This is an open forum for staff members, contributers, and fans alike to submit their reviews on the latest music releases and concerts. In an industry that is drowning with overprocessed, grossly overrated, unoriginal crap these days, this is our chance to allow the real stars to shine, if only on our humble, little stage; and expose you to some of our favorite talents.
Reviews are given 1 - 5 stars.
I arrived at the Tsongas Arena for the Panic! At the Disco concert about an hour and a half before the doors opened, and considering it was a sold out show, I wasn’t surprised to see the line already halfway, if not more, down to the corner and around the block with girls in masquerade masks, as if to recreate the music video “But It’s Better If You Do”, and guys wearing heavy eye make-up and top hats. The dominant age group was pretty obvious, ranging from probably ages twelve to nineteen, with the occasional parent as chaperone in the mix. The doors opened at exactly six o’clock, and all at once, I was shoved into the mass of people running to get to the doors, four of which were for girls, and two boys, to be petted down and checked for things such as cigarettes, lighters, and cameras. As if that little check stops me. Camera down pants? Check. Everyone knows the drill by now, I’m sure even the security guards. Thank god the rules say they aren’t allowed to check every part of the body, or I would never make it in with a camera. Back to the running. It is like a mad dash to get to the stage, everyone attempting to run down to the floor and get that great spot in front of their favorite band member. The security guards are stationed strategically at every point where the arena thinks you can pick up running speed, and they slow your pace as you run down the stairs with a stern “no running” sentence they must say over a thousand times a night. I’m not in the mood to run to the front on this particular night, considering I had been to a general admission Panic show before, and I wasn’t in the mood to be moshed around and crowd surfed over tonight.
I took my spot in front of the sound booth, which is placed directly in the center of the arena. This is for the best sound quality. I learned the dynamics of sound in my high school music technology class. The center of the place is always the choice place for optimal sound. Not to mention I know no one will crowd surf over me here. I take note of the top of the stage, which is adorned with what looks like the top of a circus tent, striped in red and yellow, as well as a velvet curtain that looks like the one from the cover of Panic!’s “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” album. After all, this was the cleverly titled “Nothing Rhymes with Circus Tour”.
The Plain White T’s start off the show a little before seven o’clock, replacing the band Bloc Party, who had dropped out of the tour just a week before it hit Lowell, due to the fact that their drum player suffered from a collapsed lung. The lead singer has a ton of energy, and you can tell by the way he runs around the stage, working the crowd the best he can in this arena. Their thirty minute set included songs off of their new album, as well as their old, but the stand out song was definitely the MTV hit “Hate (I Really Don’t Like You”). You could tell they were ecstatic about being on this tour, and they definitely fit right into the mix.
Next up was Jack’s Mannequin, a band I had been dying to see for quite some time. As soon as the band scroll was put up, the audience erupted into screams and applause. They started off the set around 7:45, with “I’m Ready”, a fun up-tempo pop song, and played songs off of their new album for their half hour set, as well as added a cover of “American Girl” by Tom Petty toward the end. The stand out song was the single “Dark Blue”. The lights were amazing during it. Every time Andrew McMahon sang the chorus of this song, bright blue lights shone across the stage, as well as across the crowd. The way he moved back and forth between his two microphones was enough to keep anyone memorized. As if the powerful song lyrics and the way he bounced on his chair expertly as he played his pianos wasn’t enough.
The time had finally come for Panic! At the Disco to hit the stage around 9. It began with an old fashioned tape reel being shown on the screens, the shot coming from the back of the crowd and being projected onto the screens. The camera began to pan in to the stage slowly, the background music sounding like something out of an old fashioned piano driven movie. The curtain was pulled, to reveal actors dressed as the characters from the cover of the panic at the disco CD. Men and women alike, some with a snake on their shoulders, others with top hats and canes, etc. The set up of the stage was fascinating. It seemed that each band member had their own level to stand on. On the floor, started with Ryan Ross on guitar and backing vocals on the left side of the stage. In the center was Brendon Urie, on lead vocals, piano, and guitar. On the right side of the stage was Jon Walker on bass. And in the middle, and the highest up, was the drummer, Spencer Smith. They started off with their hit single, “The Only Difference…”, full of energy and ready to take this arena by storm with their actors, lights, and performance alike. Their playful hour and fifteen minute set included the entire “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” album, as well as beautifully done covers of the songs “Eleanor Rigby” by the Beatles, and “Killer Queen” by Queen. Funny how they covered a Queen song, considering I would put Panic in the same glam-rock category as Queen. I’m sure these covers kept the parent chaperones forgiving the band for a few risqué moments in the show, such as when Brendon reminisced about the perfect dream, where you are about to kiss your first love (and he got pretty darn close to kissing guitarist Ryan Ross), before saying that the dream he described was not the one he was talking about, but rather hot, sweaty, fill in the blanking before breaking into their newest single “Lying Is The Most Fun…” All in the all, their set was definitely intriguing, and the energy they gave out while performing was returned by the crowd in the form of crowd surfing and moshing.
I left there blown away. Everything about that show was amazing in more ways then one. The lighting fit every song expertly, the band sounded amazing, and most of all, I wasn’t one of the kids getting my butt kicked in the mosh pit.
Reviewed by: Ellen Leonard | November 2006
