Panic at the Disco Tour Diary: part 3

Northern Downpour: Manchester Academy, March 12th

Brendon Urie totally owns my soul. This is all being updated from the far side of the Manchester gig and I couldn’t feel more different about this band, their fans and the wisdom of doing the whole tour. I was supposed to be in Manchester for 2-3ish but it's far enough away from me to take a while to get there and I’ve been there frequently enough that I’m pretty complacent about that. I really didn’t feel like a dress up mission today so it was back to skinny jeans, battered Chuck Ts and a loungefly shirt (suitably enough with little emo rainclouds on it). In my infinite wisdom today, I decided against a coat and went for layered Ts and a hoodie which I will regret the second I get off the train at Oxford road and get hit by an icy sidewind. I’d made some vague arrangements on Livejournal to hook up with some other fans at the Manchester queue which happens surprisingly easily – we arrive at the back of the short queue at exactly the same time and the buzznet link I sent Julia the night before means she recognises me. Also happily we click straight away and spend the next few hours tag teaming coffee runs, swapping Tour stories and filling each other in on Panic and FBR rumours (she’s heard tell of an arena tour later in the year from Panic’s bus driver – we’re not sure the arena part isn’t bullshit (and if it isn’t guys it’s a HORRIBLE idea) but the second tour, post HCT and album tour makes sense).

The four hours pass pretty quickly, we shot shit with Zack who is earnestly telling the boy in front of us that Metro Station suck (I disagree quite loudly and there’s a mini “they do!” “They Don’t!” argument on the pavement, which isn’t really what I first wanted to say to Zack ever (that would have been “can I wear your coat for a minute? I’m freezing!”) but hey ho. We arrived at 3pm and were about 30th in the queue. At 6.45pm for 7.30 doors about 100 Manchester scene kids pour onto the pavement in front of us. None of us think they’re audacious enough to just push in en masse. All of us are wrong. Over the course of the week, this will be the second most infuriating thing that anyone has done and a day later I’m still pissed off. The only thing I want to say about this is to the boy in the brown Panic hoodie who held the place for all 100 of them – “what kind of a sucker are you!? Does being their whipping boy and Designated Dave mean you get invited to their Cool Kid Cast Of Skins parties? Cheers for that you pussy.”

That being said and done though, we still made it into the venue to get the spot we wanted. There was no way I was going near the front again and Julia wasn’t so inclined either so we made a beeline straight for the sound desk where the lovely sound guys let us sit on the barrier. As Manchester Academy is a flat venue, not a theatre we pretty much had the best seats in the house. Depressingly enough again I didn’t get carded at the bar despite ordering a double Jack and Coke just as the bar manager was orating on the subject of “everyone being underage so ID them ALL. ALL OF THEM”. I'm feeling older by the gig.

The bands then. I’m actively looking forward to Black Gold tonight and they really don’t disappoint, by this point I recognise each song and can sing along to half so I get really into it. Also from my vantage point on the sound desk I can watch them properly and appreciate how difficult it is to lead a band when you're seated behind a keyboard instead of standing centre stage, Eric manages though. In fact, I think it’s testament to the fact that Black Gold is made up completely of gigging musicians, making them not only outstandingly competent musicians but also incredibly used to playing into other peoples bands that they all lock so effectively on stage. I have a bit of a competence ‘thing’ especially for musicians and it’s great to see four people doing what they do so very well. One question though – Than, you ended the set with a tech holding your mic stand in place, for like the last two songs. I’m not going to think much about it now, but with the benefit of re-writes I can tell you that I’m also going to notice this happen in Leeds and Nottingham. What’s up with that? Loose stands can happen at one gig, but three in a row? What are you doing to it!? And isn’t there a less man-power intensive solution? Duct tape? It holds the fabric of the universe together you know. Or switch your stands up and give the loose one to someone who isn’t going to smack it with sticks :-) I don’t know. It’s the most random thing in the world to notice, but I notice it tonight and will for the rest of the week.

Julia has a sidekick, the first I’ve actually seen in the UK and manages to get an LJ window open between sets for a real-time update. This will be more useful than we can imagine a bit later but for now I’m just hanging over her shoulder and giggling as she posts annoyed posts about irritating teen queue jumpers and our new maxim that thinking of Jon Walker will always warm you up on a cold day (hooray for Band Boys with liquor-interchangeable names).

Metro Station then and I’m starting to run out of things to say about them. They bounce, they sing, they get the crowd going, about 2 songs in Julia points out to me that Trace can’t play and sing at the same time and that they seem to have written their songs to accommodate this and I crease up and will notice little else for the rest of the tour. I’m beginning to notice that Zack is right and that they’re a My First Scene Band, but it’s still cute and enjoyable and I’m still buying it for now.

By now I’m just im-fucking-patient for Panic and when they eventually do come on I’m not only not disappointed, I’m relieved, uplifted and a whole host of other positive, passive verbs.

