nothing rhymes with the longest tour review in the history of mankind
So I saw seven shows on Panic! At The Disco's Nothing Rhymes With Circus tour, and I've just now finished up my write-up. \o/ And by write-up I mean: novel. We're talking meta-analysis, show by show details, discussion of male/male sexuality in popular culture, links to videos, minor comparisons to pop music past and present, vague assertions as to the moral failings of judgmental behavior...oh, it's a good time. Join me.
Let's get this out of the way: I loved this tour. This is a good thing, as I'd decided beforehand that going to seven dates made perfect sense, but it honestly never occurred to me that I might *not* like it - I'm so fantastically in love with the record that just hearing them live is good enough for me. I think it was September that I was sitting at work and listening to the Lollapalooza live recording and I thought, god, there is nothing I want more right now than to be in the audience, listening to them play songs, and so - seven shows later, here we are. I very obviously love the music, so this'll focus more on the show itself. I've included links to videos my girlfriend took at the bottom of each section in case you didn't see the show or you just want to, you know, refresh your memory.
[In case you're wondering, I was able to see seven shows because I'm 23 and I have a pretty good job; also, my girlfriend lives in Georgia, so I flew out to see the Atlanta and Charlotte shows with her, she in turn flew out to see the Portland, Vancouver, and Everett shows with me, and we'd both already decided to see the Las Vegas show, and the day after that was San Diego, the last show on the tour, so why the hell not, right? But I think it's really just that we just *did it* - for most people, even those who can afford it, I don't think it occurs to them to go see Panic! seven times just because they like them a lot. Most of the time my life is insanely mundane, and all I do is go to work and talk on the phone to my girlfriend and screw around on the internet - but I don't fuck around about the things that make me happy, and even though doing seven dates pretty much killed me (if this were Hollywood I'd be hospitalized for exhaustion - as it is, hello sick days!) I'll probably do it again for the next tour, because I love them, full stop.]
I won't try and break this up by date, because that would be madness (okay, maybe a little section at the bottom for specific things I remember), but there's a lot to consider about this tour, so I'm just going to go with what comes to mind. Hurray!
Shiny New Things: So much stage to work with! They definitely know how to work with the space they're given - Brendon in particular does well with a lot of floor to dance around on. I mourned the distance in regards to Jon (so far away!) but then again we did also choose to stand in front of Ryan every single time for...reasons. They're definitely a band that knows how to use an arena stage.
Regarding the whole concept of an arena tour - yes, they only have one record, but it still made sense for them to do this tour. Not capitalizing on their VMA win and weird rise to fame would have been foolish, I think; they needed to stay in the public eye at this point, rather than holing up in the studio, and god knows there were enough people that wanted to see them. Sure, arenas suck if you're not on the floor, but...I don't know, get your tickets early, so you're on the floor. At least they're not in stadiums yet.
I really liked the covers they did. Brendon sounded gorgeous on Eleanor Rigby, and of course Killer Queen was fantastic (guitar duel!). The drumline was a lot of fun, and it was nice to actually see Spencer, and after seeing it I spent the occasional drifty minute saying "one, two, three, four!" and then drumming on whatever surface was available to me, usually while I was at work. Yes!
Points of reference: Eleanor Rigby. Killer Queen. Drumline.
Nothing Rhymes With Big Gay Circus: Seriously, say what you want about not liking slash or them not being gay or hating all the kids that like slash and think they're gay - there is homosexual content written into the show. This isn't subtext, people. Maybe they all go home at the end of the day to their girlfriends and are 100% straight and have never looked sideways at each other and thought, "Hmm, maybe," you know, that's not what I'm going to speculate on. I'm going to talk about what they chose to show us onstage, what was written into the show - GAY.
I think it's a function of how much Panic! has stayed this weirdly under the radar band that they can gay it up onstage and not get called out on it EVER (I think I saw one mention in one newspaper review once, but still...one); I recall last spring's Fall Out Boy tour, when Pete Wentz stole Gerard Way's speech about homophobia (If you're racist or homophobic, we don't want you here, return our merch and leave - wow that's paraphrasing, but it's the basic point) and a few parents got up in arms about it. I can't help but wonder if any enraged parents took their kids out of the crowd when Brendon was thrusting up against Ryan onstage, but I haven't heard a thing about it if that's so.
It's probably also to do with society's refusal to recognize male homosexuality - if you're in fandom at all you've probably come up against the type of people who couldn't identify subtext if it leapt out of the TV screen and sat next to them on the couch. We're just conditioned to not see it, or at least not recognize or take it seriously. You know, if it were girls rubbing up against each other onstage it would be a big lesbian tease, but Brendon calls Ryan his lover onstage and leans in for a fakeout kiss and unless you're a pretty big fan or you've gone to one of the shows, nobody knows about it. And you've got the fans who go to the concerts and see the pictures and still don't get why people think they're gay...really, you guys? Like I said before, I'm not saying they're anything but damn good performers, but people don't just make this up.
