Thursday 19/01/06 Panic! At The Disco, The Academy Is... @ Academy 2, Manchester

With the terms ‘emo’ and ‘post-hardcore’ veering between messages from God and dirty words these days, you’d find it hard to pinpoint any decent  band of the emotional hardcore persausion. Many music fans are put off by the vast quantities of people in ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ hoodies, tight t-shirts, 'Emily Strange' wristbands and increasingly more irritating band names (Armour for Sleep anyone?). It’s no surprise that tonight’s crowd for The Academy Is… and Panic! At the Disco is full of these types which no doubt has put off some of the fans of the connoisseurs and godfathers of Hardcore such as Fugazi, Black Flag and the Deftones.

It’s a shame too because Panic! At The Disco start off well. Following their overblown intro, ‘The Only Difference’ shines. Live, their sound is very tight and lead singer Brendon Urie’s voice mixes well with the general live sound and atmosphere. However, after the aforementioned first song, they start to falter. Other songs which sound great on record such as 'I Write Sins Not Tragedies' and 'Lying is The Most Fun…' truly don’t sound any good tonight. The band look tired and although the crowd give a rapturous reception and really look in the mood for the band, the feeling doesn’t seem to be mutual. Through all the hype about them through Kerrang, RockSound and the general emo grapevine, P.A.T.D really don’t seem to be justified tonight in Manchester.

The Academy Is…. on the other hand, DO look in the mood tonight. Again however, they falter. T.A.I just don’t seem to be able to cut it live. There’s something about the general sound tonight that just doesn’t work. There’s some saviour with tracks such as ‘Down and Out’ but again, although the crowd seems to worship the floor their sweat drips on, T.A.I’s sound is so generic, you couldn’t tell the difference between any of the songs from the many many emo bands out right now.

Unfortunately, both of these bands who seem to promise so much about their live sound, seem to have been relegated to the ‘insert-emo-band-here’ catalogue. A catalogue which is already heavily clogged up. Tonight’s gig, although I’m sure was vastly enjoyed by the emo collective, was not enjoyed by the people on the outside