With the era of the CD now in the past and the profitability of music squashed to nothing thanks to the internet, bands have had to go back to making it the old fashioned way. It’s becoming increasingly common for you to see groups making two full trips around the circuit for a single release. Luckily for fans, this affords them the chance to see their show presented to them at different venues with different lineups. And I can testify, that the difference is huge. Watching Mastodon open for cartoon band Dethklok from the balcony of the Orpheum was pathetic in comparison to the full on assault of the band headlining the stage of the incomparable Commodore Ballroom.
April 18th and 19th, Vancouver will host 2 bands who are no strangers to the city in the past year. The influential 90′s survivors, Deftones, visited the Lower Mainland last October as part of a super-tour with the reincarnation of Alice in Chains and the aforementioned Mastodon, playing an energetic yet disconnected show at Rogers Arena.
The Dillinger Escape Plan brought their ’10 steps ahead of the crowd’, atomic explosion to the Rickshaw last April which, despite their unparalleled talent, became a wash in the concrete walls of the old Kung Fu cinema. If you were lucky enough to snatch up tickets to either of their sold-out Commodore shows next week, you’ll get a chance to watch 2 seminal bands bash your brains in. You’ll hold your breath along with the other captivated spectators as the Deftones bring the room to a hush before one of their signature choruses kicks back in like a dropped anvil. You ‘ll hear all the contrasting and coalescing poly-rhythms of Dillinger’s high-thread count tapestry of sound…..though trying to follow them will leave the untrained listener to burn out like a Mario Kart on a banana peal. The Deftones newest release ‘Diamond Eyes’ is as strong as any of their best albums and seems to have allowed them to relax artistically even though the sound is still amped up.
Option Paralysis is Dillinger’s master work so far, exhibiting the pinnacle of their achievements both technically and melodically while also weaving in an intensely cathartic expression of the experience of the darker sides of the psyche without having to portray them as dragons or goblins. If you have tickets already, lucky you. If not, I’d try like hell to find some. This one at the Ballroom will be one for the books.
