My day started off pretty crappy, I woke up late so I was rushing around trying to get ready, I was having a bad hair day (my fringe went all curly as soon as I left the house) and the trains were all screwed. I finally got to Essendon station where I got picked up by Jenny and her dad and we then got dropped off at Festival Hall. We made our way to the line then Melissa caught up with us. Once we got in we went straight to the line to buy signing tickets. It was really dark inside and the first band (We Are The Ocean) had already started playing so it was quite loud. Half way through the line we found out the Panic! At The Disco and All Time Low tickets were sold out so naturally I felt gutted. We stayed in line though, Melissa and I ended up buying a ticket to see We Are The In Crowd.
As soon as I went in I wasn’t very happy with the venue, it’s good for a concert but not for a music festival even though this one wasn’t very big. The stage was split in half so one band would perform on one side then the next on the other. We walked around a bit while Terrible Things were playing and once they finished we made our way into the crowd and watched The Swellers. The crowd started a circle pit but luckily we weren’t near it, we moved to the other side of the stage.
While The Swellers were on, We Are The In Crowd were setting up so I was watching them set up and at one point, Mike Ferri (bassist) waved at the crowd and it was so cute! We Are The In Crowd began to play and they were the first band so far who I was looking forward to seeing, they were pretty good but something seemed to be wrong with the microphones so at times I couldn’t really hear Tay (singer) and Jordon (also singer). There were a group of guys who were going crazy moshing in the pit and I thought it was funny for some reason.
Alesana were on next and they were a screamo band so it was my first time seeing screamo. Yeah I didn’t particularly enjoy it and the lead singer’s facial expressions were freaky at times. We left the crowd during their set, stood on the side and watched Go Radio set up (one of the guys was really attractive so I kept watching him). Melissa and I left to stand in line for the WATIC signing, I watched Go Radio perform from the line and got to see pretty much all of their set because the line wasn’t moving. I thought they were really impressive, I liked how the attractive guy moved around the stage and I loved their cover of Rolling In The Deep (wish I took some photos of them).
We finally got inside the small side room were the signings were taking place.
Melissa went in front of me and a lady asked for our tickets. I went to look for mine but couldn’t find it and I started to panic because I had it on me a second ago. A few people went past me as I frantically looked for my ticket but no luck. The lady then told me it was ok and she let me go, Rob Chianelli (drummer) was first so him and Mike signed my book then Tay did. She asked me how I was so I said good then told her their performance was great so she thanked me and thanked me for making the effort to come and see them (she’s so cute!). Cameron and Jordon had already signed my book so I asked for a photo but then the security lady came and “NO PHOTOS!” so I said bye and left.
Melissa and I couldn’t find Jenny so we stood at the back and watched Hellogoodbye. I really liked them, they sounded more rock live and they seemed all quirky and cute so they were really good.
After their set Melissa and I made our way to the front of the crowd and Jenny then joined us, we were planning on staying there to see if we could make it to the barrier by the time Yellowcard played but we were all hungry so we left. After a quick toilet break (yes you needed to know that) we went outside to line up for food. It was raining and it was cold so it wasn’t very pleasant but we were hungry so we stayed there. The rain probably wasn’t the best thing for my cold but what could I do. This girl standing in front of us in the line started talking to us and we found out she was 15 (she looked a lot older), she said we looked young. After a long wait we finally got to the front, got food then made our way inside again. The girl asked if she could hang around with us because she was alone so we said yes. We sat inside, ate and listened to Funeral For A Friend (another screamo band) (I was a little bummed out because I missed The Damned Things which has two members of Fall Out Boy in it. We thought the lead singer of Funeral For A Friend had a funny accent and that he sounded like Gerard Butler (Jenny, I looked them up and they’re from Wales). After FFAF we went back down into the crowd and watched Set Your Goals. We almost got caught in the circle pit which was fucking scary. During one of their songs, Alex from All Time Low came on stage and sang with them so that was really cool.
This Providence were on next and I was really looking forward to them. Dan Young (singer) started talking about how Melbourne was his first home and that he grew up here and went to high school until he moved to the states. Who even knew he was Australian? I had never heard him talk so I didn’t know, he’s still got the accent so that’s pretty cool. I like him more now because he’s from Melbourne, anyway their set was really good. I knew the songs even though I didn’t know all the words and they ended up playing a new song which was cool so yeah I really enjoyed them.
