Weezer and Panic! at the Disco: Worth The Drive?
Panic! at the Disco. Photo: Courtesy of the band
Houston is rapidly becoming a must-stop destination for national touring acts, but is it possible that the city has too many venues? Given the abundance of venues, why do we resort to using football, basketball, and baseball venues as a spot to hear bands jam out? Is it because one of the finer large venues in town, the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, is absolutely too far to travel for a concert for the inner-city youth? Perhaps. Are there any shows worth the drive? Yes. I ventured to The Woodlands to see Weezer and Panic! At The Disco to find out if it was, in fact, one of those shows.
Once arrived at the Pavilion, I noticed an obvious demographic of the crowd: tweenage girls, more than likely there for the second act, Panic! at the Disco. Not that it’s bad to have a straightforward target audience, and perhaps this is the work of their vocalist, Brendon Urie, and it makes him a good businessman. That’s what this country needs, a good businessman. I was excited to check out the openers, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness and Panic! At the Disco, neither of whom I was terribly familiar with, but it’s always interesting to see bands with a lot of die-hard fans.
At 7 pm — oh yeah, one of the advantages of large venues is that shows typically hold to a tight schedule — McMahon took the stage. I was completely unfamiliar with the group, so I had absolutely no idea what to expect and thus didn’t hold the band up to any preconceived standard. Starting with “All Our Lives,” I immediately realized that this was not necessarily a band I would listen to on my own accord. To me, it was pretty generic pop. Think of the safety of Coldplay, but the music of a group like Young the Giant. There were, however, several couples who seemed to know lyrics to majority of his set.
Instead of opting for a light presentation, McMahon relied on these inflatable figures, which heavily reminded me of those waving inflatable arm flailing tube men. There were four the these tube creatures and the two in the center were controlled by roadies with sticks. As generic as this thirty-minute set may have been, there was no denying that Andrew McMahon aims to please the crowd. This was apparent through “Cecilia and the Satellite,” the closing song, when he strolled through the reserved seating area, singing and giving out the occasional selfie. After this set, you could tell that the crowd eagerly anticipated a crazy, high-energy set from Panic! at the Disco and the audience’s excitement even had me interested in their performance.
Finally, the tweenagers time had come. Panic! at the Disco opened with a sample of the legendary Surf-guitar track “Miserlou” by Dick Dale before launching into “Don’t Threaten Me with a Good Time” — which features a backing track that, I’m sure, was sampled from “Rock Lobster” by the B-52’s — and proceeded to drive the crowd absolutely ballistic. One of the first things I noticed was the gold microphone that Urie sang with. I find it pretty comical when bands add small touches and features like that. The band went on and smashed each song while the audience roared and sang along to Every. Single. Song.
The highlight of this set was the band covered the uber-classic “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Man, it obviously was not Freddy Mercury singing or Brian May playing guitar, but it was a pretty close second. I won’t say that he had a voice similar to Mercury’s, but the style in which Urie chose to portray the song was unlike most covers of the track that I’d seen in the past. They closed off the set with “Victorious,” which featured a level of energy so high that Urie actually did a backflip while a horn line belted in the background. All around, the performance legitimately made me want to investigate the band’s discography.
Now, I was excited. The band I was most excited to see, one that’s in the top 10 of my all-time favorites, was about to going to take the stage. My first time seeing Weezer was at FPSF back in 2024 and their impressive showing led me to hold rather high expectations. I’m not sure that the majority of that tweenager demographic was quite as excited as I was, although that wasn’t a surprise. A large portion of the VIP ticket holders, who had access to the pit, left after the Panic! set. As I went to get water while the stage was being set up, I overheard a conversation between two kids that went something along these lines: “Yeah, I may stay for a bit of Weezer.” The other responded, “Same.” Mmhm.
As I arrived back to my seat, the curtain had been raised and the still-large crowd roared while Weezer started with “California Kids,” a track from their new record, Weezer (The White Album). Based on my few listens to the record, I can say I enjoy it, but I’m honestly surprised they released it. Weezer is supposed to be “Nerd-Rock Kings,” not “a Best Coast Pop-Punk thing.” That was the theme of the stage. The drummer sat atop a lifeguard podium in front of a beachy background, not to mention the many beach balls passed around the Pavilion throughout the set.
My companion and I mutually anticipated a good ratio of old-to-new tracks, much like the FPSF set. I haven’t seen them frequently enough to say whether or not this is a consistent setlist, but the balance was there. One of the most memorable moments of the show was the expression of vocalist Rivers Cuomo, who looked way too exhausted for this to be the very first show of their summer tour. It’ll be interesting to see if he perks up over the course of their remaining shows.
About midway through the set, the band decided to bring out a medley of their heavier songs, including “Back to the Shack,” and “The Good Life.” I thought found this to be an unusual move since the young crowd seemed confused during this portion. After “Say It Ain’t So,” the band left the stage to entice the audience into demanding an encore. Usually, when a band does this, a good portion of the crowd leaves to hurdle to their vehicle, but this didn’t work. When the band took the stage again, I thought that they were just going to play “Buddy Holly” again and leave, but they decided to play “El Scorcho” first.
All around, it was a good showing, one that I believe was worth the trip out to the Woodlands. Prior to the encore, Cuomo said, “See you guys in 2024.” I’m honestly excited to see them perform again, but I would like to seem them go back to embracing their “Weezer vibe.”
