This past weekend CootieGirl and I drove a couple hours to Raleigh, NC to see her favorite band, Panic! at the Disco, in concert.
We began our Saturday by bingewatching some episodes of “Great British Bake Off,” one of our favorite shows. It puts me in the baking mood whenever I watch it, and this Saturday was no different. CootieGirl expressed a desire to bake a cake, and so during commercials we’d scurry into the kitchen to put together a cake. And while it didn’t quite look like a “showstopper” cake from GBBO, it was still a pretty tasty cake once it was all done.
We hit the road around 2 p.m. for Raleigh once we filled the car with gas and hit the ATM for spending money, and made decent time, arriving at our hotel around 5:00 p.m. Our room was huge – two big beds as well as a separate sitting area with sofa. The hotel was only a couple miles from PNC Arena, so it was a good choice. CG stated she wanted steak for dinner, but the local Outback Steakhouse had a line out the door when we got there at 5:30 p.m. We drove around a bit trying to find a place and ended up at some hole in the wall pizza joint. The pizza was decent, so no complaints. And it was certainly cheaper than Outback would have been!
We arrived at PNC Arena right at 7 p.m. and quickly made our way inside. The first opening act, A R I Z O N A, was already playing as we made our way to our seats, which were not too bad – they were lower level but near the floor, so we felt like we were “close” to the stage, which jutted out into the audience quite a bit. We quickly spotted the white piano overhead, near our seats. We knew from reading other concert reviews that Brandon Urie came out into the audience to play that piano, and CG was thrilled that it would be taking place right in front of us, no more than 30-40 feet away from where we sat.
A R I Z O N A finished their set (I ended up LOVING their sound and will definitely be downloading some of their songs) and the next opening act, Hayley Kiyoko, came out. Let’s just say she did NOT sing live (to my ear) and her songs all sounded the same. I was not impressed by her at all. CG didn’t seem to like her much either because about halfway through the set she opted to go stand in a long line to buy a t-shirt rather than listen to Kiyoko perform. She chose wisely.
Upon her return to her seat, the 10 minute countdown for the main band to take the stage began (literally – from the stage they had a giant countdown clock). And the noise level increased exponentially as each minute counted down. It was at this point I regretted that I forgot my earplugs that I normally take to every concert.
I won’t go too far into detail on the concert, suffice to save that Brandon Urie has a LOT of energy, has a great voice, is very entertaining, and puts on a good show (the light show was good as well). As a Christian mom, I don’t approve of all of his song lyrics (and CG knows this), but I think that can be said about most secular bands these days. He sang a total of 28 songs in 90 minutes, and at one point came out into the audience, allowing fans to shake hands or give hugs while he sang “Death of a Bachelor” (one of my favorite songs he does). After that song ended he boarded the platform that featured the hanging white piano which raised back up into the air and moved him from the back of the arena to the stage up front while he sang a couple songs.
What was particularly cool was that a good portion of the audience lit up their phone flashlights while the stage lights went dark. The result was that the arena took on this tone as if it was lit only by candles, and the whole place was lit up. I wish my pictures could truly show you how magical it was – it was fantastic (see below). They did another song where the audience held up pieces of paper (which was on everyone’s seat (I wouldn’t want that job)) to their flashlights and they all shone a different color (we were in the blue section).
When the encore began, CG turned and said she’d be ready to go once the last encore song started (there were three) so that could beat the crowds leaving. Great idea! So when “Victorious” began, we ditched our seats and made for the exit. As we walked through the parking lot we could hear the last song clearly as all the doors were open in preparation for the show’s end. We both commented that our ears were ringing from the noise of the show.
We made it to the car and out of the parking lot just as the crowds began pouring out from the building. Perfect timing! We made it back to the hotel in no time where we promptly went to bed. It had been a long day!
Sunday morning we both woke up dreadfully early (6:30 a.m.) because that’s what time our internal clocks prefer. We both tried to go back to sleep but at 7:30 a.m. we were both wide awake again. At that point we prepared to go home. We had our hotel’s free breakfast (not that good) and then checked out. We got home by 11:30 a.m. at which point I spent most of the afternoon napping on the sofa while CG headed upstairs to her room to listen to P!ATD on Spotify all day, no doubt.
Would I go see them again? Probably not. Did I enjoy the show? Yep, I did.
