venetia_sassy | Recap Pt 2: And finally ... Panic! (Reply)

(I need a Panic icon. But I can't find one I like!)

While we were still up on the balcony, we could see the techs setting up for Panic. Also saw a tall guy with a shaved head and tattoos on his calves adjusting the microphone stands – hi Zack! Ian’s microphone reached midchest on Zack. *is amused*

We went down into the crowd, about a dozen rows back, somewhat to the right. I had a decent few of Dallon, partial view of the others. As the show went on, I was able to work my way forward until I was only a few metres from the stage centre, with an excellent view of Brendon, excellent view of Spencer when Brendon was bouncing around the stage, very good view of Ian and okay view of Dallon. No offence to Dallon but that accorded with my priorities quite nicely!

Band came on stage and went right into it with Ready to Go (Get Me Out of My Mind) and everybody was jumping! Brendon’s voice is terrific, singing or speaking, just beautifully flexible. Ian was looking adorably dorky with these big pink glasses. Even after he took his shirt off, I just wanted to coo at him and pat his fluffy hair. An adorable, animated muppet.

I was quite impressed with myself afterwards as I tried to recreate the setlist. I knew there wasn’t a hope in hell of remembering the order – but when I found the setlist online, I’d only missed out one song! That was the second song, But It’s Better If You Do (nothing against the song, I just have trouble remembering titles from the first album.) And unless the banter was song-related, I’m pretty vague on what happened when so I’ll just mention as I remember.

Then they swung right into The Ballad of Mona Lisa with Brendon slithering around the righthand speakers like a creeper. He climbed up on the right hand speaker and sang from there, then jumped off. Everyone sang along with the chorus (well, really everyone sang along with just about everything. I found myself doing it. The only problem with this was when I was stuck in front of someone who was singing very loudly, off-key, almost in my ear. Made it a bit hard to hear Brendon but I got away from her fairly quickly.)

Then there was Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off. I think that was when Brendon lost the jacket (it didn’t last long anyway. Neither did Ian’s.) He told us that he’d remembered to put pants on today and let’s see how long they’d last! (Tease.)

Brendon introduced Trade Mistakes with a little about the fun of a new album. Then there was Camisado and I think he asked ‘who recognises this one?’ Answer: everybody. Then there was Hurricane Then The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage and Time to Dance … so many songs and they were all so much fun.

At some point, I think they were tuning or adjusting new guitars? I’m not sure but Brendon looked at Ian and said, Christmas music? Really? And then rapped 30 seconds or so of something to do with Santa Claus, I couldn’t quite make it out.

When Brendon took his shirt off, he informed us that he was a sweaty motherfucker. Also that the clasp on his pants was broken (which it was, you can see it in the photos) and he had attempted a ‘hillbilly repair’ but who knew if it would last!

For Kill Tonight, Brendon told us he wanted us to move our feet as much as we could, see if we could set the place on fire! Then he introduced Nine In The Afternoon as ‘the song about getting really wasted on alcohol and your friends telling you the next day what an asshole you were the night before.’ I wondered how the more mellow song would fit with the rest but it was surprisingly energetic.

Introducing I Write Sins Not Tragedies, he said that his mom was a very cool mom. Not only had she squeezed him out of her cervix (really Brendon? Mentioning your mother’s cervix on stage?), yes, not only had she birthed him from her loins (aghh) this song has been her ring tone for six-and-a-half years. And he didn’t care what anyone said, that was a fucking cool mom!

I was kind of glad when he started singing again.

I believe there was something about football and changing things mid-play (don't ask me) in regards to playing the cover of I Believe In A Thing Called Love - which showed off Brendon’s falsetto and his dorky moves!

He then started to introduce New Perspective but Ian started playing some of Let’s Get It On (I think he started it) and Brendon went, Okay! Ian wandered over to the darkened second stage during that, sat on a case and played, with someone (I suspect Zack) shining a torch on him as a makeshift spotlight. Yes, Ian, you have quite a nice chest. Then Ian wandered back and they got back to New Perspective which was a lot of fun.

At some point Brendon started to introduce the band, saying Ian was a good guitarist - and good kisser! But they got sidetracked and then he started the introduction again at a later point. Brendon said to Ian, you're a really good guitar player, Ian said thank you, Brendon said you’re welcome. It was rather cute. Then to introduce Dallon, he's a tall nasty drink of water. He's tall, he’s nasty, he’s Dallon! Then, one of my oldest friends, he likes to bang the shit out of everything he can get his hands on, Spencer James Smith! Then Dallon introduced Brendon with a lot of titles, things like Master of Universe, Captain of Cool, etc – went on for at least 30 seconds and Brendon and Spencer were laughing, then Brendon made a silly bow and they went into the next song.

*sigh* And then it was time for the last song, Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met ...), and the energy was as strong or stronger than at the beginning. Brendon was still all over the place, Spencer was still grinning away behind his kit, Ian seemed quite happy to be pulled against Brendon and have his chest groped – and Dallon still had his bowtie tied, his shirt buttoned and his jacket zipped up. He must have been sweltering. Brendon thanked us for being a great crowd and said he wanted to fuck every single one of us (I’m not sure about that tactic) and the four of them lined up and bowed.

There was a brief call for an encore but the techs came out right away to start breaking down so it was obvious it wasn’t going to happen.

I found Pip not too far away, she’d stayed further back, behind several short girls so she wouldn’t interrupt anyone’s view. We agreed that Panic’s music and performance were the best of the evening. I also said it was rather mean of Brendon to tease us about taking his pants off. Pip said, well, it was pretty unlikely that he’d do that on stage, right? I laughed and said, yeah, except he’s done it before, not that long ago! (Pip likes their music but she’s not a fangirl.) I practically bounced my way out of there (although I warned Pip that as soon as I sat down, I’d probably crash.) It was lovely and cool outside, just sprinkling a bit as we walked back to the train station.

All in all, it was a great evening. I went for Panic, anything more was just a bonus, and Panic are fantastic live performers. I’d love to see them again.