I don’t know why I like this photo so much
The one downside was, where I was standing, there was a girl next to me who was really aggressive and kept elbowing me and pushing me (I wanted to punch her, I was so annoyed). I would just push her back if she pushed me, oh my god she annoyed me so much!
Story Of The Year were next (another band who I wouldn’t normally listen to because they’re more hardcore than my music). I really liked one of the guitarists in the band because he looked all happy and he was moving around the stage a lot. Even though I was in the third row from the front I still had a really bad view because everyone was so goddamn tall! There were a couple of guys next to me who were like giants; I don’t know why they needed to be so close to the front.
Face To Face next, they were an old band and the singer said they had been together for 20 years so that was pretty cool. I couldn’t really see them but there was this man in the crowd who was moshing along and the singer was like it’s nice to see some old timers here.
Yellowcard were on next, another band I was looking forward to. One of the guys in the band plays violin so I thought it was funny seeing him being all hardcore on stage with a violin but the band are awesome.
At this point I couldn’t really see anything so I wanted to get out of the crowd. Melissa, Jenny and I got out and went over to where the signings were because panic were signing at that time and we wanted to see if we could see them from the outside. I looked into the room but I could only see Dallon (touring bass) and Ian (touring lead guitar). At this point I got really upset because I wasn’t going to get to see them (no I didn’t cry ), I had a letter that I written to Brendon and Spencer and I wanted to give it to them so I went up to a girl and asked if she would give them the letter, she said she would so we left after that. We went down into the bar to see what it was like, it was just a room sort of thing where you could buy alcohol and get away from the music for a little while, nothing special so we went back upstairs. We watched Yellowcard from the side of the stage and I spotted Zack from All Time Low eating a massive piece of watermelon which was funny. We spotted other band guys on stage watching Yellowcard from the side. Tay and Mike from WATIC, All of All Time Low and a few other bands. Jenny then spotted the drummer from Go Radio who was standing next to us so we freaked out a little and we wanted to take a photo with him but we didn’t know how to ask so I pretended to take a photo of Jenny so I could get him in the background.
This girl then asked us why we didn’t just talk to him (clearly she doesn’t know us). I told Jenny I would ask him but then I made Melissa ask.
Melissa went up to him and asked for a photo but he misunderstood and took her camera and took a photo of us so we went “No! You have to be in the photo”.
So after that photo we saw Forrest (singer of Hellogoodbye) walk past so we followed him. He was talking to these girls, with another member of the band and they seemed to be really close (wish I could talk like that), Forrest even smelt one of the girl’s hair which was a little strange and the other guy kissed another girl on the cheek for a photo. Forrest started to leave so we ran after him and got a photo.
We then saw the other guy walk past us so more running and I tapped him on the shoulder and asked for a photo, Forrest got into this photo too.
After this we went and watched the rest of Yellowcard’s set. They finished with Ocean Avenue which got everyone crazy, there were all these people dancing along to the song.
We went back to the alcohol area to see if we could spot any band guys hanging around, we saw Forrest and the other Hellogoodbye guy talking to a few people so we went back up and looked for some, I just saw Zack who is Panic’s bodyguard/manager but I don’t like him very much. We left and watched The Young Guns.
All Time Low were on now so we got into the crowd and things got crazy pretty soon. We were in the middle of the crowd and my view wasn’t the best but it was okay, the 15 year old girl from before ended up being behind us (I forgot to mention we lost her before). They played a lot of songs from their new album which made me happy. They sang Time-Bomb and Guts which are my favourite songs from the album. Alex and Jack were talking about something and they started doing this little dance and it was so funny and cute, I wish I took a video of it. They were both really funny and kept making sexual jokes. Everyone sang along to the songs really loudly and at times I couldn’t hear Alex’s voice because the crowd were so loud but it was so awesome. I was surprised at how many guys were ATL fans, I never expected there to be so many. One bad thing, there were a group of guys standing behind me who were really annoying and kept bagging ATL, seriously if you don’t like the band then don’t watch them! It ruins it for everyone else. One of the guys had a whistle so he kept blowing it and that was really annoying. I was taking a video of one of their songs and one of the guys behind me told me I wasn’t allowed to.
