"Come congregation, let's sing it like you mean it"

"Swear to shake it up, if you swear to listen,
Oh, we're still so young, desperate for attention"

"So testosterone boys and harlequin girls,
Will you dance to this beat"

Another gig. Another game of guess the song lyrics and google hits resulting from it. Yesterday I ended up in Wolverhampton. After minor train delays we got to the Civic and by the look of people hanging about, we were in the right place. However, I didn't listen to anyone who told me to eat dinner and this coupled with the fact that I'd not drunk much liquid all day [and went home complaining of a headache] my legs were decidedly wobbley. So consequently I missed the support band announcing who they were because I was at the bar. I'd love to say I was getting alcohol but I was actually in search of Coke and crisps. Rock and indeed roll. Therefore none of us knew who the support band were because Ali didn't hear what they said but any band who talks about putting a pirate flag onto the roof of the venue has to be good. And they were good, I just don't know what they were called. The lead singer had legs that seemed to have a mind of their own, which led to us to watch his legs rather than the band, but as Ali pointed out, they were worth the applause on their own!

Then they set up the stage and I spent that time texting Gayle finding out what was happening in the Liverpool match. And then Panic! At The Disco took to the stage. And they rocked. Everytime I go to a gig, I forget how much I love live music until I am immerced in it. I was so tired I was falling asleep on the train journey there and contemplating when my body would tell me to get lost and just crash and burn but once the music started, it all didn't matter anymore. We were up on the balcony, which meant that I could sit free from the fear that my legs might give way. The whole place was full and I looked down at the floor and saw everyone jumping up and down and part of me wished I was down there with them, beer showers and all; 'and all' being whatever the lead singer decided to throw into the audience - usually a pretty full bottle of water. There's something inherent in the ND, which means that we can't sit down at gigs, we have to stand up and dance and jump about and can never understand why no one else feels this. And as I stayed sitting [standing would have meant having the security man shine his torch in my eye and whilst blinding me, tell me to sit down again], I wanted to be down on the floor. Because Panic! rocked that stage and when they are skidding about all over the stage and the drums are banging, who wants to be sitting down? Incidentally, instead of a mic incident, which is usually what occurs at gigs I attend, there was a drum incident. The cymbals kept slipping and the roadie type guy had to keep wandering on stage to sort them out. After one of these incidents, he was exiting the stage and rather amusingly walked smack bang into their bass player who struggled to get out of his way.

I loved the way they managed to blend their songs into each other so well. There weren't many breaks in the music, which I quite liked and they sounded great in the venue. They haven't played small-ish venues for a while because they've been playing festivals but they got right back into things. Brilliant gig, complete with, as all good gigs are, everyone yelling back the lyrics at the top of their voice so that the place reverberated with everyone's voices heard over the banging of drums and the lead singer singing as he skidded across the stage.