But then, there’s other bands that are somewhat embarrassing to enjoy. Me, I like Panic at the Disco. A Las Vegas based emo band, whose fans tend to be teenage girls and guys who wear black eye-liner. Even with their overly pretentious song titles (a sampling: I write sins, not tragedies; The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage) they write decent, pop-punk stuff. Dancable in the way that Franz Ferdinand is dancable.

Anyways, they came through Shanghai and I went to see them play. They were quite good, except for the annoy crowd members (they were given a huge glass of Jaeger and this really annoying guy kept yelling at them to chug it). I wouldn’t really go out of my way to see Panic – but since they were down at Mao Livehouse and it was a Friday night, they put on a pretty good concert. As much as I like watching local DIY Chinese bands, it is fun to see a professional band who has played in front of huge crowds put on a tight concert.

The rest of the set is here.

friday night reviewed here my thoughts: xiao yoi (lead singer of pinkberry) was ill, and the crowd was clearly there for sonnet so they had trouble getting the crowd into it. candy shop had to do this terrible promotion for jaeger which killed any momentum they had. sonnet had some great danceable franz ferdinand-esque tracks which i really dug . . . a lot of experimentation with loops and dubs and electronic sounds from a sampler, which i did not dig. boys climbing ropes continue to rock and continue put on a great show. i am a huge fan.

saturday night photographed here by jenn wong and here by me. boys climbing ropes continue to rock and continue to put on a great show. i am a huge fan. st. vincent was fantastic – lots of experimental insturmentalation sounds combined with a beautiful voice.