The Academy Is . . . and Panic! At The Disco @ KROQ's Weenie Roast - May 13, 2006
Bruised and sunburned, I am home from my weekend of concerts. Oh gosh, I'm not sure how I'm going to do this write-up; I wanted to do it as soon as I got home last night, but I was so completely exhausted, I fell into bed and slept for nine hours. But now I am fresh and revivified and ready to go.
clumsygyrl and sandwich_armada both did fabulous write-ups of the My Chemical Romance show, so I'll only add a few details and observations. You can find clumsygyrl's concert recap here and sandwich_armada's recap here. I highly recommend them. They are so choice.
reference:
Also, there is drinking and recreational drugs in this write-up. If that offends, I'm sorry. I just gots to be me.
The last time I'd seen Fi was two years ago, almost to the day, at JC Chasez's San Francisco show, so it was absolutely wonderful to be able to spend such good quality time with her doing this kind of activity. And I get to see her again next month for Panic! in Vegas! Yes, so. The drive down to San Diego on Friday morning seemed to take no time at all; that's how awesome a traveling companion Fi is. We gabbed and sang and before we knew it, we were pulling up outside L. house.
We met D., we met N., we went to get food, we went to UCSD, we waited in line (although there was really no line to speak of until about 3pm). It was overcast all day, but you really can get burned, as Fi's pictures prove. I myself am super-burned.
The song from Labryinth that Gerard sang a bit of was the Chili Down song, when the scary red fire muppets are chasing Sarah. He sang it twice: "chili down with the fire gang! Chili down with the fire gang!" all high-pitched and squeaky, and it was awesome. Gerard also chain-smoked prior to soundcheck. I'm so sorry, but I love it when boys in bands I like smoke (and yeah, I guess that means I like MCR).
The time between letting us in the doors and MCR taking the stage was possibly the longest six hours of my life. I tried to sit as much as possible, but after Osma was on, the pushing and shoving and crowding got too bad, and I had to stand. I really can't emphasize enough how bad it was. I know you think you've been in worse, and maybe you have, but I've never experienced anything like that in my entire life, and L., N. and Fi all said that they've never been to an MCR show like that, and in fact, never had such a crazy experience at a show. It. Was. So. Bad. From my neck down, every single part of my body was being pressed against by other people's body parts. And the shoving. I had let a girl who loved Cypress Hill switch places with me, and I was never able to fight my way back up to the front row, so I grabbed the railing around Fi and held on for dear life. I screamed in fear a lot, because I thought I was going to fall and get trampled and die.
But the show. The show. It was worth it, because oh my god, the show. I didn't know Gerard Way moved like that. I didn't know Frank played like that. I didn't know Ray's hair did that. I didn't know Mikey Way looked like that. I didn't actually SEE Bob, but whatever. I feel like I've been missing out on something really special by not following MCR. They threw themselves into that show 100%, which is saying something, since a drunk college crowd isn't necessarily their scene. In fact, Gerard said at one point, "you guys are wasted!"
I called Rae for "Helena". I took some video, where the video is quite good, but the audio is terrible. They played eight songs or so. It was pretty phenomenal. I was just trying not to die. At one point, when Gerard was caressing his own inner thigh and sliding his hand higher . . . and higher . . . and higher . . . I draped myself over Fi and said "Fi, I'm in love." Because god. What the hell? Why didn't I know?
The funniest part of the evening was this: as MCR was preparing to go onstage, I heard a girl behind me say something about Weenie Roast. I asked if she was going and she said no, she couldn't get tickets. I told her I had paid too much for mine, especially since I was mostly only going for Panic! and The Academy Is. She said something about William Beckett's hips, and I said "well, you know he's been kissing Pete onstage this past week!" and she said "I know! All over the place!" and I said "Like at Bamboozle!" and she said "OMG I know!" and I said "Have you been watching it on YouTube?" and she said "Yes!" and I said "do you have a livejournal?" and she said "YES!" and I said, "okay, if you like slashy stuff, there's this community called
************ " and she said "OMG I KNOW I LURK THERE."
!