“Excuse me but you can’t take a video of them”
“What?”
He then pulled out a tag that said security so I was like what the fuck
“I didn’t come here to watch them through your camera”
I was then getting really annoyed and he had interrupted my recording so I had stopped it, he then told me he was joking and told me to keep recording.
The whistle guy was getting really close to this girl and he was asking her to dance with him, she said no and turned around so he started dancing really closely behind her (really inappropriately too) and it was so gross ugh.
Back to ATL, they played Lost in Stereo which is my favourite and finished it with Dear Maria, Count Me In. Overall they were amazing, they announced that they would be coming back next year so looking forward to that.
I lost Jenny after ATL and was in the middle of the stage, 4 rows from the front. I couldn’t see a thing and thought it was pretty pointless if I stayed there so I left with Melissa and went into the middle of the crowd. We watched D.R.U.G.S (Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows) and saw that their audience were getting crazy. While drugs were playing, the stage was being set for Panic and I got really excited when I saw Tony Marino who is The Academy Is...’s tour manager. Finally time for Panic to play, everyone started moving closer so I was pushed along with the crowd and once again my view wasn’t very good.
They came out and started off with Ready To Go, I decided to move back even more to somehow get a better view of the stage. They played more songs and I sang as loud as I could. Brendon was wearing a shirt with suspenders (wish he had a bow tie on) but oh gosh I have never been more attracted to someone before, seriously the most attractive guy ever.
Brendon started talking and kept saying how great the crowd were and that we were the best ones on the tour so far (every band says that).
“I want to fuck everyone of you”
(*cheer*)
“Well no not everyone, I would have to check your ids first”
He told us a story about how there’s something up with his sweat glands so he sweats excessively and that when he was a kid at school he would be the only one sitting there sweating and everyone including his teacher would laugh at him and that played on his self esteem.
The crowd started chanting “Take it off”
“Is that all I am to you? I’m just a piece of meat (I don’t even know)”
The chanting continued and he started laughing and said he would take his suspenders off, the chanting kept going so he gave in and took his shirt off so everyone went crazy.
Oh my god he was so sexy! You don’t want to know what I was thinking then (is this getting too weird for you? I’ll stop)
He sreamo-ed some of the lyrics so the songs and it was a good kind of scream, I was amazed at his vocal range, he’s seriously improved so much throughout the years.
They sang a few of their old songs and when they performed Camisado I remembered them playing it the last time I saw them and I got a little emotional because of the whole Ryan and Jon leaving (Yes I’m still not completely over that and no I didn’t cry) but ah god it was so amazing, I love that song so much.
Brendon told us that his mum has had the same ringtone for the past 6 years and that it was I Write Sins Not Tragedies, so they sang that and that got everyone crazy.
They covered a The Darkness song (I believe in a thing called love) which sounded really good then they found out they had time to play an extra song so he got people to vote out of That Green Gentlemen and New Perspective (the later one won). He told us a story about how he got to write that song for the movie Jennifer’s Body and that all he knew about the movie at the time was about this one scene where the two main (female) characters make out so that’s pretty much all he had for the song then he told us it was a really sexual song and performed it and it was awesome.
They finished their set with Nearly Witches and that was it. Overall absolutely amazing! They’re such a good live band and they make the whole show entertaining. Downsides were my horrible view of the stage but that couldn’t really be helped. I came to the conclusion that I hate tall people, people who hold up signs and people who get up on other people’s shoulders. I wish they played more songs from Pretty. Odd. (they only played one) and they didn’t play Build God Then We’ll Talk (a part of my life will be complete once I’ve heard that song being performed live). That’s about it really, it better not take them another 3 years to come back here, I want a headlining show!
The three of us then left the venue and parted with Melissa then stood outside to see if we could spot any band guys leaving. A van went past and jenny waved at it and someone waved back but we don’t know who it was, didn’t really get a good look. After a while we got picked up by Jenny’s dad then got Maccas for dinner then went to her house where we looked at the photos.
We had decided to go to the airport the next day to see if we could spot anyone, problem was, we had no idea what time they were going to be there.