I can't begin to guess at their motives, but I'd say the result is certainly positive. I mean, every girl in the audience that's cheering when Brendon invades Ryan's space is one girl that's not going to give into homophobic bullshit, one girl that's going to grow up thinking boy-on-boy is hot rather than gross. I doubt that Panic! set out to be an object lesson in Why Being Gay Is A-Okay! but honestly anything that destigmatizes homosexuality is fine with me.
Finally, I'd like to say as someone who's: 1. queer, 2. into slash, 3. possessing a working pair of eyes and fine sense of aesthetics, that I think it's divine what they're doing, and that they should have kissed at least at the last show, because come on guys, quit being such big fucking teases. I'm just kidding. Please keep being exactly who you are, because the type of audience you're appealing to is me, my girlfriend, and all my friends, and frankly we really appreciate it, so thank you.
Points of reference: The Lying speech. The pre-I Write Sins followup. Randomly chosen clip of Brendon groping Ryan during I Write Sins.
Relatedly, The Gay As A Marketing Ploy: You know what, not so much. At least not in those precise terms - I've heard people throw around the idea of Brendon and Ryan gaying it up as a weird marketing tactic, but I don't think that's really correct; they're not being sold as a gay commodity, so to speak - at least not in the way N Sync were sold in the beginning as good heterosexual boys who would dance with your daughter but probably not fuck her (and then Justin, in his solo career, as the antithesis of that - urban-friendly and sexualized accordingly) or that Hilary Duff is sold as harmless and teen-friendly. I don't think it's really something that's part of their image, it's just, you know...them.
Granted, maybe they do have someone standing over their shoulder telling Brendon to nuzzle up on Ryan whenever a camera is pointed in their direction, but I really, really doubt it. For being as famous as they are they're remarkably unscripted in their behavior; they don't seem to care about what other people think of them, only their music, and the rest of it, the interviews, the photoshoots, none of that seems to matter much. I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the label (god bless FBR), and probably also that they weren't really expected to become the new faces of pop music and so didn't get any of that early handling that goes along with it.
That said, if I'm a hundred percent wrong, it's been in the business plan from the beginning, and Pete Wentz calls to coach them on above the waist gayness, then I'd like to take this opportunity to say best marketing ploy ever.
Except It's Not Really A Circus: Being in Las Vegas again (for like...a day) just made it clear to me how very much they've been influenced by that city. It's all a show, really. Caesar's Palace may be constructed to look like a Roman forum, but it clearly isn't; the Panic! stage may look like a big top, but it's not really a circus. What you see on the outside is not necessarily what you're going to see on the inside, and I think that's a big part of Panic! and who they really are as a band, and as showmen.
It's like coming in blind to Las Vegas: if you don't know what it is, would you expect to walk into a big shiny black pyramid and find a casino? If you think Panic! is just another...emo pop dance punk whatever the fuck people are classifying it as this week sort of band, would you expect to see a circus onstage? Yeah, probably not. Instead of getting what you expect, you get something much more glittery and amazing. And filled with scantily-clad women, hey!
I feel like this is a criticism that Panic! comes up against, that there's all this show rather than just some dudes on a stage with some instruments playing some songs, and when people don't get what they expect they get crabby. But it's still there, amidst all the dancing and costumes and glitter - only instead of just getting what you expected, you get so much more than that, and I think that's awesome. I love that this is the show they want to put on, that they want us to see.
Regarding the scripted dialogue, I'm perfectly fine with that as well. I don't expect spontaneity at a show (and I think this is more like a Broadway show than a regular concert), and I'd much rather have it be presented in that fashion, as part of a narrative (i.e. "So that dream I was talking about earlier...") than as something falsely sincere. I hate to compare (but I'm going to anyway!), but the last arena tour I saw was yes, Fall Out Boy, and *that* was some insincere scripted dialogue, name-dropping reality shows that changed by the night, saying the exact same things to people like they were new thoughts. I'm not particularly concerned about being greeted with "Hello, [name of city]!" and if they're not going to go in the connecting with the crowd direction, then I appreciate that they dropped that pretense altogether and just went with a full-on show.
Speaking Of The Not Really A Circus: I have to say I liked these dancers better than Lucent Dossier - or perhaps that's not quite fair, it's just that these dancers fit so much better with this tour. They lacked the warmth of Lucent, but the skits and dancing also fit a great deal better than Lucent did in terms of what they staged and the sheer amount of room they had to work with. I didn't find them too distracting, either; honestly, there's only so much I could watch Ryan or Brendon or (far off in the distance) Spencer and Jon, and I really liked some of the dancing a lot. The performers were really, really talented, and I think the Camisado skit in particular was quite well-done, if really goddamned disturbing. And...yeah. I liked them!
Women and Panic! At The Disco: I think I can sum this one up with my assessment of But It's Better If You Do - in which Brendon doesn't just ignore one barely-dressed woman writhing on him, he ignores four.
