" ... Swear To Shake It Up ... "

My weekend rocked! ♥ So, be warned, this is going to be an extremely long post o.0

Saturday was nothing special, really. I slept all day. It was bad. Actually, it was probably pretty good, considering I would get no sleep the next day ...
... because on Sunday, the Honda Civic Tour came to Portland! And I was so there!


The show was scheduled to start at 6:30 PM, 5:30 door. On Sunday morning, me, my sis and my mom all headed down to the mall to go shopping. I spent way too much money and now I'm 100% broke :( But! I do have good news! Guess what I finally got my hands on? ... Life on the Murder Scene! f.y.e (my favorite music store, officially) got a new shipment of My Chemical Romance stuff in, and seeing the DVD sitting there all lonely at the back of the bin ... it was the last one, and I had to take it home. I haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet, but I'm absolutely ecstatic! When I have money again (could be a while ... o.0) I'm going to start from the beginning and work my way to the present, buying My Chem's first album, then second, and finally their latest release ... I may have to go a little out of chronological order with the purchase of The Black Parade Is Dead!, MCR's second DVD, which comes out July 1st. Can't wait! So, anyway. I spent way too much money at the mall, and once I was completely broke we left for the concert. That meant no tour shirt for cowgirl4christ :( Sad day. Oh well. I think I'll survive.

I hadn't been to the Portland Expo Center in years ... not since the last antique show I had been to (Lord knows when that was ... Mommy used to take me and sis when we were little kids). Seeing the huge facility again brought back a lot of flashbacks ...
Me and my sister took our place at the back of a hideously large line. The weather was actually nice; a little chilly, but clear skies and no rain! Woo hoo! The line moved along at a very nice pace. We both "ooh"-ed and "aww"-ed over the pretty customized Honda Civic outside the building before we went inside. As soon as we stepped in the doors, it stunk like none other, but the warehouse-y atmosphere was kinda cool. Finally, we got to the hall where the concert was going to be held. The stage was set at the far end, with rows of bleachers creating a perimeter around the sound crew area and the crowd of people who had already gathered around the stage. All in all, the whole set-up was very nice.
What would have otherwise been a boring wait for the show to start was kept rather amusing by a projection screen that showed text messages from the crowd for the whole show to read! All you had to do was text your message to a certain number, and if you were lucky, your message would scroll across the screen! It was a lot of fun, seeing what people had to say ... the messages mostly consisted of "SCREAM if ur from [insert city/high school here]!", "SCREAM if ur class of [enter graduating year here]!", and similar such texts, asking people to scream in support of certain things; scream if you like vampires, scream if you're vegan, scream if you came with your mom ... it kept things very interesting! Me and my sister also met some fellow My Chemical Romance fans by means of the text message marque ... the first MCR-related message simply read "gerard way", and me, my sister, and a handful of other girls screamed our lungs out! I knew at least one of them had been to the My Chem concert in Portland that I was at a few months ago when she yelled out "Red Bull Smoothies!" (While the other band members drank beer and lit cigarettes, Gerard drank Red Bull Smoothies during My Chemical Romance's concert at the Crystal Ballroom on April 8th, 2008; he's been sober since August of 2004). After the roaring response to the Gerard text, several other My Chem-related texts floated across the screen; "mikey way", "scream for frank iero!", "mcr saved my life", and others. It was a lot of fun, and me and my sis acquainted ourselves with the fellow My Chem fans during the wait for the show to start :)
When the show finally started at seven o'clock (a half hour late! *gasp*), we were all more than ready to rock n' roll. While we had been waiting, me and my sister were probably a good thirty feet from the barrier, and to the right of the stage; still extremely close, but nothing special. As soon as the lights turned off and Phantom Planet's logo was put up on the projection screen, the entire crowd rushed toward the stage. Once all the pushing, shoving, and screaming was over, me and my sister had advanced a good ten feet forward and, as the show went on, we probably got within fifteen feet of the barrier! This was an excellent position for us to be in to watch the opening band.


I was actually surprised; I liked Phantom Planet a lot more than I thought I would! The band members were a blast to watch on stage, and the music was great; all in all, they put on one heck of a show! The lead singer, Alex Greenwald, jumped off the stage and in front of the barrier several times throughout the performance, and even dared to take a jump into the crowd once ... right near me and my sis! We weren't close enough to touch him, not quite ... but it was still really cool! We also got really close to catching one of the guitar players' picks when he tossed it into the crowd, but that, too, was just a few feet out of reach; it landed on some other girl's head, and she didn't even notice! Me and a fellow concert-go-er who witnessed the pick fall to the floor were utterly disappointed :( I will also argue that during Phantom Planet's second or third song - couldn't tell you the title, sorry - I started the clap the ultimately spread to the whole crowd. I had both hands above my head, clapping the rhythm, and I'm pretty sure Alex looked at me before putting his hands above his head and clapping, too! It was pretty sick =D All in all, Phantom Planet was an awesome opening act.