I got woken up by Jenny around 9 something, she told me she had been checking twitter to see if any of the band guys said anything about going to the airport. She saw that the WATIC manager had his location turned on and it was at Melbourne Airport so we got dressed and got dropped off at the airport. It was now around 10:20 and there was no one there, we looked at the Virgin Blue check in and also Qantas and Jet Star but still no luck. While we walked around we saw a group of girls sitting down who also looked like they were waiting for a band.
We sat down for a while and looked out at every taxi or van that went past but still nothing, my hopes were being dashed now and I thought we had come on a failed mission. The next flight was at 2:10 and I didn’t know if I wanted to wait that long but we stayed there and kept watch. Some people got out of a taxi and they looked like they were in a band but we couldn’t recognise any of them. I had so many missed calls from my parents at this point and I was starting to worry because I couldn’t tell them that I was at the airport. Waiting there pretty much sucked, we had nothing to do so we just sat there. While waiting I saw this kid and thought he looked like Jack Vidgen (the kid who won Australia’s got talent), when we got closer I saw that it was him and it made me laugh, so weird seeing him there. Only I was amused though because Jenny had no idea who he was. On twitter some random girl had tweeted about there being girls at Adelaide airport at 10 waiting for Panic to arrive, she then said that they would have a 7 hour wait, we tried tweeting her for details but nothing. Around 12 we saw a tweet from the Go Radio drummer.
We thought that maybe they were going to come to the airport soon, so we waited around a bit then decided to check out Virgin Blue because there was a flight at 1 something. We went into the shops then went back up and went on the trading post and looked at puppies for a bit, still no luck. I was pretty upset at this point, so we walked back to the Qantas area. While walking back I looked over and freaked out because I saw Dan Young from This Providence with another TP band member. We followed them but they went inside a café place so we stood outside and went into the shop next to it to decide what we were going to do. Jenny started freaking out a bit too much so I had to calm her down, we wanted to take a photo with them but thought we would wait until they had made their orders. We stood in the shop behind a shelf of power plugs and pretended we were looking at the plugs, this went on for a little while and we would take quick glances to see what they were up to.
“Jenny wouldn’t it be funny if Dan just popped out from behind the shelf?”
“Hey are you two hiding here?”
(I was so embarrassed at this point)
We both laughed and I can’t really remember what we said to him, I didn’t know what to do so I told him their show was great last night and thanked him, he thanked us for coming.
“Will you come back soon for another show?”
“Yeah of course, I mean we can’t just come once then never come back, that would be rude”
“We didn’t know you were from Melbourne”
“Yeah (I don’t know what else he said)”
“Do you come back often?”
“Umm once every year or so. Sorry if I’m a little out of it, I’m a little hungover”
“Did you guys party last night?”
“Yeah”
Ok I can’t really remember what else was said but pretty much after every question/ answer there would be an awkward pause where Dan would go so... or yeah...
Dammit Dan
Jenny did most of the talking so I didn’t really help in making it less awkward
We asked for a photo and he said yes so Jenny asked a lady to take it and Dan went “We have to take it in front of your hiding place” (oh my god)
We got the photo then he left with the other band guy, Jenny and I stayed in the shop, laughed and I kept going on about how awkward and embarrassing that was.
We walked back to the Qantas place and fangirled a little, I was going to go up to the group of girls to ask them who they were waiting for. We almost got to the girls when I saw Spencer, Dallon and Ian and I started freaking out, I showed Jenny then the two of us went over to them. One of the girls from the group also came over, she gave them letters. While this was happened we saw that Ian was stuffing an orange peel into a water bottle so Jenny asked him what he was doing. He said he couldn’t find a bin anywhere then the other guys went yeah we can’t find one anywhere (there was one in the corner). Spencer then said something about how we should get into the industry of making bins. Jenny then got a card signed, I didn’t have a pen so I kind of just stood there staring at Spencer. The girl asked for a photo so I took one for her, we then asked for a photo. I was standing next to Ian and the photo was about to be taken when I heard Dallon (I think) say “Brendon get in!” I turned around and Brendon Urie was standing behind me and smiled and I completely flipped out. I turned around to face the camera and made this weird sound and face and I was trying to stay as calm as I could.