From what I recall, the only real interaction was Jon lighting the ballerina's cigarette before Camisado and Brendon asking her to dance, and then the brief Brendon Worship bit of the dance during There's A Good Reason. Which is interesting in itself - when most bands have girl dancers onstage they're dancing with them, either one on one or in a similar boy/girl situation. Brendon dances with them as one of them, which is so vaudvillian and awesome. He's in the center without really connecting with any of the dancers on a personal level.
If anything, in the midst of these dancing women, he's placing himself as the object: the girls surround and touch him, and at the end, when he pretty much presents the audience with his crotch, he's objectifying himself even further. We don't focus on the barely-dressed women, we focus on Brendon and, well, his dick. It's a pretty blatant display of male sexuality, and interesting since it's usually followed by him looking around as if startled before retaking the microphone, like he's just noticed we're all still here watching him grope himself and now he'd better get back to doing what he's meant to be doing.
Compare this with the dancing during But It's Better If You Do, which I'm still not quite sure how to take. I think, again, that it all hinges on Brendon's reaction to it, which is total disinterest. Possible ways to interpret this:
1. Rejection of youthful sexuality. The girls are dressed as children, they rip their clothes off, Brendon is uninterested. Moral: young girls don't need to be oversexualized to catch a boy's interest.
2. Rejection of overt female sexuality. Girls dance in their underwear, writhe all over Brendon and his piano, Brendon is uninterested. Moral: women don't need to be oversexualized to catch a boy's interest.
3. Rejection of female sexuality in general. Girls are onstage, Brendon is uninterested, he's going to go grope Ryan now, or himself, or Ryan and then himself. Moral: this is Panic! At The Disco, heterosexuality has no place here.
Honestly, I'd really love to know exactly what they were going for here. You know. So, four women dressed up like little girls play with toys and then rip their clothes off and dance in their underwear: please explain, guys. Especially the whole "Thank you, ladies, for showing us your...talents," bit, which is slightly sketchy.
I'd love to take this as a general rejection of female objectification, especially when taken in context with the dancing during There's A Good Reason. It makes the Brendon/Ryan interaction even more interesting - Brendon has no use for girls in their underwear, he's going to go grind on Ryan now and nuzzle up on him while speaking scripted lines about his lover. Female sexuality is rejected, male sexuality (specifically and thrillingly, male/male sexuality) is embraced; Panic! At The Disco are a fucking pop culture theory course of a band and I love them dearly.
All academic analysis aside, I liked it, because I like watching girls dancing in their underwear, and it was appreciably less creepy than Brendon knocking a dancer off his lap after getting a lap dance during the summer tour. Also, if this doesn't convince you that Panic! are putting on exactly the stage show they want and they don't care what anyone else thinks then I don't know what will. Seriously, did the audience of high school girls get off on watching the strippers? Who cares? What about the parents who took their young kids to see the show? Hahaha, what about them? That's not a dig, seriously. Good for Panic! for putting on the show they want without worrying about people being offended or whatever.
Points of reference: There's A Good Reason... But It's Better If You Do... (video by xTatyx18). End of But It's Better...
Meet and Greet: Rae and I won it for the Washington show, and decided to do it to get our posters from the DVD signed, because those posters are fucking awesome. It was about how'd I heard it was for everyone else. I'm not crazy about getting stuff signed, and I'd done a meet and greet in Vancouver last summer so I'd pretty much done the whole telling them I liked them lots thing, but still, meet and greet! It was pretty rushed, and did feel more like a gesture than anything, but I did ask Jon where he got his hoodie ("Guess," he told me, then hastened to add, "The store." Thanks, Jon Walker), and while we were in line Zack talked about how Ryan had already lost his $200 a day gambling stipend (to Zack, in a game of C-Lo), and Spencer and Brendon had gone ice skating, so that was pretty amusing.
Brief digression to shout out at Zack and Bob, who are pretty nice guys, and who didn't seem to know quite what to do with a couple of girlfriends who kept showing up in different states at the front of the early admit line. Anyway, they were cool. Yay for that.
Being A Fan Of Panic! At The Disco: I like Panic! At The Disco. I know - you totally couldn't tell. For some reason they've become one of those divisive bands, and I've been occasionally called upon to justify my liking them. And hey, guess what? No. I like them. I like their music. They make me happy. Their music means something to me - I've said this before, but somehow Panic! managed to take a lot of the music that influenced me when I was a kid and create this record that's not quite like any of those things, but somehow exactly what I want to hear. That's what I ask for from music: that it makes me want to listen to it.
I feel like I'm past the point where I need music to save my life. I'm a grown-up, or at least within eyesight of it, which ironically has made me realize I'm far too young to continue with that self-obsessed search for meaning in every single thing. And at the same time I'm far too old to apologize for liking what I like. Life's too short to discount someone because of what music they listen to or whatever, and I like to hope that most people will be better than that. A lot of people aren't, but that's their personal failing, not mine.
