THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN: DISTURBED Guitarist Is A 'Douche Bag' With A 'Little-Peen Complex'

Australia's Beat magazine recently published an article on New Jersey's THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN in which the group's guitarist, Ben Weinman, said he was taken aback by what he witnessed at one of DISTURBED's soundchecks. "[They were] practicing where they were going to walk and when they were going to put their leg up on the monitor and pose," Weinman said. "That was weird for us. There are times [during live gigs] where I don't even know where I am."

DISTURBED guitarist Dan Donegan then responded to Weinman in an interview that was posted on May 16 at MTV.com's "Metal File".

"I never even remember meeting these guys, and I think we know anybody that's even in the room during our soundchecks, so that's shocking to me, because I would think that we would have met them if they were standing there during our soundcheck," Donegan said. "That's funny. When we do a bigger production, there may be certain lighting cues for certain highlights of the show, but I wouldn't call it 'posing,' just a cue for our lighting guy, so he can add more drama to the set. If [DILLINGER] sold some records, and were at the level we're at, maybe they'd see that, for bands like KISS and METALLICA, there are certain highlight points during a set that you want to focus on. If I'm going to go over to one spot and do a guitar solo, my lighting guy may need to know that, so he can focus in on that.

"If that's posing, then so be it," the guitarist continued. "To me, I don't think we talk about when we're going to put our foot up on a monitor. That's just silly. It's a natural thing we do. Those guys can say whatever they want. If that's supposed to be a jab at us, am I offended? I don't give a shit. If they're saying it because they're haters, why? Because we sell millions of records and lots of tickets? It sounds more like jealousy to me."

He added, "We have millions of fans, and we find ways to connect with them. We utilize theatrics and pyro, so we have to rehearse where the pyro is going to go off, because we don't want to have a James Hetfield moment and get caught in the flame. But that's something DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN would know nothing about, because they don't play arenas they play clubs."

In a June 2, 2008 posting on THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN's MySpace blog, the New Jersey band responded to Donegan's comments with the following:

"The guitar player Dom Deluise or whatever his name is with the little-peen complex from that band DISTURBIA or whatever they're called thinks that we care about them. Old news, but still funny. 'My Ferrari is better than your Honda!!! Our stages come apart and travel with us and yours don't!!! We have thirty guitar techs and you have one!' Coooool self-esteem barometer, douche bag. Wait... What's that I hear? The sound of your band still sucking? Oh, right. Gotcha there, bud."