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Rock Band Live Tour in Philadelphia
by Music Vice contributor Alison Killian - November 4, 2008
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Gig/Concert: |
Rock Band Live Tour |
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Venue: |
Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
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Date: |
November 1, 2008 |
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| Headliners: |
Dashboard Confessional, Panic At The Disco |
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In one word: |
Alright |
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Your say: |
Were you here? Talk about it |
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Walking through the doors of the Wachovia Spectrum, I can hear the crowd roaring. It's 7:30 PM and thanks to traffic I was thirty minutes late. I made my way down to the floor and asked someone what bands had already played. “Uhh.. The Cab.” Great. The Cab was the one band I counted on seeing, and I missed their set. Needless to say, I was pissed off. Thankfully a great performance from Plain White T's turned my mood around.
PWT opened their performance with their newest single Natural Disaster; the catchy, pop-punk song got the crowd up out of their seats and dancing. Singer Tom Higgenson was bouncing all over the stage to keep the crowd moving, for the next song was one to dance to. Our Time Now, off their third full-length album Every Second Counts, had the fans jumping and screaming. Whether you were a die-hard PWT fan or a newbie, you were swaying in movement with the people around you. The Plain White T’s highly charged performance blew me away, and lifted my spirits.
My good mood, unfortunately, nosedived when Dashboard Confessional took the stage. From the second Christopher Carrabba strummed that first chord, I wanted it to end. I found Dashboard’s performance to be nothing but loud and annoying. I don’t know if it was the drunken middle-aged people, (parents and guardians), throwing themselves into me or the seemingly endless drone of their songs that made me dislike the performance more. The only highlight of Dashboard’s set was the cover of Pink’s So What. Alex Marshall, Alex DeLeon, and Ian Crawford of The Cab were brought onstage to aid Carrabba for a fun and flawless rendition of the hit single.
Since this was the Rock Band Live Tour, naturally they had ‘bands’ playing Rock Band, the video game, on stage between sets. In order to win a spot on stage you had to compete against others in a Rock Band face-off an hour before the show. The holders of the high score for the tour so far is a group of boys from Philadelphia; not quite as an impressive feat as the Phillies winning the World Series, but the city welcomes champions of any kind.
Those gamers ended up being the opening act for the final band of the night, Panic At The Disco. With Panic’s eccentric style, the stage looked more like someone’s bedroom than a performance area. Behind the band, there were large pastel-colored curtains and picture frames floating in front of a large screen. Throughout the performance, different scenery was displayed with each song. The Las Vegas quintet put on an incredible performance complete with everything from drum solos to dance lessons.
Playing a medley of old songs and new, Panic had the crowd rocking out to the techno beat of songs like The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is the Press Coverage and swaying to songs like When The Day Met The Night. Ending the show by covering The Isley Brothers’ Shout, Panic At The Disco had completely turned my night around. I walked into the concert in the worst mood possible and left with that familiar feeling of walking on air. At least the show wasn’t a complete waste of fifty dollars.
© Alison Killian
