The Dillinger Escape Plan - Live on the BBC 9.17.02 (2003)

Recorded live on the radio in 2002, released in 2003. Life is strange.

Speaking of, it's kinda funny how life works out sometimes, ain't it? In my last review of one of DEP's releases, written just two weeks or so ago, which was of their "Cursed, Unshaven and Misbehavin': Live Infinity" album, I wrote "If you close your eyes while listening to this, and occasionally punch yourself in the face, I imagine it feels just like a REAL DEP concert!!.. Not that I would know because I've missed them due to various reasons every time they've come to town and they're about to break up, but HEY! FUCK MY STUPID FUCKING LIFE!!!" but I actually GOT TO FUCKING SEE THEM LIVE IN THAT TIME AND IT WAS AMAZING!! Greg handed me the microphone at one point and I got to scream in "Surrogate" and that was so cool, and don't even get me started on all of the other cool shit that happened!! Fucking AWESOME!! Anyhow, here we are with another live release, but this time around, they've replaced vocalist Dimitri Minakakis with Greg Puciato following the one-off collaboration EP "Irony is a Dead Scene" with Mike Patton, and it works to mixed results.

Greg Puciato has some big shoes to fill, but honestly, even at this point in DEP's career where Greg Puciato was the new guy, his vocals are still pretty impressive and throaty, managing to stick in the same realm as previous vocalist Dimitri Minakakis while still having a huge difference in sound. There are even moments where Greg Puciato sounds remarkably like Mike Patton when he does the deep-voiced bits and some of the higher screams, but honestly, Greg Puciato just can't keep up with the hectic vocal acrobatics in "When Good Dogs Do Bad Things" during the "Hey, kitty, kitty, kitty" part and also the "Mommy, mommy, mommy" chants, or even some of the more random moments in "Hollywood Squares" but you know what? Those are also awkward sections of the song that I don't even think would translate entirely well even if they were performed live with Mike Patton himself, so I can't really blame Greg Puciato for that at all. The band seems to be pretty on-point but also a bit slower than usual, with "43% Burnt" especially sounding like it's lagging a bit, which means it's still a bit of a finger-bleeder but something sounds a bit sloppier than their normal hand-tendon stunts on fretboards and on drumsticks that connect to drums because they are sticks for that.

In the midst of all the crazy jitterbuggin' tunes is a random cover of "Rebel Yell" by Billy Idol in which the band, aside from Greg Puciato occasionally screaming, never really does anything to make the cover their own, which, hell, maybe that was the point: To show that Greg Puciato can sing. You may be wondering why I keep saying "Greg Puciato" instead of just "Greg" and that's because fuck you, address the man by his full name or not at all. The live release ends on "50V Phantom" which is actually an early version of "Van Damsel" with different lyrics and a LOT more uses of the phrase "PUNK ROCK PROSTITUTE" while the chorus sounds like he's screaming "SHORYUKEN GANJA!!" which sounds like a BADASS strain of weed that'd knock you straight on your fucking ass. Remember those guys who had shirts that said shit like "My friends call me Hadoken 'cause I'm down-right-fierce"? Those were kinda cool, not too noteworthy, but cool, and that sums up this release pretty well: Not a must-have, but a neato-to-see-o. Hear-o? Hero?! You're just a peasant!! Get the fuck out of my face.

7/10