Take Me Back: All Time Low, Panic! At The Disco And Er... All Time Low

This time last year the challenge of college as well as going to three gigs all in a row presented itself to myself and Meg - and my Dad I suppose since he was our driver - so of course instead of being sensible and deciding that we really don't need to see All Time Low twice in one week we deprived ourselves of sleep and set off for Bristol to see them. A signing was taking place at Blue Banana so we joined the hordes of fan girls in an attempt to meet them with our ulterior motives. It happened to be my dad's birthday and he also happens to be probably the biggest All Time Low fan girl -no, really - so we wanted to see them before the gig to ask if they'd sing happy birthday to him to later that night. The cold was biting, turning our fingers blue and our feet to ice blocks. We adopted a Penguin huddle and waited for two hours. Then slowly the queue let out a raucous scream - they had arrived. For the next fifty minutes we shuffled forward and watched as one fan girl by one fan girl entered Blue Banana and came out screaming, crying and loudly exclaiming that Alex is "sooooo hawt". Two minutes to go before the signing would be deemed over, we made it to the doors and could see the perfection that is All Time Low sitting at a table. But not for long as the workers of Blue Banana came out and shut the doors telling everyone it was over. We were gutted, however, what really killed us was this little girl about five years old who had been in front of us in the queue the whole time who wanted to ask Jack Barakat to be her boyfriend. When the doors closed her lip started to wobble and that was it she was all out bawling and my heart broke for her, it really really did.

Admitting defeat we power walked back to the O2 to get in the queue and begged my dad to go and buy us chips and I am willing to say right here right now that those chips were the greatest thing on earth at the time. Again we found ourselves queuing in minus temperatures for an hour or so before we got into the venue.

We Are The In Crowd, the first band to play, had just started "Rumour Mill" so we made our way near the front to discover that Tay Jardine is actually a lot smaller than she seems which is funny because she appears tiny anyway. The contrast between her and Jordan Eckes is adorably funny. The band blasted their way through a fun, energetic set that comprised of fan favourites "Never Be What You Want", "Both Sides Of The Story" and "Kiss Me Again" which had the crowd flailing around when Alex Gaskarth joined them on-stage.

The Maine were next up to entertain and suddenly the crowd turned into a bunch of wild animals. The entire pit were trying to fit into a space only just suitable for one person, all desperately wanting to be as close to John O as they possibly could of been. This animalistic behaviour kept up throughout the ten song set list and they had to stop playing at one point as loads of people fell over, and, ever the gentlemen they wanted to ensure everyone was back up again. Opening with "Inside Of You" and finishing with "Don't Give Up On Us" their performance was intense and the crowd loved them.

Then finally, the moment everyone had been waiting for. The hyperactive Baltimore four bounded onto stage bringing a smile to every single face in that room and eliciting screams so high I think we woke Australia up. Crowd pleasers such as "Coffee Shop Soundtrack" and "Weightless" had everyone bellowing along whilst the acoustic "Remembering Sunday" had the sea of people actually singing in tune. Rian Dawson's epic drumming was put to the test when they played "Heroes" - a true pop-punk tune through and through. And speaking of true pop-punk everyone in the Bristol O2 Academy shrieked with delight when they covered Blink-182's "All The Small Things". 

True to our fan girl stalker roots we waited after the gig to try and meet them. Garrett Nickelsen from The Maine was lurking around and no one had really noticed him so we went over and talked to him for a while and then Rian and Jack came out too. He said "happy birthday dad" to my dad and they started having a conversation about something or other (I was hyperventilating. Also, I told you he was a fan girl). We attempted to have a normal chat with him and I told him about a bet I had with my mum whereby I had to meet Alex otherwise I have to dye my hair green and vice versa. Alex was actually ill though so Jack promised to try and get him to come out in Yeovil because "he doesn't want me to look like an Oompa Loompa he wants mum to" and the entire time his face was right in my face and he was staring right at me and. He. Is. Perfection. Then just as Rian was about to walk away I called him back over because he didn't see us and we talked to him and then because it was minus 10 degrees or something ridiculous we told them we'd see them Wednesday and let them go. We Are The In Crowd came out too and disappeared somewhere. All in all it was a crazy night and we made friends with a welsh security guard who thought we were mad (we are) and when we told him we'd see him tomorrow I don't think he believed us.

Tuesday took us back to the O2 Academy to see Panic! At The Disco. I had waited for this day for a good six years and I really didn't know what to expect of them live. I knew they would be amazing I just didn't know quite how perfect. The support act, ME, were all clearly very talented, however, I wasn't a fan simply because they were such a rip off of Panic! right down to the suited attire. 

As for Panic!, aside from the lack of "Northern Downpour" they charmed us through a faultless set which was a transcendent combination of songs from across their three studio releases. Starting with what was then their new single "Ready To Go" they had the crowd bouncing from the first moment. I managed to hold it together and not sob when Brendon slowed things down and played "Always" but during their encore he started stripping his clothes off and I was nearly crying for a whole other reason - how fitting they started playing their cover of The Darkness' "I Believe In A Thing Called Love". When they arrived at their last song "Nearly Witches" I couldn't hold it back anymore as the crowd crooned "Mona Lisa we still need ya" to the extraordinary Panic! At The Disco. No one wanted them to leave. 

We waited around again to see them off and the face of the security guard from the night before was priceless. Their manager came out and said they'll be getting straight on the bus and 3/4 of them are ill so we stayed and yelled I love you's at them anyway and Dallon did attempt to break away and run to see us but he was held back which was pretty funny. They all waved and their grins were so adorable bless 'em. Brendon gave us two pieces of advice that night - "Firstly, don't waste time worrying about things in life that shorten it and if you want the rainbow you have to put up with the rain." My dad said they were amazing, better than All Time Low which as you've read is saying something for my dad.

By Wednesday I was exhausted and bruised from the previous two nights but again we queued in minus temperatures outside Yeovil Leisure Complex waiting for Round Two of All Time Low. In comparison to Monday the crowd was tiny and hard work to get going but all three bands still put on a fantastic show.
We Are The In Crowd didn't seem at all disheartened by the less interested crowd and by the end of their set they had everyone's attention.
The Maine were up next and they too put a lot of effort into making the crowd active which even resorted in John O throwing himself at us, which did the trick of bringing to life the static girls. Everyone was clinging to each other to stay stood up as the ground was slippery - another tactic of theirs was throwing drummer Pat Kirch's birthday cake into the pit. And, if anyone was paying enough attention to the stage instead of just staring through their camera screens, Rian could be seen dancing behind them throughout their set which then developed into him singing the songs played through the loudspeakers during the changeover.
As always All Time Low played with the usual energetic attitude and Alex sounded as good as ever despite the fact he was obviously a lot more ill than two nights ago. The venue meant their lights they had for the majority of the tour weren't up and unless you had been to another show, you wouldn't of known you were missing out on anything, even the songs they had to cut out due to Alex's illness, which speaks in volumes about the bands' stage presence and solidifies my opinion that everyone should see All Time Low live at least once in their lives.

The one surprise of the night was the amount of people that waited around to meet the bands. We met The Maine, Jack, Jordan, Tay and Cameron. Mike and Rob were wondering around but they disappeared back to the buses before we had a chance to speak to them. I was glad my mum changed her mind on the bet we had as there was no way Alex was going to stand around after the show - it was so cold I could of cried.  And just in case you were curious Pat told us his cake was a Tinkerbell one.