The second funniest part of the evening was Fi's AWESOME IDEA FOR VEGAS, which entails making a CafePress thong that says "Brent Wilson: the Justin Timberlake of Panic! At The Disco" (except leaving blank spaces where 'Justin Timberlake' and 'PATD' appear, so CafePress doesnt slap us, and writing it in ourselves with sparkly puff-paint or something) and THROWING THIS THONG ONSTAGE. I believe that would be the coolest thing since Ryan Ross' emo mirror pictures.
But yes, MCR. MCR. Why didn't I know? They kicked major, painful ass, and Gerard was a strutting beauty and Mikey in his button-up coat and fucking Frank Iero, who knew, God?
Random and crazy shit, man. Totally thrashed and bruised and battered but riding an MCR high, we stumbled out to the car and drove straight to 7-11 for some Slurpee action. Cold, sweet sugar was exactly what I was craving. Then back to L's house for some Life on the Murder Scene, a fond farewell to Fi (see you next month, baby!), some MORE Life on the Murder Scene, and some general good talking/bonding with L. At 4:20am, I put my foot down and said I absolutely had to get some sleep, as I was aiming to leave for Irvine at 8am, because The Academy Is. . . was playing the side stage at 12:30 and I was determined to be in the front row. I ended up leaving around 8:20am. Thank you so much to L. for her gracious hospitality and fabulous companionship!
I got some gas and some water to take into the venue, and ended up parking at 10am, about half an hour after parking gates were opened. There were maybe 100 people ahead of me in line. The Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre has several seating options pit (ahahah, I tried to win pit tickets from the radio station, but obviously had no luck), orchestra (insanely expensive), loge (mid-level), terrace (highest-up seating) and lawn (very high up, general admission). I figured the people who were going to get to the venue early were going to be either people with GA lawn tickets, or hardxcore TAI fans, and I didn't want those damn campers beating me out for front row.
They let us in at 11am and this is worthy of mention: the KROQ Weenie Roast booklet we got handed upon entry included little questionnaires with each of the bands playing.
The Academy Is, answered by William Beckett
I walked to the side stage, where I indeed had a lovely front row spot. Fangirls rushed in pretty quickly, screamy screamy screamy 14 year olds (I asked their ages, that's how I know) who had written "A.T.S. (Adam T. Siska, hello) is my love" on their arms. The one next to me screamed for Butcher, who smiled very nicely at her during check. They screamed at Tom Conrad as well, but he was a bit more reticent with the waves and smiles. Probably because he was, you know. Soundchecking.
I waited through Rock Kills Kid's set (which was actually really good) and was happy the fangirls were next to me, because they noticed Spencer entering the backstage area. And indeed, when TAI took the stage, Spencer and Ryan and Brendon went to the side of the stage to watch the set.
TAI was fucking awesome. William Beckett is fucking awesome. He's phenomenally PHENOMENALLY pretty, and has stage presence for miles and miles. All the guys were playing their hearts out, and even though it was the side-stage at 12:30, it was a decent-sized crowd. I'd love to see them play the main stage next year. William was wearing this long-sleeved green shirt with stretchy holes in it, and it was like HI BILL'S NIPPLE WHAT'S UP? He preened and pranced and felt himself up I wish he hadn't been wearing underwear, though. It was sticking up a bit past the waistband of his jeans, fairly cutely, but still. The image would be BETTER sans briefs. (Oh yes. Briefs.)
Unfortunately, they weren't letting cameras in, so all I have is the few pictures I took on my phone, which means tiny and shitty quality. I was trying to conserve power, but my phone ended up dying later on anyway. Oh well!
Spencer left the side of the stage halfway through the set. Brendon was air-drumming the entire time, mimicking Butcher, and it was so fucking precious. He looked great, Brendon. Ryan looked a little stiff and not particularly like he was enjoying himself, but I think that's just Ryan Ross' default face. He stayed for the whole set, whereas Brendon left before the end, so I'm sure he was enjoying it. I made awkward eye-contact with him several times I didn't want to be staring at Panic! during TAI's set, because how rude is that? So I snuck several glances over of course, every time I looked over, Ryan was looking in my direction. I smiled and shrugged a little once and he sort of huffed a laugh, so there's that, I guess.
