Gig Review: (Support: Me) Date & Venue: Sunday January 29th 2012, o2 Academy Birmingham Any time an artist has managed to sell out the 3000-strong capacity of the main room of Birmingham’s o2 Academy, especially weeks before the gig, it has signalled the upcoming arrival of a great night of music. Panic! At The Disco joined this list shortly before Christmas, and it told at the gig, as the venue was heaving long before the support was even on stage. Shortly before 8pm, the first and indeed only support band – a touch I was pleased with, I’ve never been a fan of overloading the support line-up – took to the stage, the interestingly named “Me”. The band came with a great energy, some cracking soldier jackets (Think somewhere between Sgt Pepper’s and The Black Parade) and crucially, some brilliant songs. The band put on a tight performance, and from my spot in pretty much the dead centre of the crowd, you could feel the room begin to bounce as the fans slowly warmed to what was, in this reviewer’s humble opinion, a great support slot. The singer sounded great, and the whole band had the sound not of a support trying to find their place, but a firmly talented and confident group ready to break out in their own right. I, for one, will be keeping tabs on them, and look forward to seeing them excel. (For anyone interested in checking them out, find them through www.twitter.com/meband - You won’t regret it) However, no matter how good the support band were, this night was all about one group – and they were about to shine.
“The actual positioning of the songs seemed absolutely perfect, and you could tell that the band had spent a good long time planning where and when to play each song” The stage set-up that Panic! brought with them was magnificent – smoke-spewing organ pipes, a keyboard covered by a full back from which the band’s logo glowed, and the drummer set up above them on a platform from which frontman Brendon Urie decided to backflip at one particularly energetic point in the set. And yet, despite all that, the one thing that still took centre stage was, rightfully, the music. Ominous low music played as the band assembled slowly on stage, only to suddenly give way to the ridiculously bouncy opening chords of “Ready To Go (Get Me Out Of My Mind)”, and the gig was underway with a bang as they pleased the crowd with a set packed full of old favourites such as “Camisado”, “But It’s Better If You Do”, and “Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off” – introduced by Urie with a simple “This song’s title is too long to remember”. The actual positioning of the songs seemed absolutely perfect, and you could tell that the band had spent a good long time planning where and when to play each song – superhit “The Ballad Of Mona Lisa” roaring in as the third song, and a great combination of “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide…”and “Let’s Kill Tonight” playing one after another to bring the crowd back after an interestingly chosen cover version of “Personal Jesus” – whether you want to credit that to Marilyn Manson or Depeche Mode is personal choice. The main set was brought to a rip-roaring end, as Brendon began a 3-minute soliloquy on his mother by saying he was once embarrassed to hear one of his own songs as the ringtone on his Mom’s phone, before coming to realise that he should not be