Panic at the Tsongas Arena up in Lowell

October 31st, 2008 | filed in: Rock Band Live Tour

The Tsongas Arena, home to the Lowell Devils and the UMass Lowell River Hawks, underwent a dramatic transformation Wednesday night: what was once a minor-league hockey rink became a massive concert venue, huge speakers erected where ice once lay, an audience of hundreds pressed in front of the stage, and just as many crowded into the surrounding chairs. Scores of teenagers paraded about excitedly, some with their fathers, others gussied up for the show with bangs in front of their eyes and skinny jeans and high-top Chucks. The event was sponsored largely by MTV and Harmonix, and Rock Band 2 was everywhere. Songs were demoed in between sets, and at least three Rock Band bands performed on-stage.

In addition to The Cab and a smaller local group, the ticket boasted performances by Plain White T’s, Dashboard Confessional, and headliner Panic At The Disco. The crowd was filled with each band’s respective t-shirts, and even though Panic was the main act, there was just as much excitement and spectacle when the Plain White T’s performed.

[...] One very telling moment of the evening was when, while exchanging banter with the crowd, Carrabba accidentally let slip a dirty word. He awkwardly stumbled around it before quickly moving on. It wouldn’t be surprising if a stipulation in the artists’ contracts forbade the use of swear words – at some point later the singer of Panic At The Disco would move his mouth away from the microphone when he had to sing the F-word.

[...] Dashboard Confessional having finished their set, stage-hands came out and put two huge pedestals up, a drum kit sitting atop one of them, a piano on the other. Panic At The Disco’s performance was like they just wanted to be on the Ed Sullivan show – bassist/vocalist Jon Walker sported a McCartney-esque Hofner instrument, and everyone else was wearing thin suits with vests and skinny ties. They opened the performance with “We’re So Starving”, a driving rock song that got everyone moving. Though it took the band a little while to build momentum, the lighting throughout the set was ridiculous good right from the start. There were flashes to the beat and streaks of red and blue decorating the arena as far as the eye could see – it was a spectacle to behold, and really helped bolster what would have otherwise been a somewhat lackluster beginning of the set. Finally things started to pick up, right around when the band fittingly performed “It’s Almost Halloween” for what they say was the first time ever. During “Middle of Summer”, lead singer Brendon Urie walked over to the other side of the stage where a lonely drum kit sat and started playing in perfect coordination with Spencer Smith while the rest of the band enjoyed a brief jam-out. It was a very cool moment that looked like a lot of fun for the performers, and if they had been able to sustain that feeling of enjoyment throughout the set, perhaps it would have been a bit more successful.

This is not to say that any of the performances were unenjoyable by any means: there was just a transparency pervading through the whole thing that made it a less-than-great concert. The whole thing was just so obviously commercial that it all seemed really forced. The lighting was cool but overdone, the performers were pandering to the kids in the crowd, and the amount of Rock Band advertising was astounding. Concerts serving as commercial vehicles are nothing new, but it’s always a little bit disheartening to see in-person. Those in the crowd were happy enough to see their favorite bands, so maybe this is just an overly-negative view of the whole thing, but when the music starts to look secondary to selling the product, something is amiss, and ultimately this is what prevented the showcase from being anything more than pretty good.

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