Throughout the set, Bill was adorably slashy he was touching Siska's face at one point, and Siska licked his palm. Bill leaned on Mike Carden a lot. He also picked up the mic stand and threw it in the air and caught it, twice. At the end of Almost Here, he climbed the speaker on the end of the stage and held court over the crowd. There was one moment where he wanted people to put their hands in the air, and I was the only person around me who did it, and he sort of pointed and nodded at me, and I was like yeah okay let's fuck. Whew! Half an hour, and I could have dealt with a longer set, but it was awesome through and through and I was really glad I saw it.
Next on the side-stage was Matchbook Romance, who I was mildly interested to hear, so I worked my way through the crowd and went over to the fence on the side of the area to sit down in the fucking blazing sun. I got to the fence where I was intending to sit and realized that the girl I was standing next to, the scene-looking blonde girl in cowboy boots and a short, flouncy bandeau-type dress and a belt buckle that said JAC VANEK in big silver letters was, in fact, Jac Vanek. I had a very surreal sort of moment, where I was like "So I just watched Panic! watch TAI play a set and hey, here's Jac Vanek and hello fandom, what's up?" I thought about saying something but honestly, what could I have said? So I just laughed to myself and watched her text people and walk around with her friend. She had no all-access pass that I could see, but I'm sure it's possible she didn't want to display it on her super-scene outfit.
I sat for a bit, walked around the side-stage area a bit, and then realized I had to get out of the sun. So I left the side-stage area and went back towards the entrance a bit, where there was a grassy area and a tree to sit under and hey, coincidentally, the tree was about 15 feet away from the side-stage backstage area and had a great view into the area. As I situated myself, I could see Butcher and William Beckett walking around. I figured that was a decent place to chill for awhile while I wrote down observations about TAI's set and had a cigarette or eight.
There were little wildflowers all over the grassy area, and at one point, a security guard came over and asked me if I could pick some for him. I was like WTF, okay so I picked some, and some from the flowery bush nearby and handed them to him through the fence. "What are they for?" I asked, and he said "Oh, for one of the bands" and he walked away AS I was like "WAIT, WHICH BAND?!" and he didn't answer. If those flowers went into William Beckett's hair . . . yeah, anyway.
After about 10 minutes, a little group of 4 fangirls figured out that you could see into the backstage area from that point on the grass, and they all grouped together at the fence about 10 feet away from me. I rolled my eyes and kept writing. They called a security guard over and asked him to bring Tom Conrad over (you KNOW, TAI's
Tom Conrad), which he DID. So I'm sitting there watching these girls give Tom
Conrad stuff to sign and taking pictures with him, and I know if I want to go
talk to him, I'm definitely going to have an opportunity. Did I want to? Yes,
okay, I did. I went over just as he was starting to walk away. The fangirls had left. It was totally perfect.
"Excuse me, Tom?" I called, and he came back over to the fence. "I just wanted to tell you that was a hell of a set you guys played so well, it was really great."
He grinned HUGELY and stuck his hand over the top of the fence to shake mine. "Thank you so much! What's your name?" I told him and he said "I'm Tom, nice to meet you." (I was like um, yes, I know you're Tom. Remember 30 seconds ago when I was like 'Excuse me, Tom?' I didn't say that. But I was thinking it.)
We then talked for like FIVE MINUTES, where I told him that TAI's live stuff really holds up well to the album and not everyone's live playing does, and he said they all really strive to be the best they can, and they'll always practice and take lessons from teachers and play old songs, and if something's ever not working, they'll change it, because they don't want to waste any of this time they've got. I said yeah, it's a great opportunity that most people don't get, and it's so great that they're really able to take advantage of it and work their hardest to whatever, I was babbling encouraging stuff and he was nodding enthusiastically and saying how much they all wanted this and how happy they were to be able to do it, and how excited they were to play at the same show as Red Hot Chili Peppers, and how their motto was essentially if you get to do something like this, don't fuck it up. I was so not fangirly, it was awesome.