Sure, it's minorly annoying when kids only go to shows because they saw the videos and they think Brendon is hot, but, well, Brendon is hot, and at least they're getting something more musically interesting than the late nineties/early aughts explosion of teen pop that I lived through (which I loved and still have a great deal of affection for, but it is what it is and I'm not sure anyone can really dispute that) - at least they're getting four guys that wear makeup onstage because they want to, that give occasionally bitchy interviews because they're not being manhandled and trained by PR flacks, that give us a ridiculous awesome gay circus because it's what they goddamned well want to do. In a world of pop music artifice at least these guys are being genuine - genuinely bitchy, genuinely intense about the music they create, genuinely fucking *different*, and I honestly think they don't get enough credit for that, not nearly. People write off Panic! as the next big whatever and I can't help but think they just have no idea what they're talking about, and they're not going to bother even listening just because their little sister likes them or something.
Panic! makes music I want to listen to and puts on a show I want to see, and that's all that really matters in the end. I've loved records, but none so much in my 23 years as A Fever You Can't Sweat Out. Somehow they made exactly the record I want to hear. They cover the songs I love. There is very little about Panic! that I don't unabashedly, unapologetically love, and seeing the end of this tour, while depressing, means they're going to be making more music, and I really, really want that. I also really want them to get some sleep, because they've been obviously running themselves ragged. I appreciate the interviews and the gaystravaganza, but really. Guys. Take a nap. A nice one. Snuggle. Watch TV. Then go make a new record for me to listen to all the time. See, I've done all the scheduling for you, no worries.
And finally, various notes from various shows (the ones in the middle are a bit of a blur):
Atlanta: I went into this show almost completely unspoiled (except for knowing one of the cover songs which had popped up on my friends list) and every surprise was a thrilling one - I'm so glad I kept myself in the dark. The anticipation just made everything that much better.
Sidebar: People get sort of edgy about the concept of "tour spoilers" but it's not like we're talking about a jeans and t-shirt band, here. I saw one of the last scheduled dates on the last tour, and by then I knew practically every second of the show, from costumes to cover songs and everything in between; I'd seen YouTube clips of most songs, and all that saturation made it seem practically unreal. Maybe not necessarily lesser, but I enjoy surprises, like anyone, I think, and I do believe it would have been that much more enjoyable for me to hear them go into Karma Police without me knowing about it first. A very, very pleasant surprise, not that it's any huge loss that I did know, but it would have been nice, that's all.
With Panic! it's not like they're just going to walk onstage and play their record and have that be it. It's a show, with costumes and random moments of joy [the drumline!] and scripted lines and dancers and all that - you know, the sorts of things we don't know will happen beforehand. So it was great to go in without having read any interviews or seen any footage or any of that, and I think I'll probably end up doing the same for the next tour.
Everett: Funniest celebrity sighting ever - WiL from Aiden showing up to hang out with Tom Conrad.
Las Vegas: Such a great show on so many levels. In the beginning we were standing next to some kids that went to Ryan's high school; they talked about seeing The Summer League at Brendon's church and Summer League merch that said The Summer League: Adult Contemporary. I would probably pay a million dollars for one of those shirts. Not really. But damn.
They were clearly happy to be home; Ryan was almost chipper, to the point of actually smiling unprompted. The whole show was just...really good. I'm so glad we decided to do the Vegas show.
Pete, Andy, and Joe from Fall Out Boy were there. About halfway through the show they turned up sidestage and Joe spent a song or two singing and drumming along with Spencer, and then Pete ended up leaning against the stage by himself watching. When Brendon did the grinding up on Ryan thing during I Write Sins Ryan turned to Pete after and grinned and said, "Did you like that?" and yeah, it was basically awesome.
We went to the afterparty at Jet later. Jon was the only Panic! boy to show up, and it was weird watching him and Joe and Andy and Pete and Eric pose for papparazzi. Pete and Alex from Cobra Starship DJed and Rae and I danced a lot. VIP sections remain a really strange concept, and I just can't ever get too starstruck when we're all at the exact same party. Anyway, it was fun.
Points of reference: Wentz lurking sidestage, Brendon grinding on Ryan. Brendon says it's good to be home, aww.
San Diego: The energy was just insane for this one, right up there with Vegas. There were the typical end of tour shenanigans - I think someone (crew) had put dry ice on the tops of the trash cans for the drumline, so when they were hit it got all dry ice smokey. Ryan seemed surprised/amused. A few more people came out from beneath the bride's dress during I Write Sins, an older guy (crew?), their tour manager (I think), Zack, and Dan Angel in a bikini top and tutu, with whom Brendon danced, and then Dan lifted him up and carried him for a bit of the song. Hilarity. Towards the end of Build God Brendon shucked his jacket and then did a hands-free backflip off the piano riser, my GOD that boy is spry. I was impressed.
