Panic! At The Disco
Live at Leeds Metropolitan University on Wednesday, 26th April 2006
Panic! At The Disco are without a doubt a breath of fresh air and a much needed kick up the arse to that old 'emo' thing the kids are still frothing over. The second coming of emo, post-emo, or god forbid 'Nu-Emo', whatever you wish to call it, Panic! At The Disco are leading the charge and with a swerve and vigour that is simply outstanding.
On stage, P!@TD appear to put in a disturbingly low amount of effort in relation to the reaction it incites. It all just appears so organic, so simple. The songs just leap from the stage from their immaculately fringed, slickly attired, skinny American white boy frames. Just hit after hit of superb, high octane emotional tinged punk rock.
Forgive Durden are first up however and they could easily be described as the polar opposite. Sure, the haircuts and ball hugging pants are the same but the tunes have gone awol. Very weakly delivered and without a memorable hook between them, Forgive Durden are very unnecessary. And propping up a bill featuring the current head honchos of the genre is never going to put them in a good light. We can Forgive and we can forget Durden.
Men, Women & Children on the other hand are par-less, they have no competition. They may not stand the test of time, who knows, but for the time being they are nothing except darn good fun. Stick Elton John, Graham Norton and Dale Winton in a room and still the volume of campness would not surpass the all singing, all dancing, all boa feathered M,W & C machine.
If ever a band was going out there to just have fun and not worry about reputation or musical credibility it would be Men, Women & Children. The second dance core offshoot from the generally harder than thou Glassjaw, is a marvel to behold live. Well visually at least, musically they're noticeably better on record and unfortunately arguably the best setlist isn't chosen (the likes of 'Messy', 'Who Found Mister Fabulous?' and 'The Name Of The Train Is Hurricane' all abstained) but they're still an affable and enjoyable tongue in cheek bunch of troubadours. The crowd participation on 'Monkee Monkee Men' is frankly ridiculous but a finer slice of dance tinged hardcore there has not been when 'Dance In My Blood' is finally unfurled at the conclusion. Just about living up to the expectations.
Panic! At The Disco didn't even have chance to raise expectations before they were thrust into the limelight as a result of the outstanding blitzkrieg of a response that arrived as a result of merely throwing the album out on the shelves and hoping word of mouth would carry the bulk of marketing duties.
By god are these boys good at what they do though. Vocalist Brandon Urie has got the sound to get the kids excited down to a tee. 'London Beckoned Songs About Money Written By Machines' says all you need to know about the Panic! At The Disco sound. A perfect autobiographical review of the scene P!@TD live in and deadpanning all the characteristics that distinguish the band far out from the pack, "If you talk, you better walk, you better back your shit up" indeed.
The tempo is set and maintained when album opener 'The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage' opens proceedings and near enough every song penned on their eponymous debut album is unfurled to a (not as young as you'd assume) crowd that doesn't let up for the duration.
Absolute bounce fodder. 'Time To Dance', 'Camisado' & 'Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off' prove to be the highlights, closely followed by the singles and with that Panic! At The Disco's meteoric success is assured.
It is a real 'Now' tour. Panic! At The Disco are hot at the moment and hopefully long may it continue.