Hello everyone. I’ve decided that I want to record the events of the 30th of August, 2008, the night I saw Panic at the Disco live with The Academy Is… and Cobra Starship. You’ll have to excuse my poor writing skills but I’ll try my best.

It all started in April 2008 when Hannah, my best friend, and I bought presale tickets to Panic at the Disco with Cobra Starship and TAI. I do admit to not being the biggest Panic at the Disco fan in the world but I wasn't going to miss TAI and Cobra for anything. So initially I was only going for those two. Over the months I listened to the bands a lot more, I even bought Pretty. Odd. and happened to enjoy it for the most part. When the concert date came around I was really into Panic and even more in love with Cobra Starship and TAI.

Anyway, to the concert...

We left Thames at 8am with Hannah's family to arrive at Auckland City at 10. We booked into our Bed & Breakfast place (We were too tired to get up for the breakfast :P) and found they'd given us a double bed, not two singles. We figured it would have to do, and after several trips down to ask things such as "How do you turn the power on?" we packed our necessities and were on our way to Vector Arena. It started spitting slightly but it didn't get any worse than that. We stopped off at New World for some munchies (Coke Zero, gum, Pringles and yucky vegetarian sandwiches) and continued on to our destination.

We arrived at the arena at 11am and I'm gonna guesstimate there were about 30 people there. I think some people had slept over but compared to My Chemical Romance there were very few people there. We were told that only Doors E and G were going to be used, so everyone with a Door C ticket was to go to Door G, etc. If only they knew the trouble that would cause. Anyway, for the next 4 or so hours there was a gradual increase in people but it was still a really small group. Around 4-5pm, security started walking around and people took this as an indication to stand up. So everyone stood up but nothing really happened. It must have been around 5 when things got a little crazy. We're all standing there in this really wide line but the barriers hadn't been put up. The security said something that must have been interpreted as "Everyone with a Door C ticket, go to Door C..." because I have never seen anyone run so fast. It was amazing. And so I'm running over to Door C and I get there and I'm basically at the front when I realize "Why am I at the front? Where is everyone...?" and before I know it I'm running back to Door G.

So after that little disruption, the barriers went up but that did shit all. No one moved and we were all kind of mashed together. I was about 10 people backed in the whole mashed up ness which was pretty good. Anyway, the security were getting all pissy because they wanted us to get into two lines and they were all "You're doing this to yourselves…" but that was kind of impossible because the people at the back wouldn't move back. So, insert about an hour of that nonsense and it was around 6pm when everyone was all sorted and in two lines. The security said the doors would open at 6 but they lied... They opened around 7. Anyway, we had an alright spot. When the line started moving it got a little frisky but everything went pretty well, Hannah got her camera in easy and then we were in.

SECOND ROW, BABY. That's right. I was fully spooning the people on barrier. Hannah and I got really good spots next to each other, we were between the centre and the left end (Otherwise known as DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF CHIZZY) I’m cool. So we waited there for a while, they made us sit down... What is up with that? And then the lights dimmed... And on came... A shitty New Zealand band. Nah, they were alright. They were called A Kiss Goodbye and they did a rock version of 'Umbrella' that was cool. I think they were kind of drunk though? Lol. Anyway, they were playing their songs that unfortunately nobody knew when who do we see standing off stage? That's right. William Beckett. Everyone went shit crazy and he waved at me. Well... In my general direction. Then he left, and Gabe replaced him, or was it Chizzy... They were both there at some point, and they both waved in my general direction. Owyeah.

Anywho. A Kiss Goodbye finished and we waited for Cobra Starship to come on. The lights dimmed again and on they came... Vicky wearing a sling. Gabe told us some story about how they were in a crash the night before and she'd fucked up her arm. You wouldn't have known though because she took it off and was rocking her keytar. They opened with 'The City Is at War' and from memory played the following songs:

·         Guilty Pleasure

·         Church of Hot Addiction

·         The beginning of Hollaback Boy

·         Bring It (Snakes on a Plane) (featuring William Beckett)

·         Smile For The Paparazzi

·         Send My Love To The Dance floor, I’ll See You In Hell (Hey Mister DJ)

 Gabe has the best onstage personality hands down. He was dancing everywhere in his "PARTY NAKED" shirt and swinging the microphone around. He stood on Nate's drum kit at some point but said he’s not allowed because he’s a fat motherfucker and he’ll break them. And then he was all “I’m not allowed nice things because I always break them”. 

