As mathcore pioneers The Dillinger Escape Plan eagerly await their upcoming Australian tour in August, founding guitarist Ben Weinman calculates the fickle nature of fame.
"People think because you have a Wikipedia page, you're famous," Ben remarks. "So what? So does the most unknown Sesame Street puppet out there. I think we have been very typical, boring, passive people who have used this band as a way to express ourselves. This band has always been our therapy."These days, Ben is better known to his local community as a coffee shop proprietor. His clientele is often surprised to discover their barista/ café owner is a living legend of the modern punk and hardcore scene.
Formed in 1997 in New Jersey, The Dillinger Escape Plan released their debut album 'Calculating Infinity' in 1999, which featured original vocalist Dimitri Minakakis and set a benchmark for the mathcore genre.
After rigorous touring for 'Calculating Infinity', Dimitri departed the band in 2001 to pursue life as a husband and father, replaced by longtime vocalist Greg Puciato. "Dimitri had gotten married to someone he met on tour with us, and he was taking a different path," Ben explains.
"He was focussing and prioritising more his family. It made sense, as we were ready to go full force, for everyone to make a decision about how serious they wanted to be."
After Dimitri's exit, The Dillinger Escape Plan continued to perform and create new music with a shifting roster of band members. By the time they disbanded, performing their final shows in late-2017, Ben was the only remaining original member.
"When we ended the Dillinger run at the end of 2017, I really honestly didn't think I'd be playing shows or doing anything under the name ever again," Ben reveals, "and I certainly didn't know that I'd be playing with Dimitri again 20 years later.
"We remained friends this whole time, he's one of my best friends so he's been around me and the band for the entire career. I've continued to consult with and talk to him about the band throughout the years and just ask advice and hang out with him. He never really left the family."
In 2024, the Dillinger faithful got the band reunion they had all been waiting for when Dimitri took the stage with the band for a three-night club run in Brooklyn, performing 'Calculating Infinity' in celebration of the album's 25th anniversary.
"In one sense it's sometimes weird just playing that early stuff after having a whole career of putting out so many albums, but in another sense it's really great to do it right," Ben says.
"We never ended it with Dimitri, we never fully realised the full potential of getting that album and the early material out to people. There are a lot of people who got into the band well after that album was released and never had an opportunity to hear those songs and certainly not hear them in this way."
Australian fans of The Dillinger Escape Plan will have their first-ever opportunity to witness the band perform their debut album live in its entirety with the original lead singer. It will also be the band's first Australian tour in eight years.
"I'm really excited," Ben says about the tour, which will also feature guitarist James Love, bassist Liam Wilson and drummer Billy Rymer. "I've been [to Australia] with Suicidal Tendencies, who I play guitar with as well, and the last time I was there with those guys it really reminded me how much I really love Australia.
"I've always said if I could live anywhere in the world but America, it would be Australia. Out of all the places I've travelled – I've travelled everywhere, I've played everywhere – and it just feels a little bit like home.
"We'll definitely be playing our debut album 'Calculating Infinity' in its entirety. That will be the first time that's ever performed in Australia, and especially with the original singer. We will also be performing cuts from some of the EPs we put out around that album with Dimitri."
Though The Dillinger Escape Plan retain a strong and loyal Australian following, after an eight-year absence Ben says he and the band have no idea what to expect when they return in August. "That's pretty much how Dillinger's always rolled," he says.
"We've never had an expectation and if we did, the only expectation is that it would go poorly. Not only do we all have extreme imposter syndrome, we don't believe we deserve any attention, but we also feel that the attention we'll get is hate, all the time," he laughs. "So, when we are welcomed with a warm response it just means that much more to us."
With Dimitri reclaiming his rightful place at the microphone and the band embarking on international tours, it's being hailed as a 'second act of survival' for The Dillinger Escape Plan.
With no new music in the works, Ben says he's more interested in revisiting and immortalising one of his favourite chapters in The Dillinger Escape Plan's story. "The goal wasn't to restart the band or anything like that, and certainly not to create some different versions of the band," he says.
"It really is to celebrate the album that many people still talk about and use as a yardstick for this kind of music, and to give people who never got to see that incarnation of the band a chance to see it, to have some fun with Dimitri my old friend, and get to see him out there doing this again. We'd like to celebrate the album that started this all."
The Dillinger Escape Plan 2025 Tour Dates
Sun 10 Aug - Metropolis (Fremantle)Tue 12 Aug - The Gov (Adelaide)
Wed 13 Aug - Northcote Theatre (Melbourne)
Sat 16 Aug - Enmore Theatre (Sydney)
Sun 17 Aug - The Tivoli (Brisbane)