In one sentence, they play the shit out of Manchester.

This isn’t just the best I’ve seen them play, it’s getting on for one of the best live shows I’ve seen in a couple of years. Yes there’s no drumline, no makeup and costumes, no dancers, but there’s four (five) happy boys on that stage who are clearly absolutely delighted to be there. I don’t think a single one of them stops smiling the entire show. I’m biased I know, but Manchester and Leeds have always had the best crowds and we’re up there tonight. Everyone knows the words, everyone sings along. Brendon would barely have needed to chip in on Nine in the Afternoon, but he really really does. The Fever tracks are met with the kind of reception you’d give a long-lost friend and no one slows up for anything, even the new tracks (as per my London write-up, you can tell the Manchester crowd has been on youtube, myspace, wherever because even though we’ve only had the lyrics for a few days everyone knows them. All of them). But playing each song completely, joyously is not really what makes this gig for me. It’s what happens between the songs that does it. Compared to Brendon’s “perfect, passionate kiss’ speech from the Nothing Rhymes With Circus tour, the “this is for all the single people in the audience” speech he ‘s been introducing Lying with this tour, doesn’t feel particularly scripted, (unless you’ve seen him do it every night on the youtube clips) but I’ve noticed them saying specific things the same on every show this tour, Ryan doing a city-specific “hi and thanks” thing before That Green Gentleman, Jon introducing the band after the break etc. this show, however, whilst sticking roughly to the script really feels like they’re winging it and winging it with a bit of a smile. My publicist’s brain fills in an anxious pr manager clutching her face and muttering “oh shit”. I tried to scribble them down roughly and this is what I got:

At one point, Brendon swigged half a bottle of water, then threw the rest of the water over the crowd, paused then threw the empty bottle as well. Jon gently chastised him for bottling the fans and Brendon quipped with a slightly bitter laugh
‘yeah I know exactly what that feels like” there was a moment of nervous laughter and an off-mic exchange between Brendon and Jon and just before the mood turned sour Brendon was back with an “aaaanyway we’re going to play another song now.”
Poor boy, come back to Leeds fest! You (probably) won’t get bottled again…

We all know what happened before Lying at this gig, posts have already been made, youtube clips have been posted, heck fanfic has already been written, but I’m telling you again because it’s in my gig book underlined with a little star (the below paraphrased, I could get it verbatim from the clip, but in the interest of journalistic verisimilitude I’m going with what I wrote down not what I know was said from watching it back)
Ryan: so this is the point in the show where we ask which of you guys is single
Crowd: screams
Ryan: Because Brendon’s been single for a while now…
Female crowdmembers: scream, flail, self-lubricate etc
Brendon: yeah, so I’ll be looking for all of You after the show
Girls: further screaming, general agreement that This Would Be OK
Brendon: dudes are ok too though
Entire Crowd: screams. Loud enough to raise the roof.
Jon: says something off–mic to Brendon
Brendon: oh? Too far? Huh
Panic: plays Lying
Fans: die

Fortunately for us, them and the world, remember I mentioned we had a sidekick and an livejournal window open? Yeah. i think it was posted before the song ended :-) Whilst I would love to scream and flail about this like the slightly mad fangirl I try to pretend I’m not, the sensible part of my brain knows that, straight, gay or bi that wasn’t Brendon’s Big Coming Out, it wasn’t a slip up, that was a performer who knows exactly what the crowd’s expectations are of him and upped his act accordingly; it was superbly played and I love him for it.

in other banter news,

The band troop back on after Time To Dance, pick up their instruments, Jon turns to Eric and gives him a manly, double-handed high-five. Since Brendon is busy switching guitars, Ryan looks directly across the stage for about 5 seconds before saying
“Hey Jon, where’s my high-five?”
Jon: considers for a moment, lopes across the stage, gives Ryan the cutest high-five ever, moseys back to stage left.
Brendon: returns with a bass
Band: plays Mad as Rabbits

In other “Brendon Urie: has hormones” news, just before Time To Dance (which I love in it’s new, acoustic sing-along-a-synth-part incarnation) loped on:
Brendon: you know, I haven’t said this in a while, but I Love You
crowd: let Brendon know that this was entirely mutual
Brendon: and if you were all of age I would do nasty, nasty things to you”
most of the crowd: scream
About 5% of the crowd: raise their hands to politely inform Brendon that they were Of Age and potentially not disagreeable to having said ‘nasty, nasty things’ done to them

I was so relieved tonight that they were so awesome – the entire show was one of those perfect events – great crowd, band on top form and obviously having loads of fun, we spent the whole gig screaming along and dancing. I had a last train to catch so didn’t stick around afterwards instead moseying across Manchester in the dark with Julia talking about stuff. Things. Stuff and things and bands we love. I think one of the most enjoyable things about this week has been finding so many other people who love music as much as I do, I feel so much less friendless up North now.