Gabe was talking about Vicky a lot too, I couldn't make out a lot of what he was saying but she looked all embarassed. Oh and may I add... Victoria is extremely attractive? *drool* Ahem. So, moving on... What was that they played? Bring It (Snakes on a Plane)! Hell yes. William came on and Sisky sung the "Ladies and gentlemen..." rap. It was great. And I think that was the last song, Gabe jumped down in front of the barrier and I swear I pulled a muscle reaching for his hand. No such luck though, but oh well. Oh and Gabe also taught us ‘The International Symbol of the Cobra” because Mike Carden wanted him too. It was so cool.

So Cobra left and that’s when I started feeling a little off. Everything went a little blurry for me and I was like “Sup, I don’t feel so good…” to the person next to me. I felt like a bit of a douche but she said she’d call security if I was dying or anything extreme. But at the same time I was mentally kicking myself and there was no way I was going to miss The Academy Is… So I got over that pretty quickly and I was feeling better by the time they came on. IT WAS SO COOL. They opened with ‘Neighbors’ and Chizzy was directly in front of me. I was still holding up my position in second row at this point too. If I remember correctly they followed with ‘Slow Down’ so it was awesome to hear something from their first album. Anyway, a few songs in what do they start playing? Everything We Had. I was so close to tears. I don’t know why I love that song so much but I know I sung every word. I was so happy. I’m going on memory again here so this is basically what I think they played after that:

·         Neighbors

·         Slow Down

·         Phrase That Pays

·         Summer Hair = Forever Young

·         We’ve Got A Big Mess On Our Hands

·         Everything We Had

·         About A Girl

·         Checkmarks

That’s in no particular order. At some point during About a Girl Gabe came out again but I didn’t see him. William came down to the barrier quite a bit but it was at the other end of the stage unfortunately. I could see him singing into the crowd though and then he went out in a similar fashion to Gabe, and again I stretched a fair few muscles with no such luck. So yeah! They were awesome. Bill had said it was love at first sight with New Zealand and that they hope to come back for a headlining tour. He also threw in some shameless advertising for their new album, haha. Funnily enough, the CD was sold out in several stores the next day.

The last act for the night was what most people had been waiting for, Panic at the Disco. Technically I wasn’t one of those people but I was still super excited to see them live. They had this humongous screen for their backdrop which my friend claims showed a silhouette of a naked man at one point but who knows. They opened with ‘We’re So Starving’ and I think Ryan had some trouble with his guitar because he seemed to be mouthing something furiously to someone on the side, lol. They played a mixture of songs from both albums such as:

·         We're So Starving

·         Nine In The Afternoon

·         But It’s Better If You Do

·         Camisado

·         I Constantly Thank God For Esteban

·         That Green Gentlemen (Things Have Changed)

·         She's A Handsome Woman

·         Folkin' Around

·         Behind the Sea

·         Northern Downpour

·         There’s A Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven’t Thought Of It Yet

·         I Write Sins Not Tragedies

·         Time to Dance (Acoustic)

They didn’t play When the Day Met the Night which was kind of bummage for me because I love that song, but it was a good set list. They also played an acoustic version of Time to Dance which my friend was ecstatic about. There were lots of neat moments, like the bubble machine and singing happy birthday to Ryan. He was a real little cutie; he was talking all this crap about how the police would come because how loud we were singing and how Behind the Sea was written for all of the single people out there. Apparently he’d never had as many people sing happy birthday to him before, but Brendon smartly added that he had. I actually enjoyed the second half on the set from the side, about 3 metres from the stage, where there was heaps of room and I could dance around by myself, lol. It was only then that I realized how small the mosh pit was, lol. I had a great view and it was nice to have some air in my lungs again. I got to see them walk off stage and wave as they went through the exit.

So, that’s what happened! It’s now the beginning of October so pardon if I’ve gotten anything wrong. After the concert, we went and grabbed some merch, a lot of what we wanted was sold out but I managed to get a yellow Panic at the Disco shirt and a The Academy Is… shirt which is massive on me, lol. I actually dry-retched when a few people shoved past me in the merch line and I got a whiff of their mosh smell. But y’know, I probably smelled just as rank.

After that we went back to the place we were staying and went downtown at about 1am to grab some dinner. We had to pass all these strip clubs which was kind of weird. I’ve heard that a few people got to meet Gabe and co during Panic’s set which is awesome for them, but I don’t really regret staying. It’s good to know though that they come out during the other sets, for next time *wink*. Well, yeah, that’s me. I might post some photos sometime!

G xoxo