LIVE REVIEW: THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN & Ho99o9 @ THE TIVOLI 17/08/25

Photo Charlyn Cameron

Words by Cecilia Pattison-Levi

Following a 12-year hiatus, The Dillinger Escape Plan returned to Brisbane with their friends Ho99o9 (pronounced Horror), and they played at the Tivoli to an enthusiastic crowd. The plan for the Australian Tour was to celebrate their ground breaking album 1999’s ‘Calculating Infinity’ and the whole build up to the gig was about going back to that time as fans filled the venue to soak in the sonic dissonance and dynamic onstage energy from both bands.

The Dillinger Escape Plan don’t just put on a gig: it is an event. It was a tour that witnessed the resurrection of the band and their live performance delivery as a unit. It was tight! The band’s assault was a wall of sound – a sonic boom – that exploded over the Tivoli in a cloud of rage and joy. You don’t go to a Dillinger Escape Plan show to hear songs, you go to feel them as the sound waves crash through your body and take out your eardrums. The band: Dimitri Minakakis (vocalist), Ben Weinman (lead guitar), Liam Wilson (bass), James Love (rhythm guitar) and Billy Rymer (drums) were hyped up and delivered a high-octane gig. And, with Dimitri Minakakis, stalking and striding across the stage, it felt dangerous, and reminded the crowd of the past and the present of The Dillinger Escape Plan.

However, the night commenced with the opening salvo coming from the American punk rap duo Ho99o9. They exploded onto the stage. The heavy electronic dance music was underpinned by the fantastic drumming of Billy Rymer, the synthesiser pad work of theOMG and the vocals of Eaddy (warped through an old telephone). Ho99o9 are a genre-defying force of nature who delivered an indescribable sonic flavour with samples like ‘crazy train’ bringing in ‘Ok. I’m Loaded’, the following songs ‘Escape’ and ‘Target Practice’ fused rap, hardcore, industrial, punk, hip hop, and horror-show theatrics. Their musical sense of humour was cheeky and fun as they prowled the stage with menace like big cats.

Ho99o9 shook the room with ‘Protect My Bitch’ and Upside Down’. They delivered a 11-song set of punk songs which was part rave and part riot as the mosh pit went off. There were injections of EDM with The Cordettes ‘Mr Sandman’ and Frank Sinatra’s ‘I Did It My Way’ which hilariously showed the juxtaposition in musical styles. The moshing and circle pit took off as Eaddy launched himself into the fray. Is it post-irony for one minute having the crowd crashing into each other and then dancing to classic pop songs? Don’t know. But it happened.

The songs ‘Sub-Zero’, ‘Bite My Face’, ‘LA Riots’ were gloriously unhinged in dark-lit chaos. The set ended with rapid fire songs ‘Dope Dealerz’ as Eaddy crowd surfed, ‘Fog’ and ‘Godflesh’ that closed out the set. It was a charged, subversive and intelligent performance. The music Ho99o9 is making is ground breaking and left the crowd wanting more.

As the stage was stripped back to bare. Instruments were put in place and people had time to think about the perfect prelude that Ho99o9 had delivered. The tension and wait for The Dillinger Escape Plan built. The anticipation could have been cut with a knife. The energy built as the red laser lights came up and the images of the album ‘Calculating Infinity’ were displayed behind the drum kit.

The Dillinger Escape Plan played it straight in their 18 song setlist. They let the music and angst do the talking as they delivered a mix of songs including tracks from ‘Calculating Infinity’, with all its complex time signatures, unpredictable rhythms, and intense, high-octane energy lead the way. The band came out onto the stage and a wall of sound hit the crowd with ‘*#?’ and it was like a physical punch.

The Dillinger Escape Plan did not have any gimmicks, no sentimental speeches just a “happy to be back in Australia and Brisbane”, it was what you saw - was what you got. As the band whipped up the crowd with a bit of crowd surfing, getting down on the floor in the circle pit and singing, and climbing the stairs to sing down at them. It was pure, controlled chaos. It was slightly unhinged, highly animated and very loud music as the songs ‘Sugar Coated Sour’, ‘The Running Board’ and ‘The Mullet Burden’ when Ho99o9 joined the band on stage to sing. The songs were delivered at rapid fire pace.

Dimitri Minakakis was back at the helm of the band for the first time in over two decades. The band was on fire from the start, the music was angular and addictively aggressive. Dimitri Minakakis’s voice was unrelenting on ‘Clip The Apex - Accept Instruction’, ‘Prodigy’, ‘Don’t Dream’ and ‘Calculating Infinity’ as it sounded like the force that only two decades of absence can deliver.

Watching Ben Weinman manage to somehow play mathematically impossible guitar riffs while spinning like a top, charging across the stage, jumping off the risers and crowd surfing was insane. The drummer Billy Rymer was the calm and control in the middle of The Dillinger Escape Plan sonic storm. The songs ‘Destros Secret’, ‘Sandbox Magician’, ‘4th Grade Dropout’, ‘Abe the Cop’ and ‘Weekend Sex Change’ were played fast and in a sonic blur as Liam Wilson and James Love drove home the rhythms.

The last four tracks were ‘Variations On A Cocktail Dress’, ‘Monticello’, ‘Jim Fear’, the cover of the Aphex Twin song ‘Come To Daddy’ and as the band said “Goodnight” and ended the tour they closed the set with ‘43% Burnt’. The Dillinger Escape Plan went out with a bang!

Ho99o9 and The Dillinger Escape Plan delivered utterly compelling sets. The crowd were alive to a new vision of music: a place where music is dark, risky and wonderfully alive.