After the photo was taken everyone but Brendon left. I told him the show was great, he said thank you. I told him we couldn’t see him the night before because the signing tickets were sold out, then told him I gave this girl a letter to give to him and that I hope he got it. I don’t know what he said in response to that. I asked him for a photo then Jenny got one and he left after that to join the other guys.
ascadvsfb he's so perfect! Our babies would be so beautiful
Oh my god he was so nice! They all were.
We stood there fangirled some more and watched them go through security. Brendon had to take off his jacket for some reason so we took creepy photos of them in line, then saw that Dan and the other guy were in line too.
We sat down once they left and decided to wait around for All Time Low. I was beyond happy at this point but then I got a phone call from my dad who yelled at me for not picking up the phone or calling them, so I got told off pretty badly and I was about to start crying (I know! I’m so weak when it comes to my parents). I wanted to go through security to see if we could see panic again but Jenny wanted to wait for ATL for a bit longer. After a while and no luck we decided to go through. It felt weird being there because we weren’t getting a plane anywhere. We knew that their plane was leaving from Gate 6 so we headed that way, while walking I spotted Zack from ATL walking with a few guys from other bands. A couple of girls stopped him for a photo so we ran up to get one too.
“I’m going to lose my friends”
We both said we were really sorry for keeping him, seriously though it’s not like he was going to do anything but sit down once he got to the gate so I got a little annoyed at him.
Damn girl for shaking when she took the photo
We kept walking and saw more band guys walking, when we got to Gate 6 I looked in and oh god there were so many of them just sitting there. Imagine getting on that plane; ah how brilliant would that be.
I saw Jack (ATL) walking towards gate 6 from the opposite direction but we couldn’t get there fast enough and he went and sat down with the others. The group of girls from upstairs were here too, we didn’t want to disturb them so we kind of just stood there; I kept looking into the room to see who was there. All the ATL guys were there, This Providence and a few other bands. Panic however weren’t, I then realised they were sitting at gate 7, I don’t know why. After a while of doing nothing, we saw a couple of girls walking towards the room so we followed them. They got a photo with Alex then left, we then went up to Alex and asked for a photo.
“The signings were sold out so we couldn’t see you yesterday”
“You’re here now so that’s cool, are you catching a flight?”
“Uh no”
“You just live here then”
“Yeah”
“You live in the airport”
We thanked him then stood there. Jenny went to Jack and whispered his name.
“Yeah?” (he whispered back)
Ok he said something at this point and It sounded like “I’m pregnant” but why he would say that I have no idea so he most likely said something else
Jenny asked for a photo so I took one of her then got one and he like squeezed me so it felt really good (that sounds weird doesn’t it?)
We thanked him and Jenny said have a safe flight
Oh gosh they were both so nice and so tall! I had no idea Alex was so tall, I always thought he would be shorter. I wish we could have gotten a photo with Rian and the rest of This Providence but they were sitting on the other side and I didn’t want to go near Dan and have another awkward moment so we left.
We walked back up and we decided that I kind of failed at talking to them today so I have to learn how to talk to band guys (but I can’t even talk to normal people!). Anyone want to teach me? I have until March to learn. I also need to learn how to look into people’s eyes when I talk to them, god my social skills are so bad! Upstairs we saw a couple of other band guys, I wanted a photo with one of them because I liked him from the night before but I didn’t know what his name was and I didn’t want to bother him so we left.
After a bit of more fangirling we got picked up by Jenny’s dad and I then got dropped off at Essendon station where I took the train home.
I was dreading going home because of my parents but we had people over so they couldn’t yell at me (score!). Once they left though, my parents called me to the room and I got lectured a little but it wasn’t too bad. My dad tried making a joke at the end “We were panicking while you were watching Panic” I laughed because it was so bad.
All in all it was a bloody fantastic day, one of the best ones ever!
Although I didn't make the most of it, I can't believe I got to meet Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith. Two people I've adored for so long and are part of a band that mean so much to me.
Thank you Jenny for taking me to the airport!
-Scissorhands
P.S If anyone is good at editing photos do tell me, I want the airport photos to have blurred backgrounds so you can't tell it's an airport
