Today feels like a very normal day. I got up late, had breakfast
and entered my lab so I could start working. But everything feels so different,
because my usual study playlist will now remind me of last night and all the
amazement that came along with it.
After the longest time I got to see Panic! at the Disco,
live, last night. When I say the longest time, I am not kidding.
Yep, I had bought the ticket way back in February, when I
was not even sure if I was going to be in Dallas in July. There were potential
friends who couldn’t come along, there was a chance I couldn’t have gone, but
somehow everything worked out in my favor.
I was slightly concerned about going alone to a concert,
since I have never done that before. However, it didn’t matter. It didn’t
matter at all. I had thousands of people around me, screaming out the lyrics
the same as I was, clapping along at the same time, shining their flashlights
during slow songs. It was ethereal.
I had gotten a lawn ticket, which meant I was chilling in
the sun more so than stuffed like sardines in a can. The concert was opened by Andrew McMahon, who I will admit,
I did not look into much. He turned out to be a really great singer and I actually
saved some of his songs on Spotify. If you want to take a look at him,
Synesthesia is a really pretty song and sounds great.
We had to wait for a bit before the next artist, and I was
not sure if it would be Weezer or Panic. To be honest, I should have realized
it’d be Panic, since Weezer was a much older band, and so would close.
At 8 pm, the curtains opened to a car on the screen driving
to the sounds of Pump it by Black Eyed Peas. I was so sure this was the same
car from the DOAB album art, but I still held my
breath. As Brendon, Kenneth, Dallon and Dan walked on stage, everyone on the lawn
who were sitting or lying down, stood up to their feet and started screaming.
I have seen so many live shows of Panic on Youtube, but
seeing them live is another thing altogether. One thing I must say, is that the
cameramen who were playing it on the bigger screens were smart people. They
caught Brendon while he was dancing excitedly, took shots when Kenneth leaned
against the guy playing the trumpet, and had gratuitous slow shots from Brendon’s
waist till up once he was shirtless. Everyone pretty much screamed at that
One thing which I was looking forward to was his small
speech before Girls/Girls/Boys, and he gave a beautiful one. I have a video of
it, but I’ll paraphrase it:
It doesn’t matter if
you’re lesbian, gay, bi, pan or any others. We all need to realize that we’re
all one and the same. If someone doesn’t believe that, you say, “Oh well, f***
you!”
Also, you know you’re a crazy fan when he barely starts
describing why he wrote the song and you know which one it is. They started playing
Miss Jackson and I knew what was coming at the end.
(For those of you who don’t, there’s a part in the song
where everything pauses for about seven seconds, and then Brendon does a
backflip. The Reading Festival 2015 caught only the last part of it and I was
so salty when I saw it on Youtube.) I managed to record it… here:
There was a part in the middle where Brendon and Dan had a drum-off. I really wanted to take a video of it, but I decided to actually appreciate the beats instead and it was absolutely gorgeous. I tend to forget how many instruments Brendon plays till I remembered that he recorded almost all the music, background tracks and instruments for the DOAB album.
He gave a short speech for Spencer Smith before going into “This
is Gospel”, and had a funny story about how he stole his sister’s cassette tape
back in the day, which was a Weezer tape, and now he was co-headlining with
Weezer.
They ended their show with “Victorious”, and I was just
overwhelmed by all the feelings. I could not believe this had actually
happened. I then relaxed on the grass for Weezer, since (don’t kill me), I
appreciate their songs, but I don’t particularly listen to them. The crowd went
wild and I sang along as I texted a few people.
As the concert ended, with a lot of walking, sharing of locations, and multiple calls, my friends Utsav and Seethal (I
love you guys!) had come to pick me up. The traffic meant that it took longer
to get home, but we made up for it by playing Hindi songs from the sixties.
In the end, I came home, happy, sated, exuberant,
exhilarated and all the other synonyms you can use that would match my mood.
For my first concert in the States, this was the best thing ever.
Leaving you with the song which is playing right now as I
write this blog:
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