Panic At the Disco Concert Summer 08

So Panic was amazing, this is basically what happened that day, with all the pandymonium and such... yeah..., let's begin with how we managed to get to the Palms. Brittany came over at about 15 minutes to 2:00 in the afternoon, right while I was trying to put my mascara on, and trying to keep an eye on Bogart, our new puppy, as well. Then about two minutes after she arrived my mother came home. I had planned on leaving the house at 2:00 because we had to pick up Evan on the way to the Palms, so then we could get there by 3:00. Well we didn't leave my house until 2:20 because of a slight delay caused by me trying to get ready, and making a random video with Brittany in my room in the process. So we got to Evan's neighborhood to try and find his house, and we got lost. We had to call Evan to find his house, and he couldn't give us proper directions. XD But luckily we found his street on accident. Then Evan and his dad came out and Evan got in the car, and of course my mom and Evan's dad talked for what seemed like 10 minutes. Then we finally headed towards the strip. On the way there I told Evan and Brittany about this epic dream that I had with all of us in it, our friend Kyler, and a secret AFI AND Blaqk Audio show, a very awesome dream indeed. Then as we neared the Palms we started taking pictures of random stuff, Evan accidentally took a picture of a naughty looking sign, and I got a lot of pictures of the Palms sign that said "PANIC AT THE DISCO LIVE TONIGHT" We got into the parking lot, parked the car and headed towards the casino. On the way in we saw the Honda Civic Tour tent being set up, along with the Honda Civic Hybrid that Panic had designed themselves and signed. It was very nice looking. So we went into the casino and headed towards The Will Call window next to the Pearl. When we asked the lady where we were supposed to be for the Meet & Greet, but she didn't know and said that we should just stay in that general area. While we were waiting these girls came up, and they were really ugly girls who thought they were all that, and they started freaking out because they wanted to know where the front of the line was. When they asked one of the Honda Civic members to some how get them in first, she threatened them by saying she would take their tickets away if they did anything like that again, we thought it was pretty funny. Then security came by and said we had to move to the food court because we were blocking the entrance. So we went over to the food court and had some Panda Express. By this time it's 4:10, I have to be in the spot for the Meet & Greet by 4:30. So we went back to the Will Call window to ask again, and this time the lady told us to go where the Honda Civic tent was, which was outside where we had been. So we (Brittany, Evan, my mom, and I) went over there and waited with the mass amount of people there, other Northern Downpour winners, Radio winners, and early entry people. We waited for what seemed like half in hour out there. Then Zach, Panic at the Disco's tour manager, came out and started organizing people by how they had won and such. Like he gave orange wristbands to the radio winners and green wristbands to us Northern Downpour winners. It was funny because when my mom was behind me to make sure I got in ok, Zack was like, "Last name?" My mom said, "Oh I'm just making sure my daughter gets checked in and everything..." Then Zach said, "Well she's checked in, you can leave now." and he just went to the next person. I was like, "Jeez." Then my mom, Brittany, and Evan went off somewhere while I waited to go inside. I made friends with the girl who was behind me, I can't remember her name but she was pretty cool. After Zach was done checking everyone in he lead us, and the radio winners, into the Palms. We walked through the casino, I had my ticket, poster from the A Fever You Can't Sweat Out boxed set for them to sign, since I could only bring one item, bag open, and everything else ready to go. When we got inside the Pearl they checked our bags, then we went down four flights of stairs to get to the floor level. When we got there Zach set us up in the line in which we would go through to get our object signed. Then he explained to us the rules of meeting them. We could only have one thing signed, our object that was to be signed could only be signed with a black Sharpie, we could not hug them or shake their hand or else we would be escorted off the premises, not taking any pictures of the band while getting stuff signed, when we got our picture taken he would only take one, don't do anything stupid, etc. Zach was very