(Ed. Note: Photos courtesy of Jack.)
I’ve long been a fan of irrational planning and last minute decision making. This is primarily because I trust my gut (bigger = smarter as far as I’m concerned); armed with it as my guide and going ticketless, bagless — in every sense of the word — and more or less completely unprepared, I jumped in the car and drove to Charlotte for my first Panic show in over four years.
As you will see after the jump, it was a wise choice (and big ups to my boys at the Bubble for talking me into the trek.)
Generally, it’s not difficult to get a ticket to a summer Panic show in North Carolina. Both Walnut Creek and Verizon are big enough where a sell out is near impossible. So I wasn’t sweating that. (And thanks to some old and new friends, I backdoored a VIP ticket in a center stage box. Which effing ruled.)
It also meant I got in early enough to see the Panic kick off, and then watch the hippies swarm over the top of the lawn. Now, bear in mind that this was the last show of a highly touted summer tour and that the band, by all accounts, had left a lot on the table from Friday night (Legba and Mr. Soul sandwiching an otherwise bland setlist, regardless of how good they sounded.) So expectations were reasonably high, no?
Those expectations were promptly shat on when the band kicked off with “Blackout Blues”, which being a personal favorite aside, is a pretty good damn sign that they game to rock, and then immediately rolled right into “Walkin’”; the combination of which put most of the crowd in an early sweat-froth and a pretty palatable buzz in the air.
A quick “Half a mile from the county fair …” later and the buzz was a full on “holyshitman!” type of realization that Charlotte was in danger of actually setting fire at some point.
The band rolled from a rare Van Morrison cover into “Wonderin’” — a high energy/sun-still-up/summer song if there ever was one, and then finished off the first set by shredding through a bass thumper of “Rock”, slow down teaser of “Pickin’ Up the Pieces” followed by a bring-it-right-back-up sickner closeout of Holden > Parson > Action Man.
Two thoughts here. First, halfway through HPD is when I realized that Jimmy Herring is like Santa Clause on amphetamines. And secondly, for those that hate Action Man, allow me to quote my colleague Stamos and offer you a $1.25. The song is sick folks, get over it. Oh, and to recap: one Van cover and only one song post 1999. That’s called “kickin’ it” where I come from.
The thing about getting one of those ridiculous first halves to a show is that you can always be a touch worried that Panic will come out a little lower key in the second half. Not flat per se, but just not at as high a level as the first set.
You would, of course, have been wrong. They promptly opened the second set with one of the more disgusting acts of music I have ever seen, “Chainsaw City” with DJ Logic, who opened for the band, shredding away on the turntables. Narsty.
They quickly followed that up with a reasonably inspirational All Time Low (Woo! No principles!) and the proceeded to tear loose on an hour long jam for the rest of the second set that looked something like this: Life During Wartime(!!) > Chilly, Machine > Barstools > Fishwater > Drums > Fishwater > Surprise Valley > Tall Boy.
Yeah, I know, right? And not to mention that during the Drums, DJ Logic and this white dude with a red Macbook named Hunter Williams came on stage and did retarded sick rap remixes to go with Sonny and Nance as they wailed away. At one point they purportedly jammed “Don’t Get Fooled Again” and I know they worked a little Stevie Wonder in there more than once. Seriously, I can’t sum up how nasty these guys were — we should have a clip shortly, but you need to get all over Panic Stream and listen.
Anyway, I wasn’t off on that Stevie teaser because, sure nuff, after destroying the place with Tall Boy — there were actually flames in the background as part of the light show — they came out and ripped right into “Superstition”. “Dreams” followed up and was sandwiched by “Ain’t Life Grand”.
Now, some people will complain about ALG to close out, but it’s something, to my knowledge, that Panic does in Charlotte a lot. Also, by my last count, I see only one song (Action Man) that was written before 2000. Which, while not always necessary, is a hell of a nice way to end what has been a pretty GD dominant tour.
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Thanks for the shout out with the photos. Looking good!