Next up was The Hush Sound. These guys, too, were excellent - I was especially impressed by keyboard- and vocalist Greta Salpeter. Their performance lacked the rock n' roll presence that Phantom Planet delivered and that Motion City Soundtrack would follow it up with ... but The Hush Sound's music definitely made up for it! I'll for sure be looking for music by these guys!
Once The Hush Sound left the stage, things got really interesting in the crowd. Pushing and shoving to the front became unbearable; several people (myself included) fell to the ground more than once. It got to the point where you weren't even standing on your own two feet anymore; all the bodies around you were putting enough pressure on your body to keep it upright, even when both your feet left the floor. For a while, it was amusing; we laughed and screamed as the mob swayed back and forth. But, when rib cages started getting crushed and little girls started hyperventilating and getting pulled out of the crowd by security ... it was just ridiculous. However, when you're standing so close to so many people, you can't help but make friends; me and my sister had several conversations with others who were just as squished as we were, and one girl finally said, "You know what, I just want to say something ... I love you guys!" It was cute.


Finally, Motion City Soundtrack came onstage. I knew from the minute keyboardist (okay, synthesizer-ist. But that sounds funny o.0) Jesse Johnson came on stage and started flipping his hair that Motion City was going to put on quite a show. And they definitely didn't disappoint! Out of all the opening bands, this one might have been my favorite; after two other opening acts, Motion City finally got us moving, jumping up and down, even headbanging a little bit! All in all their performance was a blast, and the music was great also; I'll be looking into these guys as well!
Finally, the opening bands were through, and it was time for Panic! to take the stage. Throughout Motion City's performance me and my sister got maneuvered around enough and now we were center stage, within ten feet of the barrier! We were both ecstatic; sure, it would have been nice if we hadn't have been crushed to death in the process, but we were so close! She and I had joked about forcing our way to the front for this show, just because we could ... and then we were there! There were literally four people between me and the barrier, but those four people were holding fast; there was no way my sister and I were getting any closer. But that was alright; we had a perfect view of Brendon Urie as he took his mic just a few feet in front of us. It was too cool!
About halfway through Panic!'s first song of the night - which was We're So Starving; how fitting - I came to two obvious conclusions. One, Brendon Urie totally owns live. He's got such a fantastic cabaret-style voice, and he sounded simply lovely on stage. My second conclusion is that Mr. Ryan Ross is probably the most boring man to watch on stage. My Chem fans; you thought Mikey Way had an issue with moving on stage? That's nothing compared to Ryan's stationary state. But, as the show went on, we discovered that maybe it wasn't all Ryan's fault; maybe he just has an issue multi-tasking? Ryan made a big deal about it when he traded places with bassist Jon Walker, standing on the left side of the stage instead of the right - made it seem like switching places was quite a daring feat. And at the end of Folkin' Around, after Brendon asked for an applause for Ryan and Jon for playing percussion, Ryan went on to say that he had managed to do four things at once; sing, shake his maraca, clap, and figure out which song the band would be playing next, which ended up being I Write Sins Not Tragedies. So maybe Ryan stands perfectly still because he can't play and move at the same time =D


All in all, the show was a blast. Panic! played us great music, giving us equal amounts of their new and old tracks, and the band put on a fantastic performance. The pushing and shoving even died down considerably; by about the third or fourth Panic! song in, everybody was content with where they were standing, and there was actually room between people and we could actually breathe! *gasp*! The whole show was a lot of fun, but my two favorite parts were probably when Panic! performed But It's Better If You Do and Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Off Her Clothes; both songs got the crowd really rockin' out!
However, the encore may have been my favorite part of the whole concert, when Brendon came out alone and played us an acoustic rendition of Time to Dance, my favorite Panic! song. The acoustic cover was simply lovely, and hearing the entire crowd sing along was magical. At the end of the song, Brendon agreed and simply said, "Beautiful!"
At the end of the night, despite whatever bruises me and my sister might have sustained during the mosh pit disaster, we both agreed that that was one fun show! Half of the fun was just the atmosphere; the people in the crowd were all so nice! So, if you were at this show, leave a comment on this post - because you guys all rocked! <3 The whole concert was just a happy place to be, as corny as that sounds.
All I can say is ... that was one hell of a party =D

Brendon Urie sings Time to Dance at the Portland Expo Center - June 8th, 2008



With all that being said ... here's a Top 10 song list of the week (once again, a day late). Enjoy, and talk to ya'll later!

Top 10 Songs Of The Week

1. Bury Me In Black - My Chemical Romance
2. Breathe Today - Flyleaf
3. Red Sam - Flyleaf
4. Time To Dance - Panic! At The Disco
5. But It's Better If You Do - Panic! At The Disco
6. The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage - Panic! At The Disco
7. Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Guns N' Roses
8. Skylines And Turnstiles - My Chemical Romance
9. The Last Night - Skillet
10. Cubicles - My Chemical Romance