Through The Looking Lens Photography: Panic! at the Disco://:fun.://:Funeral Party://: concert review

This past Friday I had the pleasure to photograph Panic! at the disco , fun. and Funeral Party at the Marquee Theater. It was about 106 degrees outside and you'd think it'd be cooler inside the venue, but forget that. All three bands turned up the heat and melted my make-up off my face, at what ended up being a sold out show. I think I saw about 8 people faint or had to be carried out of the massive crowd because of heat exhaustion that night.

Funeral Party was the first band to kick off the night. Though I've heard of the bands name before, I've never actually heard their music. After their 30 minute performance I'd have to say I enjoyed their sound and energy on the stage. Definitely a band that should be checked out. Go to their site here.

Up next was fun., and of course the crowd welcomed Nate Ruess, the lead singer, back home. They started their set off with some of the crowd favorites off their debut album "Aim and Ignite" as well as playing a new song that they have been working on for their upcoming album. This being the second time I've seen fun., I got to say that they had just as much energy and "fun" as they did when they headlined in their last tour. They are true artist and performers.

Near the end of their set they claimed that, that crowd was the best so far on tour. Usually when bands say that I laugh because I feel like they most bands must say that at every show to make their fans feel good. But I genuinely believed them this time around. The crowd was actually jumping, singing along and dancing around to them. The crowd was almost as entertaining as the band was. Which is very rare for me to say because most Arizona crowds I've been around have been sooooo dull.

Last but not least. Panic! at the Disco, the headlining band came on stage and played their set about over an hour. Playing a variety of songs off all three of their albums, including their most recent album "Vices & Virtues", which dropped this past March.

One of the highlights of P!ATD set that night was playing their song "C'mon" with Nate Ruess and Andrew Dost of fun. According to Panic!'s humble front man Brendon Urie, the boys of fun. were the ones who really did all the work on the song. If that's true, then they did an excellent job at creating the song because it complements the two bands very different styles so much.

One of my favorite things about P!ATD's performance was how the stage was set up. It was so theatrical and seemed very them. It had a very steam-punk-gothic feel to the stage, complete with industrial-size stage lights, over-sized hanging light bulbs, parachute-like marquee curtains and organ pipes. Along with all the band mates all dress up as fine gentlemen. With a stage this theatrical you'd automatically assume that the band is compensating for lack of talent or energy, but not in this case.P!ATD had so much energy on stage that if you bottled it up, it would explode from its container. Between the screams that Brendon Urie whipped out at the end of his verses through out the set and a random guitar off, Panic! shines out as true performers.

To conclude this review I'm want you all to check out Panic! at the disco , fun. and Funeral Party music, you won't regret it.

Panic! at the Disco