straight forward and to the point, he wouldn't take any one's bull shit. They gave us these promo pictures of the guys if we wanted those signed, but later on when people were getting stuff signed EVERYONE was getting that signed, I'm glad I brought some options for myself. So then we all waited there for a minute, then calmly walking in as if they were walking down the street, came Panic at the Disco. My brain froze for a minute to try and analyze the situation, because in my head I was like "Oh shit, Brendon Urie is right there!" They went over and sat down at the little table where they were doing to sign stuff and the line started moving. My friend and I thought it was going to take forever, then sure enough our turn was only six people away. I started freaking out a bit, but I stayed calm and composed. John was the first one to sign stuff, I looked him in the eye and said "Hi Jon, how are you?" He said "I'm good thanks, have you been at the pool today?" as he analyzed the mini poster I gave to him to sign. I said, "No, but I heard you guys were out there earlier." Then I moved over to Spencer, who was next, and he seemed to be conversing with Jon and I, because I greeted him like "Hey Spencer!" And he said, "Hey! Yeah, the music was really loud out there." Then I said, "Well yeah you know it's the Palms..." Then big moment of truth, Brendon was up next. I went over to him and he looked right at me and said "Hi, how are you?" I said "I'm good, how about you?" "I'm pretty good." he said. Then to make myself stick out a bit, I said, "I like your piano tattoo, do you pull it out and play it sometimes?" Then he's like, "Oh yeah, I pull it out occasionally and play it you know?" "That's awesome." I said, and smiled. He smiled back. Then I went over to Ryan, who seemed shy. I said, "Hi! How are you?" He looked up at me as though he wasn't expecting it, but politely looked me in the eye and answered, "I'm good, how are you?" as he began to sign my poster. I said "I'm fantastic." He kind of looked at me weird like, okay... and said "Here you go." and handed back the poster. I said "Thank you, so much." I had a major fangirl moment there, crazy. After that I got back in line again to get my picture taken with them. As with the signing, the photo op came very quick. At one point I was at the back of the line then next it was my turn. So when my turn came up I gave Zach my ready camera, zoomed out and everything and got between Brendon and Jon. Jon put his arm around my waist and Brendon put his arm around my shoulders. I put my left arm around Brendon, I would have put my right arm around Jon but if was full of stuff, so I decided not to. Then right before Zach took the picture Jon leaned down to me and asked, "Hey, did you hear Zach say the F word?" "No," I replied, "why?" Jon and Brendon said, "Good." and everyone in the band, and Zach, began laughing. Then Zach took the picture, "Perfect!" he said after he took it. Then I got my stuff together and thanked them all and that I'd see them later at the show. They were all like, "No problem, thank you." And Brendon piped in "Thanks! We'll see you later!" And I waved goodbye and went to wait to see where I would go next. After all the pictures were taken they left, and they waved and people shrieked that they loved them and such. About two minutes later security got our attention and told us that we could begin going into the venue and that they just needed to ensure that we were going to the right places. So I immediately ran to the nearest security guard, had to wait in a small line of people for about 5 seconds, she checked my ticket and wristband, and let me in. I immediately ran into the venue, and HALF OF THE BARRICADE WAS EMPTY. I immediately got a spot on the right side of the barricade close to where Jon's microphone was going to be. I saved a spot for Brittany and called my mom to tell her that I was done and to tell Brittany and Evan to sprint into the venue. They had some cool stuff showing on the 'Honda Civic Tour Panic At the Disco Television' screens. Once early entry people began filling in behind me, I politely told them that I had a friend coming and it would be great if they let her through. At first they were like "Oh don't worry, we're only here for Phantom Planet, we're going to leave after they're done." Then I explained to them again but in better detail. They understood and said they would. Then more people came in behind me and I told them the same thing and they said they would let Brittany through. Then after I told them I tried calling Brittany and sure enough her and Evan came running in and I started freaking out