Decaydance!

2007-08-30T12:22:52Z

Decaydance Festival

Hammersmith Apollo, London

22^nd August 2007

The Hammersmith Apollo in London has played host to numerous musical greats over the years – Michael Ball in 1993 and Phillip Schofield and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat soon after to Ozzy Osbourne and the concert portion of the Lindsay Lohan movie – Just My Luck was filmed at Hammersmith.

But on Wednesday 22^nd August, the five and a half thousand capacity venue was about to be hit by somewhat of a phenomenon.

Decaydance is the name of the record imprint of Pete Wentz; bass player in Fall Out Boy and it is where most of the bands on the bill tonight call home (with the exception of The Academy Is…, who are on Fueled By Ramen)

Love it or hate it, you can’t deny the power that a show co-headlined by Panic! At The Disco and that little known band called Fall Out Boy!

First up, and unfortunate to start when most of the kids are still getting let into the building were Cobra Starship. Their set may have been the shortest of the evening, but that didn’t seem to matter to the band, or the fans there to see them and definitely played one of the best sets of the evening.

Playing songs from their album “While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets” and generally jumping around like loons, they were a perfect opening band for the occasion. For their finale – probably their best known song, Snakes On A Plane, they were joined on stage by Travis from Gym Class Heroes and William Beckett from The Academy Is… which sent the crowd into a frenzy, throwing their fangs up and awaiting the next band on the bill.

Following his brief stage appearance earlier, William Beckett came strutting on the stage next – channelling his inner Rolling Stone and reminding everyone in attendance exactly how good his band – The Academy Is… are.

They played a good mixture of songs from first album, “Almost Here” and recent offering “Santi” – songs like “Neighbors” and “Slow Down” were crowd favourites, although many in attendance – myself included – would have liked their set to be longer and didn’t really want them to finish, but it was all good when realisation of what was coming up kicked in.

Riding high on the success of their last two singles – the Supertramp sampling “Cupid’s Chokehold” and the Jermaine Stewart sampling “Clothes Off!” Gym Class Heroes were very well received by tonight’s crowd – despite being completely different from every other band on the bill.

Except “Cupid’s Chokehold” the band stuck to playing material from their newest release “As Cruel as School Children” and played a very similar set to the one they played on their UK Tour last month. A small blast of Sean Kingston and a cameo from Patrick Stump during Cupid’s Chokehold added to the building atmosphere and final song “Clothes Off!” – complete with underwear dancing from the delightful Dirty and The Butcher from The Academy Is… - finished their set on a definite high.

It has nearly been a year since Panic! At The Disco have played in the UK – their last outing over here saw them play four nights at Brixton, complete with dancers and a giant windmill – so for kids like me, who hadn’t managed to make the trip to London last year, this was a big deal.

And they didn’t disappoint.

This time around there were no fancy stage outfits or dancers, which was a refreshing change - although Ryan Ross is never one to wear t-shirt and jeans, it was certainly a more casual affair than previous shows.

Their set consisted of songs from their debut album “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” along with a cover of a song by a band called, The Band.

Two new songs were also played – one being called “Nine in the Afternoon” and the other “In The Middle of Summer” both of which sounds fantastic and certainly seemed to make Panic fans more excited about their new album – if that was possible!

Headliners, Fall Out Boy were late on stage – so Tom from the Plain White T’s gave the awaiting crowd an acoustic rendition of Hey There Delilah to keep them entertained until FOB managed to make it to the stage.

When the opening track from “Infinity on High”, Thriller started to play, and the crowd went nuts and all the waiting around for the band to come on was instantly forgotten. With cameos from other band members during songs – Gabe from Cobra during “Grand Theft Autumn”, Travis from Gym Class Heroes in “The Take Over, The Break’s Over” and William from The Academy Is… in “Sophomore Slump, or Comeback of the Year?” - and the general tomfoolery that fans of the band have come to expect (Pete and Joe cannot stay still for long, spin kicking and jumping around at every available turn) and it very clear that Patrick Stump has one of the best voices around today.

Pete Wentz jive talked through most of the set, whether it be about David Beckham, Ryan Ross’ outfit or how some people in the crowd want to see him and Patrick together – the crowd lapped it up. In some eyes, he can do no wrong.

Surprisingly, for most in the crowd, they covered Don’t Matter by Akon and mixed it in with Ignition by R Kelly, followed later by a cover of Beat It by Michael Jackson.

Adam “Sky High” Siska played bass during final song “Saturday” while Pete got all up in the adoring crowd and the band said their goodbyes to the sold-out crowd after a show that most definitely lived up to all that hype.

First Post

2007-06-17T23:16:04Z

Ok, so it only took my like two hours hours to get used to this whole livejournal phenom, and now that I have it - hopefully - up and running, I have nothing to write as my first entry.

So I think I will be using this here journal to post some stuff that I have written - like gig reviews and other random crap that come spewing out of my brain.

Original, huh?

Anyways, I can't decide if I will put some old ones up, or if I will just wait until my next gig or new inspiration hits, so I may update tomorrow or I may not.

Laters.

xo

Don't You Know Who I Think I Am?

Decaydance!

First Post