Brendon, Jon, and Ryan actually came out after the show and signed things; I didn't go over to get anything signed and I regret that a bit. I didn't actually need anything signed, really, but it would have been nice to at least say thanks for such a great tour - ah well.
So, yes. Good times. I had fun. Yay! :D
Let's get this out of the way: I loved this tour. This is a good thing, as I'd decided beforehand that going to seven dates made perfect sense, but it honestly never occurred to me that I might *not* like it - I'm so fantastically in love with the record that just hearing them live is good enough for me. I think it was September that I was sitting at work and listening to the Lollapalooza live recording and I thought, god, there is nothing I want more right now than to be in the audience, listening to them play songs, and so - seven shows later, here we are. I very obviously love the music, so this'll focus more on the show itself. I've included links to videos my girlfriend took at the bottom of each section in case you didn't see the show or you just want to, you know, refresh your memory.
[In case you're wondering, I was able to see seven shows because I'm 23 and I have a pretty good job; also, my girlfriend lives in Georgia, so I flew out to see the Atlanta and Charlotte shows with her, she in turn flew out to see the Portland, Vancouver, and Everett shows with me, and we'd both already decided to see the Las Vegas show, and the day after that was San Diego, the last show on the tour, so why the hell not, right? But I think it's really just that we just *did it* - for most people, even those who can afford it, I don't think it occurs to them to go see Panic! seven times just because they like them a lot. Most of the time my life is insanely mundane, and all I do is go to work and talk on the phone to my girlfriend and screw around on the internet - but I don't fuck around about the things that make me happy, and even though doing seven dates pretty much killed me (if this were Hollywood I'd be hospitalized for exhaustion - as it is, hello sick days!) I'll probably do it again for the next tour, because I love them, full stop.]
I won't try and break this up by date, because that would be madness (okay, maybe a little section at the bottom for specific things I remember), but there's a lot to consider about this tour, so I'm just going to go with what comes to mind. Hurray!
Shiny New Things: So much stage to work with! They definitely know how to work with the space they're given - Brendon in particular does well with a lot of floor to dance around on. I mourned the distance in regards to Jon (so far away!) but then again we did also choose to stand in front of Ryan every single time for...reasons. They're definitely a band that knows how to use an arena stage.
Regarding the whole concept of an arena tour - yes, they only have one record, but it still made sense for them to do this tour. Not capitalizing on their VMA win and weird rise to fame would have been foolish, I think; they needed to stay in the public eye at this point, rather than holing up in the studio, and god knows there were enough people that wanted to see them. Sure, arenas suck if you're not on the floor, but...I don't know, get your tickets early, so you're on the floor. At least they're not in stadiums yet.
I really liked the covers they did. Brendon sounded gorgeous on Eleanor Rigby, and of course Killer Queen was fantastic (guitar duel!). The drumline was a lot of fun, and it was nice to actually see Spencer, and after seeing it I spent the occasional drifty minute saying "one, two, three, four!" and then drumming on whatever surface was available to me, usually while I was at work. Yes!
Points of reference: Eleanor Rigby. Killer Queen. Drumline.
Nothing Rhymes With Big Gay Circus: Seriously, say what you want about not liking slash or them not being gay or hating all the kids that like slash and think they're gay - there is homosexual content written into the show. This isn't subtext, people. Maybe they all go home at the end of the day to their girlfriends and are 100% straight and have never looked sideways at each other and thought, "Hmm, maybe," you know, that's not what I'm going to speculate on. I'm going to talk about what they chose to show us onstage, what was written into the show - GAY.
I think it's a function of how much Panic! has stayed this weirdly under the radar band that they can gay it up onstage and not get called out on it EVER (I think I saw one mention in one newspaper review once, but still...one); I recall last spring's Fall Out Boy tour, when Pete Wentz stole Gerard Way's speech about homophobia (If you're racist or homophobic, we don't want you here, return our merch and leave - wow that's paraphrasing, but it's the basic point) and a few parents got up in arms about it. I can't help but wonder if any enraged parents took their kids out of the crowd when Brendon was thrusting up against Ryan onstage, but I haven't heard a thing about it if that's so.
It's probably also to do with society's refusal to recognize male homosexuality - if you're in fandom at all you've probably come up against the type of people who couldn't identify subtext if it leapt out of the TV screen and sat next to them on the couch. We're just conditioned to not see it, or at least not recognize or take it seriously. You know, if it were girls rubbing up against each other onstage it would be a big lesbian tease, but Brendon calls Ryan his lover onstage and leans in for a fakeout kiss and unless you're a pretty big fan or you've gone to one of the shows, nobody knows about it. And you've got the fans who go to the concerts and see the pictures and still don't get why people think they're gay...really, you guys? Like I said before, I'm not saying they're anything but damn good performers, but people don't just make this up.