trying to get her in. The people behind me were like "Don't worry we'll let her through! But he's really tall...." as they saw Evan. Evan ended up being two rows behind us, but it was okay because he's super tall and could see. Then we waited for 7:00 to roll around for Phantom Planet to come on. In between that time we entertained ourselves by reading the text messages that people were sending to the screens and reading them in funny ways. At about 7:05 Phantom Planet came on as the first of three opening bands before Panic. I must say that they were absolutely amazing. Their guitarist looked just like Adam Carson, which was really weird because he had the slightly crooked nose, facial hair, hair, and face like Adam. He seemed pretty cool. Brittany was really into their lead singer. XD During their set the lead singer got down from the stage and walked by the barricade holding out his hand for everyone to touch, so I got to touch his hand! Ha. Then about the third or fourth song into their set Ryan came out and shredded on the guitar a bit, that was really cool. On their last song the Hush sound, who was the next band on, came out and did some parts on drums for their last song, it was so cool. Then right after they finished the two girls behind me who said they were only there for them left, and Evan managed to shift up a row so that he was a row behind us. I'm definitely going to have to check out Phantom Planet's stuff, I loved it. The Hush Sound came on next, they were okay but I didn't like them that much. The only exciting part was when Brendon came out and sang with them, everyone freaked. The lead singer was like "Oh well he switched the lyrics up a bit. In fact he completely changed them." after Brendon left. Their lead singer's name was Bob, he was cool. At one point he was like, "So how many of you like Phantom Planet?" And a bunch of girls screamed, and he said "Well being on tour with them for two months I could tell you what deodorant they wear, but I really hate one of them." Then Phantom Planet came on stage and did some of a song with them. It was fairly boring though, not the part with Phantom Planet, just the Hush sound.The last opening band was Motion City Soundtrack. They were fucking awesome. The lead singer talked about how he liked Vegas and that he had seen the Incredible Hulk that afternoon., he had liked it and said there were only two cheesy parts that bothered him. They had a keyboardist, named Jesse, whose hair looked like Davey Havok's old hair. He was wicked. During their set the drummer threw a water bottle at him and Jesse just kicked it up with his feet and caught it. Then at one point he set a water bottle on one of the drum cymbals and when the drummer hit it it went flying in the air and he caught it. Their bassist's hair looked like Jade Puget's hair. He was cute. I made eye contact with him a couple times because he was right in front of me. After Motion City Soundtrack finished they threw their setlists and one landed in front of Brittany and I. Brittany managed to ask the security guard to get it for her. He picked it up, looked around and gave it to her. So she got a setlist, which was pretty cool. We waited for what seemed like forever for Panic to come on. They cleared everything off the stage and set up the little rugs and the three flower covered microphones on them. Zach came on stage a couple times to insure everything was okay, I waved at him, he waved back. At one point he walked through with a big box of Pringles, they must like them. Then the lights went off, and nothing happened. Everyone freaked and nothing happened, damn them for messing with us! After another ten minutes or so, the video screens changed to something we hadn't seen before. Then the lights flashed on and off and Panic came on stage. The crowd, including myself, went nuts. Everyone made their way on stage, Jon still in his flip-flops from when I met him, Brendon had changed out of his flip-flops and into some boots. They started with 'We're So Starving'. This isn't the order of the setlist, but I know that they played these songs,

-We're So Starving
-Nine in the Afternoon
-But It's Better if You Do
-I Constantly Thank God for Esteban
-That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)
-The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage
-Lying is the Most Fun a Girl can have Without Taking her Clothes off
-Behind the Sea
-Camisado
-I Write Sins not Tragedies
-She's a Handsome Woman
-It's a Good Thing These Tables are Numbered Honey, you just Haven't thought of it Yet
-Folkin' Around
-Northern Downpour

Encore
-Time to Dance (Acoustic)
-Pas De Cheval(?)
