Panic! At The Disco - Viva Las Vengeance (August 19th, 2022) Album • Page 20

This show is 4 days away, and tons of these floor seats are under $100, including some in the front few rows. I don't think they could pay people to come to these shows, this is BAD.

 

I think a lot of cities are starting to block off most of the top sections. Clearly not selling well, but I’ve seen videos from both shows on this tour thus far, and don’t forget, arena shows still have a LOT of people. There’s still probably a good 8-10K people at these shows. You can’t tell from the videos that there are a ton of empty seats.

 

I’m planning on going to the St. Paul show on Wednesday cuz I love Beach Bunny as the opener and as it has been pointed out, it’s unlikely Brendon will play anything off the VLV album after this tour since sales have not been favorable.

 

Plus I’m seeing MCR at the same venue the next night so it’s a win win and I get PTO to see it.

 

The first few rows of the floor are bad on this tour because the stage is so high and he spends most of his time on the back of the stage, not the ring.

 

That setlist is disappointing, and not even just because they are playing the new album in full.

I get that they kinda have to play Hey Look Ma and High Hopes, but there are so many much betters songs on PFTW I would love to see. No V&V is a crime. The only "deep cut" on there is House of Memories (though I guess thanks to TikTok it's actually popular now). And I mean, you play 25 songs and only 2 are pre-2013...but I guess that's just the crowd coming to their shows now.

 

I’m at the show tonight. He sold out the arena in 2019. This time, they closed off the top rows and there are noticeable sections that are pretty empty.

 

When he came to Chicago in 2019 he sold out the United Center (NBA/NHL arena here) and another arena in the suburbs (roughly the same size as the aforementioned arena) and now he can’t even sell out the United Center this time. So many of the shows have lots of seats available, it’s crazy.

 

It’s true that you probably can’t tell, but I imagine this is a disaster for his team and management who booked these venues expecting another round of sellouts.

Do we think after this he downgrades to non-arena venues? Or smaller capacity arenas?

 

Unless a song from VLV blows up then he is going to have to downgrade or else him and his team is very, very stupid.

 

The lack of "Mona Lisa" "Ready To Go" "Hallelujah" & "Vegas Lights" really sucks.

Sub those for some of VLV's real stinkers like "God Killed Rock" "Something About Maggie" "Sad Clown" and "Star Spangled Banger" and it might actually be a fine setlist.

 

Also yes, he'll be playing Pier 17, Aragon Ballroom, & Youtube Theater sized-venues in less than 2 years, mark my words.

 

The same thing happened with FOB during the MANIA album cycle, although their example was probably worse because they delayed the album right before the first leg of the tour.

 

I’m actually wondering if a second leg of this tour was already booked in advance. The last two albums, he did a second leg a few months after the first leg. So he may already have arenas booked.

it’ll be interesting to see his next move. He’s way too big still to be playing theatres so unless a city has a venue with a 8-12K cap, he may be skipping that town or playing college arenas/centers like he did for the DOAB tour.

I also think doing any type of tour right now is tough for any band because literally every band in history came out of the woodwork to tour following the pandemic and the fact Brendon waited a year to go on tour after everyone else did and many fans have spent tons of money catching up on other shows combined with the inflated prices for concerts (especially arena tours) combined with releasing an album with no hits or momentum was all a disasterous recipe for this tour.

 

I would have bought tickets to this tour had prices not been $100+ for even the very top sections. Certainly the high cost of tickets + state of the economy + pandemic did no favors to the sales. But as others have mentioned, the last big hit he had was years ago, this album wasn't marketed great and hasn't had any big splash, so maybe it was silly to expect to come back and be able to sell out these big arenas.

 

Yeah I think in order to have an arena tour sell well you have to have either hit singles, be really hot at the moment, a legacy act or some combination of all three. That’s why Harry Styles and Billie Eilish are selling out arenas left and right. If you don’t have any of that buzz going you will struggle. As for the legacy part, he just hasn’t cemented himself as a legacy act despite being around for much of the 2000s and having many hit songs.

 

I remember thinking in 2018 him playing arenas was risky. I definitely don’t think he sold out the CLE arena show back then.

 

Hard disagree. Those have all been in the set for like 10-12 years and are fine to swap out. The only essential Panic song among those four is "Ready to Go."

 

I hate “Ready to Go”

 

I'm not sure if he's actually sick or not but his voice was shot from the videos I saw of the first two shows. He sounded like he lip syncing several choruses, and the crowd sang most of I Write Sins. I don't know how well his voice is going to hold up playing all those songs.

 

I saw dozens of videos from the first few shows and he sounded great.

 

The arena ended up filling up a little better as the night went on. Beach Bunny sounded great, but they are clearly not a band meant for an arena, especially hamstrung from being away from the crowd because of the stage.

Brendan’s energy is unflappable. Like, it’s amazing how much he brings it to every song. His voice did strain as the album portion of the show went on. I truly do not understand how he’s going to perform that night after night. The album part definitely killed the energy for the crowd as it went on. Like I was in a section of super energetic fans and by the end of the album, they went from dancing to checking their phones. Then he played the hits and they were back at it.

Hearing the album live did nothing for me. The energy is there. The band was great. The visuals and pyro were massive. But I still could not get into anything past the first couple songs. I will say if you paid $100+ for a ticket, it’s all on the stage - a 10+ piece band with strings and horns, giant stage, flames shooting out everywhere. He’s an incredible showman, it’s just too bad it’s for this.

 

Yeah, he’s not lip syncing and he certainly sings all of I Write Sins except for maybe a part where the crowd takes over here or there. He sounds fantastic from what I’ve seen.

 

He could barely catch his breath and sing the high notes in I Write Sins there.

There are also several songs where his choruses are perfect yet the verses aren't, like Don't Let the Light Go Out and VLV. Sounds like playback to me. I don't mind it but performing all these songs is going to be a struggle for him any way.

 

I like this album more as I go back to it. Even some of the songs I wasn't into at all at first.