Panic! At The Disco: Concert Review

                                                                                    lead singer of Panic! At The Disco, Brendon Urie, singing for the crowd.

            
             On October 27, the band Panic! At The Disco came to Clifton Park, New York to perform at the klocal venue; Northern Lights. They drew quite the crowd. After standing outside in the snow for six hours, the people waiting in line were granted entry inside of the venue. After everyone handed the security guard their tickets, they ran to the front to get the perfect view of the stage.

            A band by the name of Foxy Shazam was the first to play. As they performed, the lead singer ran around on the stage and danced his heart out. The audience was impressed, but not as much as the lead singer would have liked.

            “I’ve dealt with criticism all of my life; so I’m going to give you all as an audience some criticism now. We’ve gone to so many cities and performed for so many crowds on this tour, and you all are the worst audience.” says lead singer, Eric Nally.

            The crowd responded with a series of ‘boos’, but Foxy Shazam continued on with their set, not caring about what the audience was saying. During their last song, Nally hung from a banister of the ceiling and the keyboardist stood on the keyboard and stomped on it. When they exited the stage, the audience gave them a light round of applause.

            There was a fifteen minute set change between the acts and soon enough, another band took the stage. As they begin to play, Patrick Stump ran on the stage and took his place behind his microphone. Everyone in the audience screamed and cheered for Stump, and he responded with a smile and a wave, and then opened with a cover of David Bowie’s song “Dance.”

Stump is most known for fronting the popular punk band, Fall Out Boy, who split back in 2008. Now, Stump performs with a back-up band and he had released his debut album, “Soul Punk” one week prior to this show. He showed off his talents by playing the guitar, the drums, and, surprisingly, a trumpet. Stump talked in between the songs, making jokes and telling the audience how much glad he was to be there. After his rendition of Genesis’ “In The Air Tonight,” which he sang while playing the drums, he returned to the center of the stage, shaking his head.

“The microphone made it sound like I farted!” Stump laughed. “I was all in the mood, feeling the song, and singing, ‘I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord.’ And then all of a sudden, the microphone went ‘PFFFFFT’!”

The very last song Stump performed was his new single, “This City” and the crowd sang along. He bowed and applauded with the audience, then left the stage.

The venue’s technical crew took the instruments away and replaced them with Panic! At The Disco’s instruments. The crew unveiled the band’s set. Colorful pipe organs, a ‘50s style microphone, and an old fashioned piano with the band’s name carved onto it decorated the stage. All of a sudden, the lights went out and music began to play. Now, it was the moment everyone had been waiting for. The crowd screamed in anticipation and the lights began flashing all around. Then, Panic! At The Disco took the stage and immediately began playing their single “Ready To Go”.  The audience jumped up and down and screamed along as lead singer Brendon Urie sang the lyrics.

When the song ended, Urie looked out to the audience and smiled. He thanked the crowd for being there and talked about the opening acts, praising them and saying nothing but wonderful things about them. They continued on with their set, mostly playing songs from their first album, “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” and their most recent album, “Vices and Virtues”.

Urie oozed charisma and energy throughout the performance, his theatrical sense of humor and his incredible voice combined were enough to call their set amazing. During certain songs, Urie held out the microphone for the audience to sing. When hearing how well they knew his lyrics, a huge smile appeared on his face.

“You guys sing so beautifully, you’re making me look bad!” Urie commented.

The night ended around 11:30 and as the concert-goers left the venue, they left with smiles on their faces; happy with how the show turned out. There's no doubt about it that all of the artists that played, performed their hearts out and the crowd enjoyed every moment of it.