When Dillinger announced their farewell tour, I knew I had to go, but when a Sydney farewell show at the Bald Face Stag was announced I was like ‘that is the show I must be at.’ And here I am inside an absolutely packed, and I mean packed shoulder to shoulder, as we stand from wall to wall inside the Baldy waiting for the chaos to be unleashed.

Once the lights go out and the drums begin to rumble, the excitement begins to be felt in the room. The sound builds, the stage lights flash to the beat of a drum and they hit the stage, tune the guitar, and start by saying ‘this is supposed to be a farewell, so consider this a bonus’ then it is action time to the screaming of Limerent Death and with its start a mosh is born.

Dillinger are a band that lets the music they play speak for them, oh and it was spoke very loudly tonight as they delivered on everything you could have wanted from a farewell set. Just one song into another giving us, the crowd, what we wanted and never letting the energy of the room trickle out not even for a second. You had to be there to hear songs like Milk Lizard and Panasonic Youth or new ones off the latest album, dissociation songs like Symptoms of a Terminal Illness and Surrogate. Both sounding great, but it was as the set list drew to a close that things got even better with Farewell Mona Lisa, then the big finisher was Prancer. Hearing these tracks for what is said to be the last time live, just made hearing them that much more significant.

Now of course that was not enough for the cheering crowd and as the band exited the stage door they leave the churning sound of guitars coming out of the speakers, the crowd clap and stomp for more but the stage remains black with the noise still coming out. Now the build-up continues, the crowd becoming more feveratic and more vocal, their cries are heard and the band re-emerge. They thank us for everything throughout the years and say ‘see you Saturday’ and ask if we can give it some more with these last two songs, first up Good Neighbour and of course it all ends with 43% Burnt.

The Bald Face is an awesome venue with its ‘up the front in your face’ stage, the band will always climb on top of speakers, get into the pit, and really give it to the crowd and tonight’s set was no different. With the Dillinger Escape Plan and their awesome live show that is just balls to the wall blistering metal, a band whose guitar work is signature sharp and played with such precision musically, it is a real pleasure to see and hear. You accompany that with a killer stage light display for such a small stage and you leave tonight’s show knowing this was a gig for the history books.

Review – Chad 

Photo Gallery – Christian Ross