This is the tale of a dance happy daughter, my daughter Arden, as beautiful as the day and poised at the cusp of her life's musical journey. She spurns music which has been designed with her precious adolescence in mind, no One Direction or Justin Bieber for her, but rather what she assures me is the Holy trinity of Emo
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| My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco |
All hail Dance Happy Tiger Mother.
And this is what happiness looks like...
So, on a freezing cold night, I got to accompany my daughter to her first ever gig.
Panic! At The Disco - Brixton Academy - 12th January 2016
(Arden tells me, regularly, that there is a special place in hell reserved for those who on it the exclamation mark)
We arrived in Brixton 2 hours before the doors opened, my plan was to park and then eat! However, the queue already wrapped around several sides of the 02 Brixton with the front runners having been there for several hours, wrapped up in duvets and blankets and it was obvious that we were going to have to engage our British heritage and queue. It was a good natured queue, young, I'd put the average age at 17, underdressed and buzzing with excitement. Arden looked as though she'd been lit up from inside.
Thanks to the o2 priority queue we were able to get in quickly and as arden is under 14 we made for the balcony and nabbed seats in the second row. Not bad considering that we were only one row behind one of the duvet girls who had been outside for 8 hours.
I don't think that I can adequately describe how it was to watch the night unfold through my daughters eyes. It was overwhelming, I was reminded of just how young and new she is and I was relieved to have her in a seat in the balcony.
The support was Charley Marley, an uneasy mix of children's party entertainer and wannabe gangsta. He wore the ubiquitous EMO black skinnies and jumped around a lot 'A jack-in-a-box, a jack-in-a-box springs high but never shows his socks' But he fed off the feverish excitement of the crowd and performed with complete commitment and energy. It was later in the evening that I recognised him for what he is, a
Brendon Urie.Brendon Urie however is a force of nature. He has spent the last ten years seeing off the other members of Panic! at the disco until he is it and it is he. The rousing Emperor's New Clothes is his diatribe of taking control and grasping the 'crown' creative and artistic control and he is, without doubt a narcissistic, maniacal, control freak. Throughout the set he played every instrument, back flipped from the drum kit riser employing every possible technique to ensure that every member of the audience fell a little bit in love with him and we did.
Brendan Urie seems like the real deal. The best of EMO with undeniable punk roots. This was a roller coaster ride of Urie's influences from Queen, Bowie and The B52s to Sinatra and The Beach Boys.
He's a wordsmith, spinning vivid tales of debauched nights out and the authenticity of you currently just pipe dreams to the young, passionate audience before him.
She said at night in my dreams
You dance on a tightrope of weird
Oh but when I wake up
You're so normal that you just disappear.
And yes, the boy can sing!
And yes, the boy can sing!
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