I can't begin to guess at their motives, but I'd say the result is certainly positive. I mean, every girl in the audience that's cheering when Brendon invades Ryan's space is one girl that's not going to give into homophobic bullshit, one girl that's going to grow up thinking boy-on-boy is hot rather than gross. I doubt that Panic! set out to be an object lesson in Why Being Gay Is A-Okay! but honestly anything that destigmatizes homosexuality is fine with me.
Finally, I'd like to say as someone who's: 1. queer, 2. into slash, 3. possessing a working pair of eyes and fine sense of aesthetics, that I think it's divine what they're doing, and that they should have kissed at least at the last show, because come on guys, quit being such big fucking teases. I'm just kidding. Please keep being exactly who you are, because the type of audience you're appealing to is me, my girlfriend, and all my friends, and frankly we really appreciate it, so thank you.
Points of reference: The Lying speech. The pre-I Write Sins followup. Randomly chosen clip of Brendon groping Ryan during I Write Sins.
Relatedly, The Gay As A Marketing Ploy: You know what, not so much. At least not in those precise terms - I've heard people throw around the idea of Brendon and Ryan gaying it up as a weird marketing tactic, but I don't think that's really correct; they're not being sold as a gay commodity, so to speak - at least not in the way N Sync were sold in the beginning as good heterosexual boys who would dance with your daughter but probably not fuck her (and then Justin, in his solo career, as the antithesis of that - urban-friendly and sexualized accordingly) or that Hilary Duff is sold as harmless and teen-friendly. I don't think it's really something that's part of their image, it's just, you know...them.
Granted, maybe they do have someone standing over their shoulder telling Brendon to nuzzle up on Ryan whenever a camera is pointed in their direction, but I really, really doubt it. For being as famous as they are they're remarkably unscripted in their behavior; they don't seem to care about what other people think of them, only their music, and the rest of it, the interviews, the photoshoots, none of that seems to matter much. I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the label (god bless FBR), and probably also that they weren't really expected to become the new faces of pop music and so didn't get any of that early handling that goes along with it.
That said, if I'm a hundred percent wrong, it's been in the business plan from the beginning, and Pete Wentz calls to coach them on above the waist gayness, then I'd like to take this opportunity to say best marketing ploy ever.
Except It's Not Really A Circus: Being in Las Vegas again (for like...a day) just made it clear to me how very much they've been influenced by that city. It's all a show, really. Caesar's Palace may be constructed to look like a Roman forum, but it clearly isn't; the Panic! stage may look like a big top, but it's not really a circus. What you see on the outside is not necessarily what you're going to see on the inside, and I think that's a big part of Panic! and who they really are as a band, and as showmen.
It's like coming in blind to Las Vegas: if you don't know what it is, would you expect to walk into a big shiny black pyramid and find a casino? If you think Panic! is just another...emo pop dance punk whatever the fuck people are classifying it as this week sort of band, would you expect to see a circus onstage? Yeah, probably not. Instead of getting what you expect, you get something much more glittery and amazing. And filled with scantily-clad women, hey!
I feel like this is a criticism that Panic! comes up against, that there's all this show rather than just some dudes on a stage with some instruments playing some songs, and when people don't get what they expect they get crabby. But it's still there, amidst all the dancing and costumes and glitter - only instead of just getting what you expected, you get so much more than that, and I think that's awesome. I love that this is the show they want to put on, that they want us to see.
Regarding the scripted dialogue, I'm perfectly fine with that as well. I don't expect spontaneity at a show (and I think this is more like a Broadway show than a regular concert), and I'd much rather have it be presented in that fashion, as part of a narrative (i.e. "So that dream I was talking about earlier...") than as something falsely sincere. I hate to compare (but I'm going to anyway!), but the last arena tour I saw was yes, Fall Out Boy, and *that* was some insincere scripted dialogue, name-dropping reality shows that changed by the night, saying the exact same things to people like they were new thoughts. I'm not particularly concerned about being greeted with "Hello, [name of city]!" and if they're not going to go in the connecting with the crowd direction, then I appreciate that they dropped that pretense altogether and just went with a full-on show.
Speaking Of The Not Really A Circus: I have to say I liked these dancers better than Lucent Dossier - or perhaps that's not quite fair, it's just that these dancers fit so much better with this tour. They lacked the warmth of Lucent, but the skits and dancing also fit a great deal better than Lucent did in terms of what they staged and the sheer amount of room they had to work with. I didn't find them too distracting, either; honestly, there's only so much I could watch Ryan or Brendon or (far off in the distance) Spencer and Jon, and I really liked some of the dancing a lot. The performers were really, really talented, and I think the Camisado skit in particular was quite well-done, if really goddamned disturbing. And...yeah. I liked them!
Women and Panic! At The Disco: I think I can sum this one up with my assessment of But It's Better If You Do - in which Brendon doesn't just ignore one barely-dressed woman writhing on him, he ignores four.