-Mad as Rabbits

Like I said this wasn't the exact setlist, some are in order but I know they played these songs. Jon played the entire show barefoot, which I've never seen anyone do. When they first came on there were concert photographers between the barricade and the stage for about three or four songs. There was this one lady who actually took pictures of the people on the barricade. She took a couple pictures of me, which was really cool. I also made it on the big screens a couple times as well. All the guys were really energetic and happy, I think it's because they were home. They even said that they loved being home and that it was the best Vegas show they'd done. During 'Behind the Sea' and 'Mad as Rabbits' they had bubbles coming out from the side of the stage. Whenever Brendon managed to hit really high notes with his voice everyone freaked. I did too, because it was just so surreal and awesome. Ryan sang 'Behind the Sea' because he does most of the vocals on that song, and it was so good. I think it was also during 'Behind the Sea' that Brendon put the tambourine he was playing on his head and wore it as a crown. Everyone went really crazy when they played the older songs, I even danced to them. I was so excited and crazy during that show, singing along, dancing, pumping my fist, stuff like that. Sometime during the show Brendon commented that it was his first time being 21 in Vegas, and that he was enjoying it so far and drank to us. The band's videographer came out at one point and took a picture of the band and the entire audience, it was cool. It was funny when they were about to play 'It's a good reason these tables are numbered...' because Ryan was like "Okay, you guys know what jazz is right? Well we're not too familiar with it ourselves, but you should all know what jazz hands are. You do? Well good because during this next song I want you all to do jazz hands during the chorus. You all know how to snap right? I also want you to snap during the verses of the song." So that's all we did during that song, it was so much fun. Then during 'Folkin' Around' Jon and Ryan switched sides and Ryan was on our sides. As they started the song Ryan looked right at me (he probably saw my wristband and recognised me from the M&G) smiled and waved at me. I freaked out and waved back. Then he did the same to Brittany and a couple other people during the song. It was really special because he did it to me first. Then when Ryan went back over to his side Brittany shouted "RYAN IS GOD!" and Ryan looked in her direction, slightly surprised but flattered as well. On the 'last song' (before the encore) Brendon requested that we take out our 'light sabers' to swing in the air. So I took out my cell phone like everyone else and did so. Then after much chanting of "PANIC. PANIC. PANIC....." Brendon came out with an acoustic guitar and an actual light saber, he was like, "I couldn't resist." and did an acoustic version of 'Time to Dance'. Then the rest of the band came out did another song from 'Pretty Odd' and finished the show with 'Mad as Rabbits'. For the final number they had bubbles flowing out from the stage and members from Phantom Planet and The Hush Sound came on stage and finished with them. It felt very loving and special. After they left the stage we all stuck around to see if we could get a pick, drumstick, water bottle, cup of alcohol, setlist, etc. We didn't because they threw it all to the people in the middle, so we headed upstairs to the casino level to get some merch. On our way to the elevators we talked really loud and hoarsely because we could barely talk, hear, or walk. We all must of looked like a bunch of drunk people. Evan told us how he had been humped or something by this girl behind him the entire show. Brittany and I just burst out laughing. Poor Brittany had been shoved by this girl next to her the entire show, but she was ok. When we got on the elevator to go up we didn't know if we were going up or not because our knees were so numb. We got up there and the decision for merch began. It was hard at first because I really wanted this really cool jacket, but it was $55 and I only had $69 and I also wanted a T-shirt of some sort, which were $30 each. At one point I decided to get the jacket, borrow a dollar from Evan and get a $15 Panic shirt when my mom and uncle came it. She had seen me through the door trying to decide and convinced the security guard to let her in to let me buy merch. So I ended up getting the jacket, a purple Panic shirt with dogs on it, a "ReinventLove' shirt with Panic At the Disco written on the sleeve, referring to 'Mad as Rabbits', and something that only me, my mom, my uncle, Brittany and Evan know about for someone. Evan got a tour shirt, I considered getting one but I didn't like it. Brittany couldn't buy any merch because her mom didn't want her to. Then we left. As we were leaving the casino my mom told us that she and my Uncle Danny had seen Brittney Spears walk by. It was funny because we had joked about possibly seeing her at the Palms when we were going to the Palms. Then we dropped Brittany and Evan off at their houses and went home, tired and exhausted. We had all been out for nearly 11 hours, were tired and sore as hell, and didn't want to do much else but sleep. In the end however, it was well worth it. Panic at the Disco put on an amazing show, and like they said, it was the best they had done in Vegas so far. I hope that they'll be touring again soon, which they probably will. That concert made my year.