At the end of the conversation, he stuck his hand back over the fence to shake my hand AGAIN and said how nice it was to meet me, and thank me again so much, and he'd see me soon? I was like "Oh. Um. Yeah. Definitely next time you're in LA."
And DUDE it was AWESOME. GAH.
So! Yes! I called Rae and I called L. and I sat under the tree for awhile longer. A fangirl stalking Butcher hung out for a bit, and told me that it was her sixth time seeing TAI, and that the first time, last year, Mike Carden had asked her to hook up with him. I asked how old she was, and she was 16 at the time. Why is this fandom full of these guys, I ask you? Then, a drunk girl behind me decided she wanted to be my best friend, so I chatted with her for a bit.
I didn't really want to see HIM or Damien Marley, so I figured I'd hang under the tree 'til 3 and then wander over towards the food/merch/bathrooms/festival area. Would that I had abandoned the drunk girl sooner! Upon arriving at the festival area, I wandered for 10 minutes, and then learned that I had missed a Panic! signing by 20 minutes. ARGH! I was pissed for about three minutes, and then thought to myself "you know, I just talked to Tom Conrad for 5 minutes, I was front row for TAI, I'm going to see Panic! perform from a reserved seat, I've got money for beer and food, it's a sunny day in Southern California I'm not going to be pissed about this anymore." And I wasn't! Oh, the power of the mind!
So I got a beer (didn't get carded, wtf) and wandered a bit more, trying to find TAI merch (there was none). Then I went over to this shady area by the bathrooms, right by the fence blocking off the VIP-only area, which was a circle around the festival area, with black tarp over the fence so you couldn't see into it. I was by a crack in the fence and I peeked through hopefully, but it was all people carting equipment around.
I downed my beer pretty fast, redid my hair, looked around and saw 6ft. plus of beautiful, green-shirt-clad William Beckett walking down the path that went by me. I froze for maybe one second, and then thought "screw it, why not, right?"
I walked up to him and said "Excuse me, Bill? I just wanted to tell you that I thought your set was great; I really enjoyed it." He shook my hand and said thank you so much, and I told him also that I thought their live stuff was awesome and that I'd try to catch them on Warped (hah, we'll see). He said thank you, thank you so much, that's so great, and I grinned and said no problem and walked away. He was not a smiley fellow, but I feel good about the encounter because #1 I was not fangirly at all, #2 I didn't ask for a picture or an autograph, just said how much I enjoyed the set, #3 I TALKED TO WILLIAM BECKETT AND I CALLED HIM BILL AND HE IS SO FUCKING PRETTY.
Whoosh! So I was feeling pretty good and happy! And I had to go sit, because Taking Back Sunday was about to come on, and they'd be followed by Panic! So I got another beer for the road and made my way to my seat, which was in the loge section (mid-level) and dead-center. The lawn was entirely packed, but the seats were only about 3/5 full at this point in this afternoon (4ish), and it was warm and sunny and the sky was bright hazy blue, and Taking Back Sunday was really, really good, and I drank my Corona and felt very satisfied as Adam Lazzara gayed his way around the stage. He's so thin and little and fun! I enjoyed their set a lot.
And then, Panic! At The Disco! GAH! They were so, so awesome. There's an mp3 up, Rae tells me, so I'll only briefly describe it, since you can find it for yourself. They opened with rocking riffs.
1. The Only Difference what I noticed most about this was Ryan on harmony! Ryan sings a lot more than I had ever noticed before.
Oh, Panic! babies. I love that band so much. I was on and off the phone with Rae all day, and I remember just being like LOVE LOVE LOVE after their set.
So! Warm sun and great music and two beers on an empty stomach, and it was time for the bathroom and food! I was more than buzzed, less than drunk, and just feeling generally ecstatic about the day. I made my way through the bathroom line, realized I was by the same shady place where I had seen William Beckett walking earlier, and decided to have a cigarette there. As I was lighting up, a couple came and sat down next to me and lit up a joint. I was like "Sweet!" They asked if I wanted in on it and, um, yes, I did. So we chatted and smoked like 3/4 of their joint, and then they got up to leave and gave me the stub of it to put in my cigarette. How fucking awesome is that? It was so random and happy and cool! What good folks!