From what I recall, the only real interaction was Jon lighting the ballerina's cigarette before Camisado and Brendon asking her to dance, and then the brief Brendon Worship bit of the dance during There's A Good Reason. Which is interesting in itself - when most bands have girl dancers onstage they're dancing with them, either one on one or in a similar boy/girl situation. Brendon dances with them as one of them, which is so vaudvillian and awesome. He's in the center without really connecting with any of the dancers on a personal level.
If anything, in the midst of these dancing women, he's placing himself as the object: the girls surround and touch him, and at the end, when he pretty much presents the audience with his crotch, he's objectifying himself even further. We don't focus on the barely-dressed women, we focus on Brendon and, well, his dick. It's a pretty blatant display of male sexuality, and interesting since it's usually followed by him looking around as if startled before retaking the microphone, like he's just noticed we're all still here watching him grope himself and now he'd better get back to doing what he's meant to be doing.
Compare this with the dancing during But It's Better If You Do, which I'm still not quite sure how to take. I think, again, that it all hinges on Brendon's reaction to it, which is total disinterest. Possible ways to interpret this:
1. Rejection of youthful sexuality. The girls are dressed as children, they rip their clothes off, Brendon is uninterested. Moral: young girls don't need to be oversexualized to catch a boy's interest.
2. Rejection of overt female sexuality. Girls dance in their underwear, writhe all over Brendon and his piano, Brendon is uninterested. Moral: women don't need to be oversexualized to catch a boy's interest.
3. Rejection of female sexuality in general. Girls are onstage, Brendon is uninterested, he's going to go grope Ryan now, or himself, or Ryan and then himself. Moral: this is Panic! At The Disco, heterosexuality has no place here.
Honestly, I'd really love to know exactly what they were going for here. You know. So, four women dressed up like little girls play with toys and then rip their clothes off and dance in their underwear: please explain, guys. Especially the whole "Thank you, ladies, for showing us your...talents," bit, which is slightly sketchy.
I'd love to take this as a general rejection of female objectification, especially when taken in context with the dancing during There's A Good Reason. It makes the Brendon/Ryan interaction even more interesting - Brendon has no use for girls in their underwear, he's going to go grind on Ryan now and nuzzle up on him while speaking scripted lines about his lover. Female sexuality is rejected, male sexuality (specifically and thrillingly, male/male sexuality) is embraced; Panic! At The Disco are a fucking pop culture theory course of a band and I love them dearly.
All academic analysis aside, I liked it, because I like watching girls dancing in their underwear, and it was appreciably less creepy than Brendon knocking a dancer off his lap after getting a lap dance during the summer tour. Also, if this doesn't convince you that Panic! are putting on exactly the stage show they want and they don't care what anyone else thinks then I don't know what will. Seriously, did the audience of high school girls get off on watching the strippers? Who cares? What about the parents who took their young kids to see the show? Hahaha, what about them? That's not a dig, seriously. Good for Panic! for putting on the show they want without worrying about people being offended or whatever.
Points of reference: There's A Good Reason... But It's Better If You Do... (video by xTatyx18). End of But It's Better...
Meet and Greet: Rae and I won it for the Washington show, and decided to do it to get our posters from the DVD signed, because those posters are fucking awesome. It was about how'd I heard it was for everyone else. I'm not crazy about getting stuff signed, and I'd done a meet and greet in Vancouver last summer so I'd pretty much done the whole telling them I liked them lots thing, but still, meet and greet! It was pretty rushed, and did feel more like a gesture than anything, but I did ask Jon where he got his hoodie ("Guess," he told me, then hastened to add, "The store." Thanks, Jon Walker), and while we were in line Zack talked about how Ryan had already lost his $200 a day gambling stipend (to Zack, in a game of C-Lo), and Spencer and Brendon had gone ice skating, so that was pretty amusing.
Brief digression to shout out at Zack and Bob, who are pretty nice guys, and who didn't seem to know quite what to do with a couple of girlfriends who kept showing up in different states at the front of the early admit line. Anyway, they were cool. Yay for that.
Being A Fan Of Panic! At The Disco: I like Panic! At The Disco. I know - you totally couldn't tell. For some reason they've become one of those divisive bands, and I've been occasionally called upon to justify my liking them. And hey, guess what? No. I like them. I like their music. They make me happy. Their music means something to me - I've said this before, but somehow Panic! managed to take a lot of the music that influenced me when I was a kid and create this record that's not quite like any of those things, but somehow exactly what I want to hear. That's what I ask for from music: that it makes me want to listen to it.
I feel like I'm past the point where I need music to save my life. I'm a grown-up, or at least within eyesight of it, which ironically has made me realize I'm far too young to continue with that self-obsessed search for meaning in every single thing. And at the same time I'm far too old to apologize for liking what I like. Life's too short to discount someone because of what music they listen to or whatever, and I like to hope that most people will be better than that. A lot of people aren't, but that's their personal failing, not mine.
