. Who doesn’t like a band that keeps you on your toes, right?
So why bring this up on a blog for Northern Virginia history? Although their connection to the area is minimal at best (one of the original guitar players used to play in a seminal hardcore punk band in the early 1990s in the Hampton Roads area called Jesuit), an act of theft occurred in Fredericksburg in 2006 that LITERALLY lived up to their name.
On June 10, 2006, Dillinger Escape Plan traveled down to begin their tour in Fredericksburg, VA, at KC’s Music Alley, a medium-sized music venue just off the main downtown area of the historic district on Princess Anne St. The band was just a few days away from releasing a digital EP of cover songs, called Plagiarism. It was the first time the band had performed in the area since they formed. Needless to say, kids who attended the show were not ready. They did not get the memo about the front row that I had known about.
The band performed in their usual fashion. A YouTube video from user “Metal Nick” has the first two songs of that concert.
From their official press release of the show:
This was their first show ever in these parts and it wasn’t too much unlike any other Dillinger show prior. Greg climbed on the P.A., hung from the ceiling, blew fire… Ben swung his guitar violently and jumped off of his gear a lot. The band has been doing this for several years and it’s part of what people come to expect when paying to see DEP live. Any damages incurred by the venue always get covered from the band’s guarantee.
lambgoat.com
A few people in the audience apparently took the violent stage act as a threat of violence. Dozens of people huddled around their tour bus and threatened violence of their own against the band after they finished playing. Although nobody was hurt, somebody managed to snag fill-in guitar James Love’s guitar, a custom pink Ibanez, in the process. The thief only just managed to escape, as a member of fellow touring band Cattle Decapitation put a hammer through the window of his blue Cooper Mini. Apparently, the thief’s name was “Jeff.”
I do not know if the guitar was ever recovered. If you look at age-old message boards on the topic (yes, they were very big in 2006), you will see everything from sympathy and anger to expressing that the band was due for a “good old fashioned ass kicking” anyway.
KC’s Music Alley is now known as “KC’s Music Alley at Central Station and is still open today. It seems like a typical sports bar and venue during the week. You have standard poker nights, comedy nights, and other assorted events reminiscent of similar venues. There is full restaurant there, as well. Feel free to visit them and get some loaded cheese fries or a “Central Station Burger” and think about that time you almost got your head sliced open by a guitar. Just don’t, you know, steal it.
Offbeat NOVA 