So I fashion a cigarette/joint thing and stick it in with the rest of my cigarettes and go to get another beer and some quepapas. QUEPAPAS ARE SO FUCKING GOOD OMG, I am just saying. And remember, I've already HAD two beers on an empty stomach and a good portion of a joint. So I've got quepapas in one hands, a full cup of beer in the other hand, and I'm blissfully stumbling back towards my seat, weaving a bit, and I'm passing the entrance to the VIP area, and the Butcher and Mike Carden are walking out.
DUDE. I couldn't even. I was like. DUDE. I must have had the slap-happiest grin in the WORLD on my face.
I went up to them and said "Hey guys!! I sure did love your set earlier today!" and I told THEM how they were awesome live which really held up the record, and Mike said that was essentially the best thing they could get as a compliment, and that's all they really tried to do, and honestly, I was so faded that I don't remember all of what he said, but Butcher was holding a full cup of beer too, and he grinned at me and clinked his cup against mine to say cheers, and there were big smiles all around, and man, I totally RANDOMLY talked to 4/5 of TAI.
Here is word-for-word what I wrote in my notebook before Dashboard Confessional started playing (where KROQ played Dance Dance as filler music and I sang and danced in my chair) and as Dashboard Confessional played:
It's all because I didn't expect any of it. I suppose the possibility of meeting some of them may have probably crossed the back of my mind at some point, but 100% honestly, I wasn't expecting it. Each time I met one of them was a wonderful surprise and now I won't meet Siska, because I'm fucking expecting to at this point. But it's all good. IT'S ALL SO GOOD! And now I'm surrounded by people who care about this music in some capacity enough to pay a not-insignificant amount of money to be here and hear it live. Everyone here will be rocking out at some point. WE ALL LOVE MUSIC OMG.
Yeah, a little drunk and a little high, like I said.
Hmm, not much else. The guy sitting below me was rocking out INTENSELY hard to Dashboard Confessional, and it was the most precious thing ever, he was so into it. Angels and Airwaves was great certainly greater than I expected. I have the album and it's decent, but Tom DeLonge was throwing everything of himself into that performance, and so was the rest of the band, and it was gorgeous. He spoke pretty emphatically against the war in Iraq before launching into "The War," and his mic went out in the middle of the song, but he kept singing and the audience picked it up, and in the break in the song, he very sincerely looked out at the audience and asked everyone to stand, and everyone did. I stood. I felt so in tune with Tom DeLonge at that moment. I totally respected his music and what he was doing, and it totally merited standing at his request.
AFI were next, and they were very loud, and everyone was a fan! EVERYONE was standing and singing along, the 35 year old guy to my left, the 16 year old girls to my right, everyone (except me I could only sing along on the new song).
I was really, really tired at this point 4 hours of sleep Wednesday night, 2 hours of sleep Thursday night, 3 hours of sleep Friday night and I was sunburned and coming down and headachey, and I was set to just go and then the surprise guest came out, and it was Dave Grohl with an acoustic guitar. So I stayed. He sang, oh, Everlong and this AMAZING version of Best of You, and his banter was so perfect, and he is so funny, and he sang more songs, but I didn't write them down. Everyone was standing, everyone was so into it, it was so awesome.
Matisyahu and Red Hot Chili Peppers were next, but you know what? I had to go. I just had to, or it would be a nightmare getting out of there, and I was so fucking wiped and I had an hour-long drive ahead of me, so I waved bye to Irvine and the festival, thought fond thoughts towards the VIP area where Panic! and TAI were no doubt sitting and partying and listening to good live music, and I headed out to my car and drove myself the fuck home. I walked in the door at 10pm and was fast asleep by 10:30pm.
My nose is sunburned from yesterday. My arms and back are bruised from MCR. My voice is gone, squeaky and scratchy. I have a million things to do today, and all I want to do is relive this weekend over and over and over again, because it was so amazing and so much fun, and I am so happy to be in a position to enjoy this stuff and I feel so fortunate that I have friends to share the excitement and the happiness with.
As peterpanda would say, true love.
|
feedback
main page