Sure, it's minorly annoying when kids only go to shows because they saw the videos and they think Brendon is hot, but, well, Brendon is hot, and at least they're getting something more musically interesting than the late nineties/early aughts explosion of teen pop that I lived through (which I loved and still have a great deal of affection for, but it is what it is and I'm not sure anyone can really dispute that) - at least they're getting four guys that wear makeup onstage because they want to, that give occasionally bitchy interviews because they're not being manhandled and trained by PR flacks, that give us a ridiculous awesome gay circus because it's what they goddamned well want to do. In a world of pop music artifice at least these guys are being genuine - genuinely bitchy, genuinely intense about the music they create, genuinely fucking *different*, and I honestly think they don't get enough credit for that, not nearly. People write off Panic! as the next big whatever and I can't help but think they just have no idea what they're talking about, and they're not going to bother even listening just because their little sister likes them or something.
Panic! makes music I want to listen to and puts on a show I want to see, and that's all that really matters in the end. I've loved records, but none so much in my 23 years as A Fever You Can't Sweat Out. Somehow they made exactly the record I want to hear. They cover the songs I love. There is very little about Panic! that I don't unabashedly, unapologetically love, and seeing the end of this tour, while depressing, means they're going to be making more music, and I really, really want that. I also really want them to get some sleep, because they've been obviously running themselves ragged. I appreciate the interviews and the gaystravaganza, but really. Guys. Take a nap. A nice one. Snuggle. Watch TV. Then go make a new record for me to listen to all the time. See, I've done all the scheduling for you, no worries.
And finally, various notes from various shows (the ones in the middle are a bit of a blur):
Atlanta: I went into this show almost completely unspoiled (except for knowing one of the cover songs which had popped up on my friends list) and every surprise was a thrilling one - I'm so glad I kept myself in the dark. The anticipation just made everything that much better.
Sidebar: People get sort of edgy about the concept of "tour spoilers" but it's not like we're talking about a jeans and t-shirt band, here. I saw one of the last scheduled dates on the last tour, and by then I knew practically every second of the show, from costumes to cover songs and everything in between; I'd seen YouTube clips of most songs, and all that saturation made it seem practically unreal. Maybe not necessarily lesser, but I enjoy surprises, like anyone, I think, and I do believe it would have been that much more enjoyable for me to hear them go into Karma Police without me knowing about it first. A very, very pleasant surprise, not that it's any huge loss that I did know, but it would have been nice, that's all.
With Panic! it's not like they're just going to walk onstage and play their record and have that be it. It's a show, with costumes and random moments of joy [the drumline!] and scripted lines and dancers and all that - you know, the sorts of things we don't know will happen beforehand. So it was great to go in without having read any interviews or seen any footage or any of that, and I think I'll probably end up doing the same for the next tour.
Everett: Funniest celebrity sighting ever - WiL from Aiden showing up to hang out with Tom Conrad.
Las Vegas: Such a great show on so many levels. In the beginning we were standing next to some kids that went to Ryan's high school; they talked about seeing The Summer League at Brendon's church and Summer League merch that said The Summer League: Adult Contemporary. I would probably pay a million dollars for one of those shirts. Not really. But damn.
They were clearly happy to be home; Ryan was almost chipper, to the point of actually smiling unprompted. The whole show was just...really good. I'm so glad we decided to do the Vegas show.
Pete, Andy, and Joe from Fall Out Boy were there. About halfway through the show they turned up sidestage and Joe spent a song or two singing and drumming along with Spencer, and then Pete ended up leaning against the stage by himself watching. When Brendon did the grinding up on Ryan thing during I Write Sins Ryan turned to Pete after and grinned and said, "Did you like that?" and yeah, it was basically awesome.
We went to the afterparty at Jet later. Jon was the only Panic! boy to show up, and it was weird watching him and Joe and Andy and Pete and Eric pose for papparazzi. Pete and Alex from Cobra Starship DJed and Rae and I danced a lot. VIP sections remain a really strange concept, and I just can't ever get too starstruck when we're all at the exact same party. Anyway, it was fun.
Points of reference: Wentz lurking sidestage, Brendon grinding on Ryan. Brendon says it's good to be home, aww.
San Diego: The energy was just insane for this one, right up there with Vegas. There were the typical end of tour shenanigans - I think someone (crew) had put dry ice on the tops of the trash cans for the drumline, so when they were hit it got all dry ice smokey. Ryan seemed surprised/amused. A few more people came out from beneath the bride's dress during I Write Sins, an older guy (crew?), their tour manager (I think), Zack, and Dan Angel in a bikini top and tutu, with whom Brendon danced, and then Dan lifted him up and carried him for a bit of the song. Hilarity. Towards the end of Build God Brendon shucked his jacket and then did a hands-free backflip off the piano riser, my GOD that boy is spry. I was impressed.
Brendon, Jon, and Ryan actually came out after the show and signed things; I didn't go over to get anything signed and I regret that a bit. I didn't actually need anything signed, really, but it would have been nice to at least say thanks for such a great tour - ah well.
So, yes. Good times. I had fun. Yay! :D